The Red and Black

Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: News

Media Credit: FRANNIE FABIAN Emmanuel D. Fiadzo, a World Bank economic adviser, delivers a lecture at the Chapel Thursday. [Click to enlarge]

Though conflict, weak institutions and mismanagement of natural resources are problems that continue to plague African countries, the United States and the global community must help stabilize these areas, a World Bank adviser said Thursday.

"If you don't have proper government institutions, you cannot grow the economy," Emmanuel D. Fiadzo, an independent economic adviser for the World Bank, said.

Fiadzo, a 1998 University graduate, is the economic adviser to Liberia as it rebuilds after a decade of civil conflict.

Fiadzo outlined the problems African countries face today and the role of the global community to alleviate these situations.

Seventy-three percent of the world's poorest people - who make up 20 percent of the world's human population - have been through civil war, Fiadzo said. 76 percent of those have been in countries with long periods of bad governance.

"A lot of international countries need the United Nations to intervene," he said. "But military intervention is not well-guided … they withdraw after one or two years, and the countries fall back into the same trap."

Also, some African countries are caught in a natural resources trap. Landlocked countries with natural resources are pressured by their "bad neighbors" and lose profit, he said.

"Some countries don't have access to markets, and their goods are confiscated by rebel forces," he said. "For some countries dependent on diamond industries, there are no machines to detect diamond smuggling at the country borders. There is no way to get the true value of a diamond because of this."

Fiadzo said reform could happen through proper government management and re-focusing the economy on agricultural and service industries.

"There is hope in the end," Fiadzo said. "Because countries have natural resources, and with proper management, I think the future can look different than it does now."

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