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INSIDE AFRICA
Zimbabwe Radio; United Nations Millennium Goals; Liberian President Interviewed
Aired September 27, 2008 - 12:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to INSIDE AFRICA, your weekly window to the continent. I'm Isha Sesay, reporting from New York, site of the 63rd annual session of the United Nations General Assembly. On the program this week, taking inventory - leaders and diplomats measure how much progress is being made on the U.N. millennium development goals. And Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf sits down with us to discuss the (inaudible), the rate of progress in Liberia, and her concerns about the global financial crisis. And we sit in with the Zimbabwean radio host who calls his station "the hot beats of Africa in New York."
Well, Africa and the millennium development goals rank high on the agenda of this year's U.N. General Assembly, but expectations for Africa meeting all of them run low. Let's take a look at some of the week's key moments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There were some questions about whether the Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe would attend, but he didn't disappoint. In a wide-ranging speech, he thanked Thabo Mbeki, who's just stepped down as South African president, for brokering Zimbabwe's power- sharing deal earlier this month, and he lobbed scathing criticism at two of his usual targets.
ROBERT MUGABE: We therefore deplore the vindictive approach which often is characterized by self-righteous finger-pointing double standards, and the imposition of unilateral sanctions to coerce smaller and weaker countries to bow to the wishes of military stronger states.
ROTH: Then, at a media scrum, he made his first appearance in months before a CNN camera.
MUGABE: It's not help, I'm demanding that we don't deserve those sanctions. It's actually evil.
ROTH: Most African leaders acknowledged they probably won't meet all of their millennium development goals on time. Tanzania's president didn't hesitate to offer his opinion about why.
JAKAYA KIKWETE, TANZANIAN PRESIDENT: I'd like to take this opportunity to express Africa's disappointment at the failure of the developed nations to honor their commitment to provide resources to deal with the challenges of Africa's development.
ROTH: Despite a global financial crisis, the secretary-general pressed the world's wealthiest countries to put up $72 billion a year toward development in Africa. His special adviser on the millennium goal says the money is there, if not the will.
JEFFREY SACHS, U.N. SPECIAL ADVISOR: Congress is about to vote $1 trillion for Wall Street this week. That's no joke, by the way. That shows that money is there when it's needed, when it's an emergency.
ROTH: The U.S. president, in his last U.N. appearance, tried to focus on the positive in Africa.
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: Five years ago, 50,000 people in sub- Saharan Africa were receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS. Today, that number is nearly 1.7 million.
ROTH: Liberia's president offered gratitude to U.N. peacekeepers, who remain on the ground in her country as it continues its recovery from a brutal civil war.
ELLEN JOHNSON-SIRLEAF, LIBERIAN PRESIDENT: We wish to thank the Security Council, which has correctly seen the necessity to renew the mandate of the United Nations mission in Liberia. We particularly thank the resource- contributing countries, for without them, we would never be able to save the lives, and it promoted development that is going on in our country.
ROTH: For many African leaders, this was an opportunity to press for a permanent African seat on the U.N. Security Council.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our demand should be seen against the reality, but Africa is the only continent without a permanent seat in the Security Council.
ROTH: At least one western leader seemed to agree.
NICOLAS SARKOZY, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): I'm amongst those who are particularly shocked that there is no permanent member on the Security Council from Africa.
ROTH: The French president pointed out Africa is on track to have a population larger than China or India by the year 2030. Sustainable development will be critical to its people's quality of life.
Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf delivered one of the week's more upbeat speeches. But she didn't get the nickname "the iron lady of Liberia" by being a Pollyanna. I asked her to assess the West's commitment to Africa, and why Africa isn't on track to meet all of the millennium development goals.
JOHNSON-SIRLEAF: Let me recall that the G8 had talked about some $25 billion in aid to Africa, but that has not materialized. We may have been a bit slow on our part to put in places some of the democratic and good governance principles that are necessary. Certainly, corruption remains a problem in many of our countries, my own included, even though today I think many African countries have gone through some major reform effort and growth certainly in our continent equals to that of any other region. But we -- we still have to do more.
SESAY: Madam President, Jakay Kikwete, Tanzania's president, chided the international community somewhat and said they were big on promises, but the follow-through was somewhat disappointing. Would you agree with the sentiments he expressed?
JOHNSON-SIRLEAF: Oh, absolutely. I -- I participated in the aid effectiveness summit that was held in Accra a couple of weeks ago, and one of the things I said to -- to the audience and the participants was that Liberia has been grading (ph), mobilizing the partnership and getting the commitment, but that's a long road from commitment to cash. And we have asked then to shorten that road, because the procedures, and the processes, and the requirements, and the conditions to be able to actually get those projects moving just so long.
But if you look in the last decade and see the progress that Africa has made. There's been a lot of change, in many cases a sea change. Democratization has come slowly, but now it's there. So, we still have pockets of problems, and certainly all of our countries -- there's a capacity constraint in which many of our, you know, brains, have left, and it's taking time to bring them back, to expand our capacity.
But I think you have so many good performers today that they're bound to lead the way. And the few that are lagging behind I think will find themselves the odd ones out, and they will be compelled, I think, to follow the leaders and the ones that are showing that they can respond to the needs of their people and they can...
SESAY: Like ...
JOHNSON-SIRLEAF: We've got -- we've got great examples right now.
SESAY: Such as?
JOHNSON-SIRLEAF: Throughout the continent. Oh, look at Tanzania, you mentioned. Now look at what was happening in Ghana, you know what I mean. Those things -- there are following countries like Botswana, and Mauritius, and -- and so all over the continent, you know. I could name Senegal. I could name -- I could name so many of them. And really they -- I like to even think that, you know, Liberia's also making some nice crawling steps, that we're going to be getting up there, too, and trying to join the ranks of those who have a good performance.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: The president of Liberia had much more to say. When we come back, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf discusses her thoughts on the global financial crisis and her hopes for the next U.S. presidency.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA from U.N. headquarters in New York. As we mentioned, not a single African country is on track to meet all of the U.N. millennium development goals by 2015, and the global financial market turmoil certainly is not going to help. In part two of my interview with Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, I asked her just how concerned she is that the financial crisis will hurt Africa.
JOHNSON-SIRLEAF: Certainly, at a time when we're-when we are saying to people that the G8 should meet its $25 billion commitment, we find there's much more claim on their resources to be able to bail out these financial institutions. And also, it's not just the institutions, you know. These institutions also have linkages through -- through loans and credits, and whatnot, to thousands and thousands of consumers. What is this going to mean for all the philanthropists, you know, who have provided funds for NGO activities and foundations? Will they now be a bit timid because they've got to make sure that their own financial house remains sturdy. We don't know yet the full implication of all of this. It needs to be assessed by all of us, each country, each region, each continent, and then see what we can do.
SESAY: What's the focus of your efforts right now in Liberia, as your country continues to make its comeback after the civil war?
JOHNSON-SIRLEAF: To scale up the activities, to get implementation much more accelerated, to be able to get (inaudible). We've got so many partners, and I spent a lot of time here bringing foundations together and NGOs together to say, that's not all go into all these different directions, doing little things. Let's identify the 3, 4, 5 major priorities that will really make a difference, and then let's all bring our resources against that, and the scale of the activities will implement much faster.
SESAY: And finally, what do you want to see from the next president of the United States?
JOHNSON-SIRLEAF: We just want to see the continuation in the partnership, the quality of that partnership. And you know, we're not worried. Liberia enjoys very strong bipartisan support. In the Congress, we get a whole lot of support from both Democrats and Republicans. So, we are very comfortable that whatever comes out of the November elections that we think Liberia is going to still be on the safe track.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf there, in the midst of a very busy week in New York.
Up next, the World Food Program teams up with Bill Gates and Howard Buffet to help small-scale farmers help themselves.
COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Making business news in Africa this week. Following President Thabo Mbeki's forced resignation, more than a third of South Africa's cabinet stepped down Tuesday, including the finance minister, Trevor Manuel. South Africa's currency took a nosedive on the news of the resignation, then regained ground after he said he would be ready to work under a new government.
Tea prices fell slightly at Kenya's weekly auction because of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and increased supply. Demand is expected to rise again in a few weeks when the Muslim world ends its dusk-to-dawn fasting and resumes drinking tea during the day. Kenya is the world leader in black tea exports.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: You're watching INSIDE AFRICA on location at the United Nations. Welcome back.
Before the global financial crisis, there was a global food crisis. By some estimates, food prices have risen by more than 50 percent in the past two years. Now, the World Food Program is teaming up with the Gates and Buffett foundations to launch a new initiative. It's called Purchase for Progress, and it aims to help the hungry feed themselves.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Right now, at least one billion people around the world are living in poverty, surviving on a dollar a day or less. The U.N.'s World Food Program says more than more half of them are hungry. For the poor, rising food prices just make an already bad situation worse. So the WFP is hoping to launch a new initiative designed to break the cycle of hunger and poverty once and for all.
JOSETTE SHEERAN, WFP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: We help 90 million people a year in urgent need of a hunger intervention, and we're launching a revolution in that assistance to buy the food from the developing world farmers, creating a win-win situation.
SESAY: It's called Purchase for Progress, and it's a joint effort by the World Food Program, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the government of Belgium. People (inaudible) say they believe by providing farmers with critically needed support, including access to reliable markets, they can ultimately change the lives of individual households and radically transform the developing world.
Sheeran says PFP is a product of changing times.
SHEERAN: The world doesn't have any surpluses now. So, most of the food we're getting, the vast majority, is actually given to us in cash. So now we're investing it in the poor farmers and the developing world.
SESAY: There are hundreds of thousands of poor small-scale farmers across the developing world. PFP will be launching 21 countries over the next five years, with a special focus on sub-Saharan Africa and Central America. The Howard Buffett Foundation is committing $9.1 million to support the project in seven countries. The Gates Foundation is providing $66 million to fund the initiative in 10 countries in Africa.
RAJIV SHAH, BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION: Everything we do, we do through partners, and so we make grants to others so that they can go out there and create change in the world.
SESAY: Matthew Wyatt, with the International Fund for Agriculture and Development, another U.N. agency, acknowledges this is an ambitious scheme which will face many challenges.
MATTHEW WYATT, INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT: Farmers find it very difficult to get credit. You need to put in place mechanisms that will reassure financial institutions they will be paid. They can then have confidence in the farmers, fund the farmers, and the farmers can grow the food.
SESAY: The governments of the host countries will be expected to do their part by creating effective agricultural policies.
SHEERAN: We're now in Malawi. They were able to triple yields in just three years, with some investment and fertilizer and seeds.
SESAY: With world leaders and the media gathered for the U.N. General Assembly, the stage was set for WFP and its partners to unveil PFP with much fanfare.
Organizations like the World Bank are trying to help countries cope with the food crisis. In recent days, Sierra Leone's parliament has ratified a $3 million grant from the World Bank. I had a chance to ask the country's president, Ernest Bai Koroma, how he's managed the country's food problems and others since taking office just over a year ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERNEST BAI KOROMA, SIERRA LEONEAN PRESIDENT: The Sierra Leonean food situation in terms of what we produce ourselves is terrible, because we - the rice consumption requirements for the country is about 500,000 metric tons, and we're still producing only 200,000 metric tons, and we still have to depend on imports. That is why we believe that there has to be a huge injection of resources into the agricultural sector. With some amount of injection, trading to farmers, inputs and irrigating our fields, we will be able to not only address our domestic consumption, but also look after export markets.
SESAY: This was your first the United Nations General Assembly. It's the first anniversary for you in government as president of Sierra Leone. First of all, let's talk about the General Assembly. What stood out for you as a first visit?
KOROMA: There is a lot of camaraderie amongst heads of states. The usual big statements are met, everybody seemed to know the problems. There's nothing new. But the problems are still out there. We should get to the habit of doing more than talking.
SESAY: It's been one year since your government took charge of Sierra Leone. For you, what is your greatest achievement in this first year?
KOROMA: I believe I have led the basis and set in motion a lot of programs that will lead us to some kind of economic growth. I have done so by addressing the few challenges that I set myself, especially in the areas of the economy.
Priority was energy. We have improved the energy provision substantially in Freetown. We intend to complete the Bumbano (ph) projects at the end of the year, maybe early next year. We have also laid the basis for the rural electrification programs to be carried on.
I have ensured that we take the necessary decisions in terms of reforming the public sector. We're going to add a director in the office of the president who will fast track the process, because we need to have an efficient and professional civil service.
We have done the things that I expected of us in terms of improving on the investment environment, and I believe that on the whole, we have deepened democracy in the country. I have conducted a local council elections, which again, has achieved the best mark, has been a free and fair elections. And the fact that we have effected a peaceful transition is itself a great success. The country's peaceful and the investment in environment has substantially improved.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: President Ernest Bai Koroma there. We thank him for his time. Up next, a popular Zimbabwean DJ in Harlem pumps up the volume on African issues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA, coming to you from New York, home of the United Nations. This is one of the most diverse cities in the world. It's also home to a large number of African immigrants. So it wasn't difficult for one Zimbabwean DJ to find an audience when he settled in Harlem. He was kind enough to let us sit in on one of his shows.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: A small room at the end of an ordinary hallway, and a glimpse into the life Chaka Ngwenya left behind in Zimbabwe.
CHAKA NGWENYA, SARFM RADIO: The Heartbeat of Africa in New York City. How is everybody doing? Wherever you could be, welcome to the program, once again, around the world in 60 minutes, right in the midst of Harlem.
SESAY: In his own land, he was a well-known radio personality, connecting to his fellow Africans over the airways of the state-run Zed-BC (ph).
NGWENYA: Peace and love, man. Do your thing (inaudible), It's best in New York City. Come on, man. Sing.
SESAY: But as a six-year old, because he could even find the city on a map, he knew he wanted to live in New York.
NGWENYA: And my mother took out a map, and she showed me where New York City is. And she told me, listen, if you want to go there, you have to get some good education, you know, make some money and fly to New York City. And that's exactly what happened with me.
SESAY: In 2000, when he was 28, he left for the U.S., taking along his love of radio. Now he says he pays for that love out of his own pocket, running an Internet radio station he started in 2005 in the same church where he also works as an assistant pastor. While his audience may have changed since his days in Zimbabwe ...
NGWENYA: When I look at the hits, we're surprised that some people are listening to us from Japan, you know, and China.
SESAY: His connection with Africa hasn't.
NGWENYA: You know, a lot of Africans were coming, millions of Africans are coming into the United States of America. They can listen to all the radio stations in America, WBLS, KISSFM and everything, but none of those radio stations identify with their culture.
SESAY: Ngwenya says that could come from something as simple as a caller requesting a song from (inaudible).
NGWENYA: Listen, what country are you from? OK. I'll try, man. I'll try. I'll try. I'll definitely find you something, all right? All right, thank you, God bless.
SESAY: He says every time he steps in the station, he's trying to help African listeners keep their identity abroad.
NGWENYA: He is from Guinea. And I'm playing it out to Tegi Tegi (ph) somewhere in Michigan. You said you wanted something from Guinea, right? Guess what? I got you something.
SESAY: Recently, his focus shifted back to his former home. As Zimbabwe's power-sharing government grabs international headlines, it's the average Zimbabweans, Ngwenya says, he can't stop thinking about.
NGWENYA: I want these politicians, their children are in the United States, in U.K., and they're enjoying life. What about the children that are in Binga (ph), in Zimbabwe, in remote areas, who are talented?
SESAY: And while he may be thousands of miles away, he says he's using his medium to make a difference.
NGWENYA: Well, those are the words right there. Peace, love and harmony. That's what we need in the world right now. Peace and love and (inaudible). My name -- Chaka. Do your thing.
SESAY: Broadcasting a love and hope for a continent he left behind.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: And there we must leave it. From the United Nations in New York, I'm Isha Sesay, thank you for watching INSIDE AFRICA.
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