Geldof: Honour vow to poor

BOB GELDOF called on world leaders meeting at the G8 summit in Japan to honour their promise to the poor.

The anti-poverty campaigner said some good work was coming out of the conference but added that rich nations were falling well short on commitments made three years ago at Gleneagles.

His comments came as world leaders met for crunch talks in a bid to secure support for his plans to boost aid to Africa and curb soaring oil prices.

Intense discussions between the leading industrialised nations are focusing on the poor state of the world economy — including the impact of soaring oil and food prices.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants them to use the opportunity to reaffirm a commitment made at the 2005 Gleneagles summit to double international aid, notably to Africa, by 2010.

But speaking yesterday, Geldof indicated that leading industrialised countries were already off target with regard to their pledge.

He said: “This is the halfway point to 2010, which is when the Gleneagles promise comes up, and they should be 50% of the way there but in fact they are 14% of the way there.”

Geldof said the talks at the current summit were “positive enough”.

As to the Gleneagles commitment, he said: “The reality is, this is a contract that was signed, it wasn’t a communiqué — [Former British Prime Minister Tony] Blair made them sign this thing.

“It became a political promise between the rich and the poor and, while it is quite understandable that people at home look at themselves and their interests, the reality is we do not get out of this problem anymore without having global interest and part of that global interest is the 900 million producers and consumers in Africa.”

With the G8 off track to meet the Gleneagles pledge and United Nations Millennium Development Goals, charities fear the global slowdown could push rich countries to cut help still further.

Brown is expected to argue that, instead, they should intensify efforts in developing nations, especially in boosting their agricultural production, to stimulate global recovery.

He is looking for a signal of real intent to switch to greener cars and other fuel efficiencies in a bid to help reduce the price of oil from record levels.