IF THE meeting of the G8 group of wealthy nations goes well at Gleneagles in Scotland, many African nations will soon receive a much-needed cash injection as their national debts are written off and development aid is increased. That money will have to go a long way. Most urgently, it must feed the starving and treat the sick. But in the longer term poor nations need to aim for self-reliance, and that means building better infrastructure.
All those concerned, not least the leaders of Africa鈥檚 nations, agree that any development plan will have to include building institutions to teach science and technology and to carry out research. As India and China have shown so spectacularly in the past decade, the ideas and people emerging from such centres play a crucial role in development. They generate foreign earnings and give countries the power to solve their own problems, from designing drugs to building power plants (see 鈥淔oundations for a prosperous future鈥�).
Such centres will not appear overnight. Universities will need constant nurturing if they are to attract the best people, incubate new ideas and invigorate local industries, and for that they will need more than a few one-off payments. The surest way to give African countries a healthy income is to let them trade their way out of poverty. That is something they cannot do at present: the goods they can produce, mostly agricultural products, are priced out of lucrative markets in the US and Europe by farm subsidies and trade barriers.
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These protections must go. This will present some leaders, notably the US and French presidents, with a big domestic challenge as their own farmers see their interests threatened. But if the rich world really wants to lift millions of Africans out of poverty and disease, nothing less will do.