Africa: Pressure Mounts on G8 to Honour Pledges by Graça Machel, Africa Progress Panel 1:08pm 17th Jun, 2008   17 June 2008    Africa: Pressure Mounts on G8 to Honour Pledges, by Dorothy Kweyu. (The Nation-Nairobi)    Former South African First Lady Graça Machel has asked developed countries to honour their aid pledges to African countries made three years ago to avert a catastrophic food crisis on the continent.    Speaking to the Nation by phone from South Africa, on the sidelines of the launch in London of the report, Africa"s Development Report: Promises and Prospects, Ms Machel said: "We can"t afford to postpone any longer because the consequences would be loss of life."    The report states that 100 million people are in dire need of food worldwide, with Africa accounting for 57 per cent of the potential casualties.    Ms Machel was responding to a question on the imperative - and urgent - tone of the report, which underlines various "musts", if Africa is to overcome the looming famine.    "Nobody who is aware and responsible of the situation can afford to postpone the decision to deliver on the Gleanagles promises any longer," she said, adding that "the stick" they were using to get the G8 to honour its aid promises was "the stick of the voice."    "We believe we have the moral authority to be the voice of the voiceless," said Ms Machel, who is also the president of the Foundation for Community Development.    Compiled by the 11-member Africa Progress Panel, which is chaired by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, the report is the brainchild of a galaxy of eminent persons including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former IMF president Michel Camdessus and former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo. Grameen Bank founder and Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is also on the Panel.    As the G8 club of the world"s richest countries prepares for a summit meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, from July 7 to 9, Ms Machel expressed concern that the group"s commitment to double aid to Africa by 2010, which was agreed upon at Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005 was way off the mark.    "G8 made promises to our leaders and the millions of our people. It"s time for us to say, "You promised!" We are using all the means possible to remind them," she said.    Expressing hope that the G8 would honour its pledges and that it was $40 billion short, Ms Machel confided that the Panel was also using direct approach to get individual members of the club to honour their commitments. She singled out Germany, whose aid to sub-Saharan Africa grew by 12 per cent last year, bringing it to third position among countries that had done well in aid, excluding debt relief.    And yet, at 0.37 per cent, Ms Machel pointed out, the significant improvement in German aid to Africa was "still very far from the so-called 0.7 per cent" of its GDP. "But we are building on their commitment and encouraging them to make another leap forward," she said.    Japan too, had made some improvement, although like Germany, it was way below its commitment.    Among non-G8 countries, which had made an effort in raising the levels of aid, were Spain, Australia and Norway, Ms Machel said.    On Kenya, which is staring a crisis in the face due to runaway inflation, Ms Machel said that the Panel was full of confidence in the country"s leadership. She expressed the hope that Kenya would rise to the challenge of settling the internally displaced people in the aftermath of post-election violence.    19 June, 2008    Bono, Geldof slam G8 for aid "disgrace".    High profile anti-poverty campaigners Bob Geldof and Bono from U2 have hammered G8 countries for falling far behind in aid pledges to Africa and urged France to take a stand as next EU president to end the "disgrace".    Flanked by French tennis star Yannick Noah and Benin singer Angelique Kidjo, they said a 2005 pledge by G8 nations to deliver an extra $US22 billion ($A23.3 billion) to Africa by 2010 was currently only 14 per cent fulfilled.    "It is a disgrace that the rich world has failed so miserably," said Geldof. "It is a disgrace that the lucky part of the world give a small fraction of its wealth to poor who live just 12 kilometres away," he said, referring to the smallest distance between Europe and Africa.    With French aid to Africa cut back last year and the country due to take on the key post of rotating European Union presidency next month, President Nicolas Sarkozy had a special role to play, the campaigners said. "European credibility is on the line," Bono said.    Yet aid reaching the world"s poorest continent was making a measurable difference on the ground, the celebrity activists said.    Around 100,000 African lives a month now were being saved through programs run by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, said its executive director Michel Kazatchkine.    Increased assistance meant more than two million Africans were on life-saving AIDS medication against only 50,000 five years ago, while 29 million children had entered school for the first time between 1999 and 2005.    "Aid is a necessary foundation for the building-blocks of the 21st century," said Bono. Both Bono and Geldof were in Japan recently to urge Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to recapture Tokyo"s position as the global leader in overseas development as the next G8 summit approaches in July in Hokkaido.    France''''s Sarkozy too, whom the pair have met several times, "could be a great help to us" in his six months at the EU helm, Bono said. France must dig into its own pocket too to help Africa. France, needs to pump up its aid flows "in the next few weeks so we can say we have at least half of the G8 on course," Bono said.    G8 nations as a whole have delivered only three billion dollars to Africa at the halfway point between their 2005 pledge and 2010 deadline, according to figures from DATA, an anti-poverty advocacy group, and ONE, a non-governmental organisation that campaigns against global poverty. Visit the related web page
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item