The debt burden unfortunately, continues to compromise seriously the development prospects of the continent," said Amara Essy, the Algerian head of the OAU. "Although commendable initiatives have been taken for the alleviation and cancellation of the debt of some African countries, the international community has turned a deaf ear to the appeals of the continent... The past year has not made it possible to make significant progress in the area of food security and in the general reduction of poverty."

The debate about how much foreign debt the world's poorest countries, the bulk of which are found in Africa, should be required to service and pay off has been raging for years. At the beginning of his term US President George W. Bush named debt relief as an important element in US foreign aid, and forgave millions of dollars of debt owed to the US and US institutions by mostly developing nations. And while Essy claims that 2001 has not been a good year for debt relief, there is much evidence to the contrary.

Debt relief has been a popular form of aide, many developed countries writing off money already spent, with little to no hope of getting it back. One recent example is Pakistan who benefitted by what analysts speculated was massive debt forgiveness for its recent supportive role in the war in Afghanistan.

In addition to Bush's debt cancellations, China also pledged to forgive $1.2 billion in African debts over the next two years, beginning with a significant, but unnamed amount to Equatorial Guinea which was announced in mid November.

Almost $3 billion in debt relief was granted to Tanzania alone this year, as developed countries saw hope for this one beleaguered African economy.

Nigeria recently profited from a $1 billion deal in restructuring their debt from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), despite criticism that this oil rich country only spends 10 percent of its annual oil revenues on the servicing of its $32 billion debt, one of the largest in Africa.

Debt relief is a priority subject for the OAU, which will become the African Union later this year, a still loose affiliation that aspires to follow the European model one day, although more then 20 conflicts still simmer across the continent. In fact, while many African countries reported progress this past year in good governance and transparency, the attention remains focused on the sore spots, and those countries most affected by the AIDS epidemic-- some 23 million Africans were infected this past year alone.

"THe mobilization for the building of the African Union is all the more imperative as the challenges facing our continent are both many and complicated," said Essy. "The year 2001 has been another difficult year for our continent with its litany of conflicts, tragedies, natural disasters and other hardships linked to poverty and pandemic, which persist on our continent."

The subject of African development was discussed before the holiday break at the UN General Assembly in early December. The President of the Assembly, Han Seung-Soo, the Ambassador from South Korea to the UN, noted that while much progress had been made in the 1990's, the conflict areas continued to destabilize much of the continent.

The representative from Pakistan noted that it was hard to make progress when one fifth of the African peoples remained in conflict, and Africa is the poorest continent in the world, with little hope of economic amelioration when conflict disrupts agricultural cycles.

The Assembly heard two reports on the situation, and began a drafting process for a new resolution for further development aid in Africa. On the subject on debt relief Bhagwant S. Bishnoi, the representative from India, noted that while important, it could not be a solution in itself. "The inescapable conclusion was that official development assistance, in the form of long-term development assistance, remained vital for the renewal of the continent," he said.