The Declaration of the Commission
for Africa
The Commission for Africa
finds the condition of the lives of the majority of
Africans to be intolerable
and an affront to the dignity of all mankind. We
insist upon an alteration of these conditions through
a change of policy in favour of the weak.
Having
analysed and costed how this may be achieved, we
call for our conclusions to be implemented forthwith
in the cause of right and justice and in the name
of
our shared humanity.
On the edge of this new century, in an age of unprecedented
wealth and economic progress by all continents, it
is unacceptable that Africa drifts further from the
rest
of the world, unseen in its misery and ignored in
its pain.
The Commission, its members acting in their
capacity as individuals, has assimilated the analysis
of years
and all extant reports into our findings. These
clearly show how things may have been otherwise.
However we exist in contemporary realities. The world
is vastly different to that of 20 years ago when
we forcefully acknowledged the pity of the Great
African
Famine of
1984-85. The world, then locked into its Cold War
political stasis, remained rigid in its competitive
ideologies.
The breaking of this deadlock, and the increase
in global trade that followed, allied to new technologies
and cultural
shifts, have created a more fluid, less predictive
yet more interdependent world.
This world in flux
has brought great opportunities along with confusion,
change and anxiety. But such
change poses
great possibilities for us all and especially
for Africa, that great giant finally beginning to stir
itself from
its enforced slumber. We need, then, to seek
to
understand these newer forces in play about us,
attempt to define
them and in so doing set the framework for policies
that favour the poor. The great nations of the world, in alliance with
their African neighbours, must now move together,
in our
common interest. How they may proceed will be
determined by
each nation's needs and desires. But all must
immediately begin the journey that leads us to the
ultimate
common destination of a more equitable world.
Our task was the first step. It is done.
11 March 2005
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