Africa: Old and new challenges

During my visit to Africa this week, I saw first hand some of the big challenges facing the continent. There is good news from the continent. African governments are espousing the right policies: good governance, the market, peace-building, regional cooperation. And they are having some success. Economic growth is up. Democracy is on the rise. HIV/AIDS remains a huge threat, but a disease which many thought a few years ago would annihilate the continent is now being fought more effectively.

Meanwhile, Africa is emerging as an international player in its own right. Africa rightly aspires to play that role, and to African membership of the UN Security Council - an aim the UK and EU strongly support. And globalisation is bringing Africa unambiguous benefits. Ever-increasing migration of Africans to wealthier parts of the world also has a payback: the remittances from those workers back to their families in Africa are now providing bigger funding flows to this continent than either aid or Foreign Direct Investment.

The bad news for the optimists is that none of this is yet good enough to lift the continent into lasting prosperity.

Ten major challenges loom over the coming decade. Some are more or less traditional: poverty reduction and development, governance, peace and security. Others are new. But they all have one thing in common: meet these challenges and we all win. Fail and we all lose.

Development is one of the three "traditional" issues. Ending poverty through successful, sustainable development will remain at the heart of Africa's agenda over the coming decade. That is why Tony Blair sought, successfully, to make 2005 the Year of Africa. The challenge for this year and beyond is to ensure that the international community delivers on commitments we have made.

The second issue is governance. The simple fact is that countries which have democratically elected and accountable governments, which pursue the right policies, which espouse transparency and reject corruption and which respect human rights and the rule of law, will succeed.

There has been great progress over the last few years in snuffing out the conflicts that have bedevilled the continent since independence. But the job of bringing lasting peace to Africa is not yet done. That is why I have proposed an international Arms Trade Treaty to ensure no country supplies weapons which would stoke internal conflict, external aggression or regional instability.

Those are the three traditional challenges for Africa. There are a host of new issues arising, which I believe will have greater prominence in the coming decade.

The first is terrorism. Africa is at particular risk. Al Qaeda and their local surrogates have already carried out a string of deadly attacks in Africa. The terrorist threat to and from Africa is likely to grow over the next 10 years. We need to fight it together.

The second sunrise issue is migration. Well-managed migration is good for everyone. But illegal immigration is bad for everyone. It hurts the illegal immigrant, who risks exploitation and forcible repatriation. And it hurts the legal immigrant, because abuse forces governments to tighten their legal admission routes. I know, from first-hand experience, having visited Malta in November, that this issue is of particular concern to the Maltese government.

Crime and drugs are significant and growing problems. Here too everyone loses. The criminal networks cause misery in Africa and in the West. The image of Africa suffers. The threats are likely to grow. For the foreseeable future criminals operating out of Africa will continue to have means, motives and opportunity.

Energy security is becoming an ever more important issue for the international community. A stable and successful Africa is vital for the international community's long-term energy security. The best way to ensure that long-term security is to ensure that the revenue raised from oil are transparently accounted for and used to benefit the people of Africa. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative supports this.

Climate change and ecological degradation are global phenomena. Africa isn't the source of the problem, but it can be part of the solution if key states work with us to tackle the problem through international agreements like Kyoto; and if Africa manages to preserve its large forests which alleviate the threat by acting as carbon sinks.

Engaging with Islam is another big issue. There are more Muslims in Africa than in the Middle East. They are moderate, important and well-integrated members of society. If we are going to succeed we need to make clear that we value and respect each others' faiths and communities; and that we share a set of common values. The extremists want a divided society at war with itself. The rest of us want unity and peace.

The last year or so has seen a striking increase in China's visibility and engagement in Africa. The UK regards China's engagement in Africa as good news. We want that engagement to support the agenda which the African Union has set out for the continent: support for democratic and accountable governance, for transparent business processes, for economic growth and effective poverty reduction, for human rights and the rule of law. Europeans need to work closely with China to that end.

The challenges that I have identified - old and new - have two things in common. First, that most of them cannot be addressed in isolation: in order to address one successfully, we need to address the others too. And second, that none of them can be successfully tackled without building successful African states: prosperous, democratic, stable and well led.

Malta has a special place in the European relationship with Africa, in particular North Africa. I hope we can look forward to what we can help achieve together, with European partners, and most importantly with Africa itself.

Mr Straw is the British Foreign Secretary