YOKOHAMA, Japan (AFP) — African activists urged donors at a major development summit here Thursday to redirect their efforts toward civil society, saying aid is being squandered by corrupt governments.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told the conference, attended by 40 African heads of state, that Tokyo will double aid to the continent to 1.8 billion dollars in 2012.
But activists attending the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), being held in Yokohama near the capital, feared where the bilateral aid would wind up.
"The aid given by the Japanese government to Africa is not going through to the intended recipients," said Alexander Phiri of Zimbabwe, secretary general of the Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled, one of around 55 African non-governmental organisations that headed to Yokohama.
"We need to tear away from the idea that Japan's aid has to go to African governments," he said. "Let's deal directly with the people. Most African governments are corrupt."
African activists said they have long fought, unsuccessfully, for control of aid funding, including at Japan's last such summit.
"We asked for it at TICAD 2003 but we weren't listened to," said Gustave Assah, head of the Civic Commission for Africa, which covers some 100 African groups.
He called for the conference to include NGOs on a committee to follow up on where the money is going.
"We've had a load of development conferences for Africa, but the money stays with the governments and the people stay in misery," he said.
Makoto Katsumata, a professor of international relations at Meiji Gakuen University in Tokyo, said that African heads of state would work their hardest to prevent NGOs overseeing aid money.
"From their point of view, that's money that won't be going into their pockets," Katsumata said.
Japanese authorities admit that they have had some problems with corruption in the past but said they now have control over aid.
"There was corruption 20 years ago, but today I don't think so," said Kazuo Kodama, the foreign ministry press secretary.
Some 70 percent of Japanese assistance to Africa is geared toward specific projects, he said.
For construction of a road in Tanzania, for example, the country would make an offer for bids and Japan would only pay funds after approving the contract, Kodama said.
"We appreciate the involvement of NGOs in Africa's development but we don't want to bypass the governments," he said.
"If we distrust the governments, can we expect Africa to be on its own?" he asked.
But NGOs warned there could be sly ways for governments to pocket money.
"We should not avoid corruption, but address it," said Sue Mbaya of the African office of World Vision.
Controls over projects "are not a total guarantee against corruption," she said, saying contractors "can always use bad quality materials and get some money on the side."
EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said that the bloc also had controls in place to ensure good usage of aid to Africa.
"When corruption occurs, the punishment is tough -- a halt to aid and reimbursement for the aid received," he told AFP.
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