Aid for Africa in spotlight at G8 summit

AID for Africa — and whether enough was coming from the world’s biggest economic powers — was in the spotlight as the Group of Eight nations met with seven African leaders at its annual summit.

Activists have accused some G8 countries, particularly France, Canada and Italy, of skimping on aid to Africa, and urged them to increase up their contributions. The US, Japan, Britain, Germany and Russia make up the other members of the G8.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has also urged G8 leaders to take a tough stance on Zimbabwe in the wake of Robert Mugabe’s widely denounced election win.

US President George W Bush, at his eighth and final G8 summit, emphasised the urgency of providing aid for Africa, calling on wealthy nations to provide mosquito nets and other aid to prevent children from “needlessly dying from mosquito bites”.

“Now is the time for the comfortable nations to step up and do something about it,” said Mr Bush.

African aid was the centrepiece of the G8 summit three years ago in Gleneagles, Scotland, where leaders pledged to increase foreign aid by $50 billion (€32bn) a year by 2010 — with half of that going directly to Africa — and to cancel the debt of the most heavily indebted poor nations.

Collectively, the G8 has delivered just $3bn of the $25bn in additional aid pledged to Africa in 2005, according to DATA (Debt, AIDS and Trade in Africa), a group founded by U2 front man Bono and music producer Bob Geldof, both of whom are active in campaigns for Africa.

Germany, the US and Britain were following through on commitments, while progress from Japan, France, Italy and Canada was either unclear or weak, DATA said.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported in April that foreign aid by big donor countries slumped in 2007 as debt relief plans tapered off and amid a global economic downturn in Japan and some other rich nations.

Japan said there has been no backtracking on the commitments made to Africa.

“I don’t understand the criticism,” said Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama. “The G8 leaders are very aware of the commitments they have made to African leaders.”

Soaring food prices was another key topic on the agenda at the summit, with some experts predicting that the leaders would announce a food aid package and possibly funds to invest in agricultural development in poorer nations.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso proposed spending $1.6bn that had been set aside for European farm subsidies to support agriculture in the developing world over the next two years.

Talks are expected to shift today and tomorrow to climate change as leaders will try to move forward UN-led talks aimed at forging a new global warming accord by the end of 2009.

The talks have stalled because of deep disagreements over what targets to set for greenhouse gas reductions, and how much developing countries such as China and India should be required to participate.

The rift over climate change widened as Mr Barroso urged leaders of the world’s wealthy nations to act first in setting targets for reducing greenhouse gases — putting Mr Bush in an increasingly lonely position.

The head of the European Commission said the G8 nations must reach agreement among themselves on climate change measures and avoid taking the approach that “I will do nothing unless you do it first”, which he called a “vicious circle”.

“If we agree, then we are in a much better position to discuss with our Chinese and Indian partners and others,” said Mr Barroso.

The UN and World Bank chiefs said top industrialised nations need to push forward global talks on climate change and demonstrate their commitment to help poorer nations grapple with rising food prices.

It was unclear whether nations would be able to agree to a goal of cutting their emissions by 50% by 2050. The Bush administration has not shown any enthusiasm for such a commitment without co-operation from China and India.