VOA标准英语2014--Report: Africa's Economic Prosperity at Risk From Instability

 

Report: Africa's Economic Prosperity at Risk From Instability

The head of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, says achieving economic progress does not just depend on having impressive numbers of GDP growth, high-rise buildings or first-class highways.  For development institutions like his and others looking to promote growth, they must also consider political factors.  

When recent fighting erupted in South Sudan, the African Development Bank had just approved a $25 million electricity project.  Neither Bank President Donald Kaberuka nor his staff saw the conflict coming.

Kaberuka says when conflicts erupt in countries, the bank's financing of development projects has to start all over again.     

"We did finance development in Somalia.  We built roads, hospitals, but the country went back to shambles¹.  I had an office in Bangui.  We had offices in Juba, but when we go back to square one, I’ll be going further than my traditional mandate² of economics and development.  I’ll be looking closely at the political economy of the countries," said Kaberuka.

In a recent report on the so-called fragile states of Africa, Kaberuka said Bank managers have not taken political risks into account when making development decisions.

“We [the report] concluded that fragility is a big risk for Africa.  We looked at stable countries which suddenly erupt either because of bad elections, corruption," he said.  "We found that each one of our countries is at risk and by extension, Africa’s own prosperity at the moment is at risk."

That sustainable development cannot be achieved without security was one of the key themes of the EU-Africa Summit that took place recently in Brussels.

Since 2004, the EU has provided more than $1.6 billion to support peacekeeping missions like AMISOM in Somalia and MISCA in the Central African Republic.

EU institutions have also pledged almost $39 billion for development assistance for Africa in the next seven years.  

Andris Piebalgs, the EU Commissioner³ for Development, says 70 percent of those funds will go to less developed nations, based on specific criteria⁴, including a measure of per capita income.

“So if a country is richer, it gets less.  For example, Gabon.  The second is vulnerability, meaning if the country is more landlocked or has some structural⁵ weaknesses and also gets more," said Piebalgs.

The commissioner also says that some countries are doing better.

“I would take Ethiopia and Rwanda where basically our support managed to bring countries to new levels of development," he said. "They are still very poor countries but they are moving.  Are there risks? Yes there are, but I think in these politics [political situations], no one is safe. Let’s take Europe."

Piebalgs points to what is happening now in Ukraine, which he says no one foresaw.

1 shambles   

n.混乱之处；废墟

参考例句：

• My room is a shambles.我房间里乱七八糟。
• The fighting reduced the city to a shambles.这场战斗使这座城市成了一片废墟。

2 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

3 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

4 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。

5 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。