allAfrica.com: Equatorial Guinea: Spain Development Cooperation As Fraud (Page 1 of 2)

Equatorial Guinea produces a barrel of oil per person per day. In 2005, it had a budget of US$2 billion" more than sufficient to raise the standard of living of it's 400,000 citizens. The country also has aid links: with school students in the United States, and church schools and small municipalities in Spain. Agustin Vellos argues that the so-called 'development cooperation' between Spain and Equatorial Guinea is nothing more than political rhetoric that supports the corrupt practices of President Obiang's government and acts as a smokescreen for failed Western development models.

Development cooperation between Spain and Equatorial Guinea is an exercise in political rhetoric. Fine for soothing the consciences of sensitive citizens. Useful to dissemble the policies of both countries' governments. The citizenry think they are 'helping' the poor. While politicians cover up the way cooperation is useless for the African country's development; but good for increasing the scandalous wealth of the Obiang ruling clan, and for contributing to Spanish political and business expansion.

Some people think international cooperation and official development aid are matters of foreign policy. In the pre-democratic years, the governing class argued that Spain had been generous during its colonial era; and that the proof of this was the spread of Catholicism and civilization, as well as miscegenation. However, that generosity was not enough to produce doctors and engineers, or to leave a political and social infrastructure in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea. So. when independence came, frustrated in the Saharawi case, development cooperation was obligatory for Equatorial Guinea.

The same happened with the other colonial centres, England, France, and Portugal. They left nations independent politically, but not culturally or economically. Colonialism became neocolonialism. The powerful could no longer directly exploit the weak as before. But they worked out new systems: conditional loans, unfavourable trade deals, e.g., the Lomé Convention of 1975, exorbitant charges for services, the fiscal policies of the IMF, World Bank projects, and so on.

From independence in 1968 until approximately 1995, when the oil exploration years began, Spain worked on development with Equatorial Guinea in the fields of politics, economics, the armed forces and education. Ironically, one of the first agreements signed in 1979 was the Protocol on Cooperation on Hydrocarbon Matters.

It is surely surprising that cooperation between the tenth world power and its former colony of just 28,000 square kilometres, 400,000 inhabitants and abundant natural resources has not managed to pull the colony up from among the lowest rungs of the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index in its first 30 years of independence. It is more surprising still when one considers the development cooperation from the United States, France, China and other countries, without counting the international bodies and agencies: the United Nations, The World Health Organisation, UNESCO, UNICEF and the European Economic Community.

Beginning in the last years of the previous century and the first years of the 21st century, Equatorial Guinea experienced unparalleled rapid growth. The reason was gas and oil: 81,000 barrels a day in 1998, 300,000 a day in 2004 and 420,000 barrels a day in 2005.

This led the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to grow 18 percent in 2000, 66 per cent in 2001, 20per cent in 2002, 10 per cent in 2003 and 25 per cent in 2004. Per capita income has gone from some US$600 in 1998, US$2000 in 2000, to US$5300 in 2005.

The oil sector makes up 97 pr cent of the country's exports and 92 per cent of its GDP. But in addition there are timber, cacao, minerals, fisheries, agricultural produce and tourist potential. Once again, it is surprising that a country able to produce a barrel of oil per person per day, that can count on other resources and is a trade partner of the richest countries in the world, also depends on aid links with school students in the United States, and with church schools and small municipalities in Spain. All these links indicate what is commonly understood as development cooperation by rich-country citizens concerned for people in poor countries.

Karen Miller, former secretary of the Hatcher primary school (Kentucky, USA) moved to the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Malabo, and emailed her friend Jenny Johnson about the school needs in the country. The world's fifth largest oil company, Marathon Oil (www.marathon.com), which operates in Equatorial Guinea, published Jenny's response:

'I felt the need to help. I knew this was something God wanted me to do. I put up posters in the school. The only problem was making sure the books donated by teachers and pupils arrived. I want to thank all those who have helped with this project. First of all to God, our Father, for making this happen, to the school community and especially to Marathon for starting this aid project for the students of the island of Bioko.' The estimated cost to the company was some 35,000 Euros.

Last April, the municipality of AlcorcÃ'n, close to Madrid, signed a permanent cooperation agreement with the Organization of Ibero-American States. The fact that Equatorial Guinea is not exactly located in the ibero-american area does not stop the municipality saying: 'we are very proud as a city to join this project of a meeting between cultures. Material cooperation with Equatorial Guinea, initially of 60,000 Euros, will enable the start up of a reading project on the one hand, with school libraries and on the other hand, teacher training in Spanish and local languages and in mathematics'.

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