President Mugabe's ACP summit address refreshing

The African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries should applaud and welcome President Robert Gabriel Mugabe's call for the countries in that bloc to rely more on their natural resources for economic development than having donor funds for their economic survival. The President called for the ACP countries to embrace economic development buttressed by mineral and natural resources found in the ACP bloc not to rely on donated funds or goods coming from the so called developed nations as they create dependence syndrome among recipients.

It is prudent for the ACP countries to embrace and commend President Mugabe's vision and words of advice as a way forward if this bloc is to be independently viable on its political and economic development. They should also know that donor funds cannot sustain their economy to their maximum expectations as some donated funds could come with strings attached. In most cases donor funds cannot come as cheap as there is a tendency by those donors to impose their will on the donor funds receiving countries thereby militating against the sovereignty those recipient countries. The proper way for the ACP countries is to make sure that they economically develop themselves by home-grown initiatives.

In an address at the 8th ACP Summit of Heads of States and Governments in Papua New Guinea on 31 May 2016, President Mugabe made it clear that the ACP countries should wean off themselves from the donor dependence syndrome and pursue home-grown funding mechanisms that could sustain their economies. President Mugabe made it clear that pursuing home-grown funding mechanisms is the best way to go as the seventy-nine (79) constituted ACP bloc is endowed with vast mineral and natural resources that can make those countries sustain their economies without outside help.

The ACP countries should be aware that having home-grown funding mechanisms by themselves would make it possible for these countries to fund their industrialisation programs without begging for donor funds from the developed nations. It should be known that home-grown funding mechanisms for the economic development by the ACP countries would also make them create job opportunities for their unemployed youths. In these countries there are quite a lot of unemployed youths and exploiting mineral and natural resources found in the ACP bloc by indigenous people would create employment for the unemployed people. The issue of poverty and hunger can also be eradicated once the youths and those not employed get into business. So the ACP bloc should take President Mugabe's advice seriously and then try to implement his vision for the economic benefits of this bloc.

President Mugabe further said that there was no need for the ACP to remain inclined in the york of the donor community as the ACP countries are endowed with a vast of natural resources, fauna, diamonds, gold, platinum, oil and other important minerals that can sustain the whole bloc economically. He also encouraged the ACP bloc to stop exporting raw materials to developed countries as they bring less returns economically but start exporting finished products that come with more benefits to the bloc.

The problem which have been faced by the developing nations in which the ACP countries constitute this is that they have been exporting raw materials to the developed countries which are purchased by those nations at a sorry price. When those same raw materials are processed and become finished products by the developed nations and then come become to the same ACP countries they would be carrying expensive prices and the same ACP countries would not be able to import them. Such trade imbalances between the developed and developing countries have led President Mugabe to urge the ACP countries to embrace their home-grown economic empowerment as to make sure that such trade imbalances are rectified.

It should be known and realised that most of the ACP countries are fighting to fulfil the objectives and aims of the United Nations' sanctioned Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are meant to eradicate among other things poverty and hunger as well as unemployment. So relying on donor funds in trying to fulfil some objectives and aims of the SDGs could hamper such initiatives as donors are not always available when needed.

 History has shown that most of some developing countries have failed to attain then objectives and aims the predecessor of the SDGs, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) because they were depending more on donor funds in financing those MDGs. They failed to attain the maximum benefits of MDGs because donor funds were not coming at the time they were expected by the developing nations as donors only released funds at their own space of time. Now that the same developing countries are faced with the business to fulfil the objectives and aims of the SDGs, it is the time to let go the donor dependence syndrome and rely on home-grown funding mechanisms as pointed out by President Mugabe at the ACP Summit.

So if the developing countries keep on relying on donor funds in trying to tackle the SDGs they would suffer the same fate which they encountered when they were trying to fulfil the objectives and aims of the MDGs. For that reason those ACP countries should accommodate President Mugabe's advice so that they become all self-reliant economically. Putting more faith on donor funds cannot sustain the economic development of those countries. Actually any country is said to be independent when able to economically and politically able to define her destine.

Since the ACP bloc is endowed with array of mineral resources as well as some natural resources there is need for these countries to encourage their people to use their technical knowledge in exploiting those natural resources for them to have some finished products. Exporting finished products come with better rewards than exporting raw materials so the ACP countries should start working towards beneficiations of their mineral and natural resources for the economic betterment of this bloc.