Role of Organizations in Sustainable Development in Africa

World Bank

The World Bank, also known as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), makes loans to developing countries with the primary goal of reducing poverty. The World Bank is a sector of the World Bank Group, which consists of four other parts: the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFD), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

The World Bank is implementing a 3 year plan called the African Action plan, introduced in September of 2005. The AAF has 25 outcome based actions on its 8 major goals. The goals of the World Bank with regard to Africa include:

Strengthen the African private sector

Increase the economic empowerment of women

Build skills for competitiveness in the global economy

Raise agricultural productivity

Improve access to and reliability of clean energy

Expand and upgrade road networks and transit corridors

Increase access to safe water and sanitation

Strengthen national health systems and combat malaria and HIV/AIDS

The World Bank has made achievements in Africa with regard to implementing policy on safe water, irrigation, deforestation, education, and HIV awareness. However, despite making gradual steps towards a change in policy, the economies of these African nations have not been significantly affected.

Some criticisms of the World Bank include its “one dollar, one vote” voting system – the more financial contributions a state provides, the more votes that state has in the World Bank. Its headquarters is in Washington D.C. and many argue that it is controlled by the US. The World Bank’s policies are highly criticized for the negative impact they have had on Africa, yet because of African’s enormous debts and impoverished nature, these wealthy countries still have leverage to control them.

World Trade Organization

While stating that sustainable development is one of their goals, the actions of the World Trade Organization have been opposite of that. The WTO has been criticized of implementing trade policies that are biased against Southern nations, as well as providing money for economic policies that are often harmful to the environment.

African Union

The African Union, while a young organization, has devoted itself towards achieving economic sustainability as well as the integration of African economies. However, it hasn’t implemented any substantial policies towards sustainable development itself, rather working more towards integration and security issues.

UNECA

The ECA (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa) has two main goals for Africa; (1) promoting regional integration in support of the African Union’s vision and priorities and (2) meeting Africa's special needs and emerging global challenges. The ECA cannot handle everything that goes on in Africa, thus they create partnerships orgs, for example: In 1999 the ECA created the ADF (African Development Forum). The ADF is a conduit for the decision-making bodies in Africa to have the best advice and information. The ADF also generates programs that can be implemented effectively in the African countries that move them towards positive development.

One of the main committees of the ECA is the CSD (Committee of Sustainable Development). Their main goal involves taking in-depth analysis of current sustainable development issues and handing advice to the ECA. From here the ECA makes decisions based off on this advice in the areas of food security, population, environment, and human settlements.