Malabo Delivers Money Back for Social Development Fund

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Brooklyn, New York, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) January 24, 2012 -- On Sunday, November 28, 2010, Wikileaks published 251, 287 leaked cables originating from US embassies throughout the world. This was the largest set of confidential cables ever to be released into the public domain.

Among those cables were communications originating from the US Embassy in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Like many of the other cables from other various embassies around, they painted a very different picture from the one created by the main stream media and offered the public a new perspective on different issues as seen by those on the ground. What gives them their authenticity is that these communications were not construed under bias, but rather designed to create accurate portrayals in order for the State Department back in Washington to make informed decisions on their course(s) of action.

One such cable from Equatorial Guinea describes the efforts of the small oil-rich African country’s government in trying to establish for the first time a reliable set of baseline information and indicators for the health and education conditions within Equatorial Guinea. As you probably already know, these are widely criticized areas by NGO’s and the popular press alike, however, EG, as well as the US Embassy in Malabo, have maintained that the accusations of people living on less than a dollar a day are highly exaggerated and that there simply is no current data to support this. The fact that the government of Equatorial Guinea is funding a project to establish concrete statistics surrounding these areas should only strengthen their defense.

Along with this range of demographic and health surveys, the cable also states that they are financing a number of other programs under their Social Development Fund Program, including a fistula obstetrics program and primary health care initiative, preschool education program, school renovations and new construction of primary and secondary schools, renovations of the national training center, as well as a national school data system. In fact, there were nearly 50 projects planned at a budget of approximately $20 million.

The government of Equatorial Guinea has also incorporated in the initiative a plan to continue funding basic infrastructure developments, such as the national railroad, telecommunications, power grid, as well as urban water and sewer systems.

What’s interesting about these projects is that, whereas historically such initiatives were implemented and overseen by international NGO’s, bilateral donors and other family of the UN, the emphasis in the Fund Program is on the capacity building of the government and it’s staff to bring these programs to fruition.

These plans are a far cry from the impoverished country described by the media today and it is most curious as to why no news source out there has even bothered to report on the progress indicators of a country, which many are so easy and quick to judge. Perhaps it is time for us to take a closer look at a country, which according to those who are there and witnessing it first hand, seems to be making every effort to produce tangible results and working towards bettering the lives of its people.

Equatorial Guinea     NGO s     social development     un     wikileaks