Law prof says free market preys on Africa's weak societies

By Leanna Roy The Lance (University of Windsor) WINDSOR, Ont. (CUP)

In the year 2000, leaders of the United Nations adopted the Millennium Declaration, which is a targeted list of developmental goals to be reached by the year 2015. These Millennium Developmental Goals (MDGs) include universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combating AIDS and creating environmental and agricultural sustainability. In the Millennium Developmental Goals Report 2009, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has reported that progress toward these goals has slowed down due to the global economic and food crisis. Paul Ocheje, an associate professor of law at the University of Windsor, believes the slowdown stems from the effects of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) implemented by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Ocheje said these policies are created to allow African countries loans by making it possible for them to reduce interest on existing loans. However, Ocheje suggested that it is the SAPs that have intensified poverty in African counties. He inferred that SAPs have been imposed on the impoverished African society “because they need constant infusion of foreign capital,” and have not supplied sufficient relief of poverty. Ocheje explained that the conditions which precede SAPs are failing neoliberalistic strategies to solve food and economic crises, including free trade, rationalization of civil services, free market and privatization. “When you allow the market to regulate everything, you allow the harshest effects of the market forces to fall on the most vulnerable in society,” he said. He said that the privatization of assets such as health care and education have such necessities inaccessible to many Africans. “When people are sick, they cannot go to hospitals because they have to pay to be admitted into the hospitals and you have to buy the drugs from your own pocket. Pregnant women die in the process of child birth because they cannot afford to access health care,” added Ocheje. In a more positive light, Ocheje explores ways to equalize access to the market to more than only those who can afford these essential resources. He suggested a change in strategy on the part of the African leaders, and recommends “a nuanced and more imaginative understanding of development challenges and situational possibilities.” Ocheje believes Malawi as an example of this phenomenon. “In Malawi, the SAPs suggest that the government should not subsidize fertilizers, but under new leadership, subsidies were allowed over protests of the IMS and the World Bank and now Malawi has become a net exporter of food.”

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