Africa needs home grown solutions …to tackle global economic crisis

African countries have been urged to seek greater representation at the International Financial Institutions, to help fashion out home grown solutions to the ripple effects of the global economic crisis on the continent.

Sheila Bunwaree, Professor of Gender & Development, University of Mauritius and Senior Research at the Center for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, suggested this in an interview with The Chronicle, at the start of a three day dialogue on gender, Africa and the global financial crises in Accra, yesterday.

Sheila Bunwaree, suggested that a second look needs to be taken at how International Financial Institutions operate, and how Africa can project itself to make its voices heard in major policy formulations, not only from the north or the international financial institution's perspective, but also where inputs could be provided by Africans into the presets, so that the policies are tailor-made to suit the African situation.

“We should also look at the specificities of different countries, because sometimes the realities on the ground are such that we need to be able to understand and appreciate the differences, so that we can get the best solutions, which solutions should be African owned, because when they are imposed in a top to down approach, it would simply not work,” she emphasized.

She noted that women have increasingly become disadvantaged by the global recession, as African governments negotiate bail outs and equity loans with private industry, and increasingly privatizing public services to protect it coffers and other national measures as responses to the crises.

She said the crisis presents a multiplicity of problems for women, especially as allocation of resources tend to take place in a discriminatory manner and women become more marginalized, stating that when resources are scarce the first ones to be at the brunt of scarcity of resources are the famine class.

Given the heterogeneity of African countries, Sheila Bunwaree noted that the crises will have far reaching implications for different countries and for women within their borders who mainly engage in cross border trade, stressing that the vulnerability and risks that these women are exposed to in the informal sector, which continues to be void of all forms of safety nets and social protection, merits urgent attention in the context of the crises.

She added that African economies are generally characterized by relatively small markets, largely dependent on imports, highly agricultural with low productivity and very little diversification, little value added in the manufacturing sector.