Reform in the British and European Community Aid Programmes: Implications for the Pacific Countries

In late 1996, the politician holding the recently-downgraded post of French Aid and Cooperation Minister, M. Jacques Godfrain, was observed extracting his foot from his mouth. He had the temerity to observe, during the visit of US Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Mali and subsequently to South Africa, that ‘the United States was only interested in Africa in the run-up to Presidential elections’.1 To the world outside, it seemed that America was doing rather more. Not only was it forging alliances in West and South Africa, the US was establishing relationships with a new generation of governments in the Great Lakes region and Central Africa in particular, while France appeared unhappily tied to old clientelisms. European foreign policy in the region, moreover, was inchoate because of differences between France and most of the other EU member states.