OPEN LETTER TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE WORLD BANK IN SUPPORT OF DR. NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA’S CANDIDACY FOR PRESIDENT
Dear Honourable Board of Directors,
As the Graduates of the NEPAD Business Foundation African Leadership Programme (NBF-ALP) we proactively contribute towards changes that support good governance. We collaborate in ways that aim at ensuring inclusiveness [...]
OPEN LETTER TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE WORLD BANK IN SUPPORT OF DR. NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA’S CANDIDACY FOR PRESIDENT
Dear Honourable Board of Directors,
As the Graduates of the NEPAD Business Foundation African Leadership Programme (NBF-ALP) we proactively contribute towards changes that support good governance. We collaborate in ways that aim at ensuring inclusiveness and improving institutions to support growth in developing nations. As future leaders we are conscious that identifying and supporting competent and deserving candidates is an important element in our work.
We are concerned with the historical practice among European and American representatives to preserve the Presidency of the World Bank among candidates from these regions. This practice erodes global inclusiveness, ignores emerging regions such as Africa, and overlooks formidable and competent leaders. As a consequence, the tacit arrangement threatens and weakens the World Bank’s credibility in low and middle-income countries, the current and future drivers of global economic development. There are candidates that are as good if not better than those appointed by tradition, such as Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.
Unlike other candidates, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has a long history with the Bank starting as a development economist and more recently serving as its Managing Director. She was instrumental in various reform initiatives on economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle-East, and East Asia. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has the respect of many leaders of low and middle-income countries, and the international community. She is embedded in relevant social networks that will facilitate the implementation of real-world policies. Moreover, if the Bank is serious about gender equity, as it professes in many of its activities, then appointing Dr. Okonjo-Iweala will be a reaffirmation of your commitment to these ideals. To this end, we resolutely support Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy for President of the World Bank. It’s an opportunity to implement the World Bank’s international strategy through a new brand of African leadership.
In many ways the Bank’s main challenge in low and middle-income countries is to root-out corruption at the level of governments and the private sector. Your credibility to do so depends on your willingness to acknowledge and build relationships with these very countries and acknowledge the rich human capital and capability of these nations. If the Bank looks beyond its outdated arrangement among European and American representatives, and seeks beyond your own confines for competent, alternative candidates, you will find that you will be lead to Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.
Yours sincerely
| João Carapinha | Layla Gibbons | Desyree Lotter |
| Anisa Mills | Aaron Shamu | Egideo Leite |
| Boma Anga | Ama Ayivor | Lungelwa Tyali |
| Oyesola Oyebanji |
Graduates of the NBF-ALP
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About the NEPAD Business Foundation (NBF) African Leadership Programme (ALP)
The NBF ALP concentrates on enhancing capacity and leadership potential of African top managers from the public and private sectors s well as NGOs.
About the NEPAD Business Foundation
The NBF operates in South Africa with extensive business networks in the Southern African sub-region and the Continent as a whole, driven by the vision to contribute to a vibrant African economy through private sector development, thus positioning the continent as competitive global player. The mission of the NBF is to support the delivery of the NEPAD objectives through the active participation of Africa’s private sector.
João L. Carapinha, Brook K. Baker
The spice trade of antiquity and contemporary medicine trade appear to share much in common.
For centuries, Greeks and Romans traded spice with Asia using trade routes over land and sea to India and China. They were the Indian-Roman routes and Incense routes with paths crossing the [...]
João L. Carapinha, Brook K. Baker
The spice trade of antiquity and contemporary medicine trade appear to share much in common.
For centuries, Greeks and Romans traded spice with Asia using trade routes over land and sea to India and China. They were the Indian-Roman routes and Incense routes with paths crossing the Red Sea and Asia Minor – the same routes that Marco Polo used and later detailed in his book The Travels of Marco Polo. When the Ottomans defeated the Byzantine Empire in 1453, all spice trade between Asia and Europe ceased because Europeans refused to pay exorbitant taxes on goods traveling west through the Ottoman Empire. Europeans were left with no option but to explore alternative trade routes to the east. In 1497, Vasco da Gama, the great Portuguese explorer and navigator, pioneered a Portuguese trade route that connected Lisbon to India around the tip of South Africa, and thus started the Age of Discovery. Much of his work was built on the efforts of Bartholomeu Dias, another Portuguese navigator, who nine years prior rounded the Cape of Good Hope, currently Cape Town.
In 2008 and 2009, customs officials in the Netherlands, Germany, and France seized nearly 20 shipments of unpatented generic medicines lawfully produced in India that were being transshipped through Europe on their way to Africa, Latin America, and other destinations where they could be lawfully imported and consumed without violating any domestic patent rights. What was the problem according to complaining Big Pharma companies and border officials – transshipment violated fictional patent rules that provided that the medicines should be treated as if they had been manufactured in Europe. In one instance there was confusion about an alleged trademark infringement for a medicine that merely was labeled with the international non-proprietary name. Indian, Brazil and access-to-medicines activists complained bitterly and Brazil and India brought separate complaints at the World Trade Organization challenging the seizures and the law (EU Border Measures Regulation 1383/2003) upon which they were based. The European Court of Justice has since clarified that goods shouldn’t be seized unless they are intended for the European market and the EU is discussing a proposed amendment to its border regulations to the same effect. However, the current debate overlooks a much bigger question that history can help answer. India, why do you continue to rely on European trade routes for medicine exportation to low- and middle-income (LMI) countries?
It seems odd from a geographical perspective that medicines bound for Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, should transit through Europe. If alternative, efficient trade routes were established and expanded, will it negate the need for much of the debate on EU odious border regulation? Alleged patent and trademark infringements may become superfluous when medicines are not routed through Europe. Like Europe after 1453 that refused to pay high taxes on goods resulting in Portuguese-led alternative trade routes, perhaps India should do the same. Follow the preliminary lead of some India producers who have already changed their routes, cut all medicine trade through Europe and look to new trade routes that connect generic medicine producers in India directly to the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are many risks and the costs of doing so are probably high, but so was the Age of Discovery – a treacherous and time-consuming path to India around Africa compared to those through the Ottoman Empire. It brought Europe out of the Middle Ages and it may open a new age for India’s development and South-South trade more broadly. Medicine prices may increase in the short-term but it is a price worth paying to secure favorable trade routes in the long-term. Better direct trade-route partnerships between India and LMI countries are needed. Infrastructure improvement at ports (air and sea), tax exemption on all medicine trade between partner countries, and an independent agency to certify medicine authenticity and to expedite product registration may be among the tools used to optimize direct and improved trade in medicines.
Ancient spice trade and current medicine trade share much in common. History has taught us that if trade routes become unfavorable because of geopolitical changes, then it may be time to look to alternatives. It has also taught us that the risks are high but the benefits overshadow these when assessed retrospectively. India, why do you continue to rely on European trade routes for medicine exportation to low and middle-income (LMI) countries? Do what the Europeans did after 1453; you will not regret it in the long-term.
Aljazeera’s Inside Story covered the news that 13 MNCs are teaming up to target neglected diseases. The Gates Foundation also came to the party with significant funding. The video has interventions from: Lorenzo Savioli (WHO), Mario Ottiglio (IFPMA), and Tito Von Schoen-Angerer (MSF).
Why now? Many of the neglected diseases have been around [...]
Aljazeera’s Inside Story covered the news that 13 MNCs are teaming up to target neglected diseases. The Gates Foundation also came to the party with significant funding. The video has interventions from: Lorenzo Savioli (WHO), Mario Ottiglio (IFPMA), and Tito Von Schoen-Angerer (MSF).
Why now? Many of the neglected diseases have been around for decades and so have the medicines needed to treatment them. In some cases, medicines are not needed and simple interventions such as drinking clean water has a significant impact. For example, since 1986, long before the Gates Foundation thought of working in this area, the health programs at the Carter Foundation demonstrated that preventing the ingestion of infected water is the best strategy to eradicate Guinea Worm. Without medicines, the number of reported cases dropped drastically. Merck (one of the 13 MNCs partners in the current initiative) has since 1987 donated ivermectin for Onchocerciasis (River Blindness), and worked with the Carter Foundation to distribute millions of treatments.
What is new in this initiative? The effort to eradicate neglected diseases is not new and it’s been on the agendas of the WHO, multilateral institutions and donor organizations for decades. The multi-stakeholder approach mentioned by some in the video appears to be a new feature and if it has enough momentum it may have real impact.
Read the full email discussion on this topic.
January 19, 2012
The point has been lost in the recent correspondence, I think. The purpose of the comments by Anthony, Stuart, Terry and mine focused on a method to understand Mbeki’s contribution. Anthony told us to “play the ball and not the man”, Stuart highlighted [...]
Read the full email discussion on this topic.
January 19, 2012
The point has been lost in the recent correspondence, I think. The purpose of the comments by Anthony, Stuart, Terry and mine focused on a method to understand Mbeki’s contribution. Anthony told us to “play the ball and not the man”, Stuart highlighted that “all theories would require equal careful evaluation”, Terry reminded us that “to conflate his HIV/AIDS denialist views with those on big pharmas bonanza A(H1N1) windfall is disingenuous” and I pointed out that “courting a single paradigm is possibly more dangerous than allowing and engaging alternative view points.” These are all points that seek to lift our thinking and enable us to critically evaluate Mbeki’s thoughts, in fact, anyone’s thoughts. Instead, the recent drivel has perpetuated a dualist mode of thought that is weak and dangerous.
For example, labeling others as “Mbeki apologists” suggests that there are those who are not – two mutually exclusive groups. “Rotten pharma” was used to describe those that appear to criticize pharma suggesting again that there are those of the opposite opinion – two mutually exclusive groups. “My blood ran cold” suggests that there are instances when “blood can run warm” – two mutually exclusive situations. The last example, “he was often right and often said good things” suggesting that it is possible to be incorrect and say bad things. Wrong or right, good or bad – this dualist mode of thought is weak and dangerous. It suggests that there only two sides to a discussion – for or against, and that we must assume a position and defend it. This is foolish.
If I said, “The current pharma industry business model is deeply flawed but there is overwhelming evidence it has contributed to humanity by curing disease, improving life expectancy, facilitating economic development, and providing jobs”; in which group will I fit based on a dual worldview, pro-pharma or anti-pharma? It’s somewhat difficult, right. Fortunately, the world is more nuanced than some would have us believe. The implications of not viewing the world in all its complexity perpetuates the status quo and keeps us from engaging alternative points of view. Mbeki was courageous to voice his views when many disagreed, that in some circles is called leadership.
Somehow, I expected more from Pat who is a member of the media. Free speech and a free press are wonderful constitutional ideals but responsible free speech and a responsible free press are entirely different concepts. I was hoping for more of the latter and less of a dual worldview that is weak and dangerous. Could this be part of the reason we see a Protection of State Information Bill before the NCOP?
January 17, 2012
If anything, Mbeki should be applauded for reminding us that there are alternative points of view to consider. The purpose of the article (link below) appears to question the veracity of Mbeki’s thoughts and we are left with the idea that the man is a quack of sorts. What evidence do we have that Mbeki’s comments concerning Libya are linked to a conspiracy theory? There is merit evaluating his thoughts given his deep involvement in global politics. Similarly, his thoughts on HIV and pharma gives us reason to contemplate what the implications are of kowtowing to the dominate paradigm.
When Mbeki told us that poverty causes AIDS, the masses thought it absurd but it pushed independent thinkers (academics and others) to think about causality in analytic models. His hypothesis was wrong of course and his economics training let him done. He should have said poverty is a determinant or a predictor of AIDS. Low socioeconomic status will accelerate AIDS progression and the wealthy are fortunate to have access to treatment, health insurance, nutritious food, private health care facilities, etc. His hypothesis may be a result of poor advice or poor scientific training but we can only arrive at that conclusion if we independently engage Mbeki’s thoughts.
Courting a single paradigm is possibly more dangerous than allowing and engaging alternative view points.
False knowledge ended Gaddafi’s rule, says Mbeki
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