LONDON, 2 July 2008: A group of African leaders are scheduled to meet their counterparts from wealthy nations at a G8 summit in Japan next week.
Following are key elements of previous dealings between the G8 and Africa and factors likely to be discussed this time.
After several years of increasing focus on Africa at G8 summits, G8 and African leaders made broad commitments at a summit hosted by Britains then-prime minister, Tony Blair, including:
– African leaders shall work to reduce poverty and promote economic growth; deepen transparency and good governance; strengthen democratic institutions and processes; show zero tolerance for corruption; remove all obstacles to intra-African trade; and bring about lasting peace and security across the continent.
– G8 shall double aid for Africa by 2010; increase debt relief; provide extra resources for Africas peacekeeping forces; help fight corruption and return stolen assets; help combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB and other killer diseases; improve investment climate and make trade work for Africa; work to mobilise extra investment in infrastructure; examine new financing mechanisms including air-ticket solidarity levy.
– G8 governments, notably Britain and the United States, have generally taken a harder line than African leaders on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who won a presidential run-off vote unopposed last Friday after violence prompted the opposition candidate to withdraw. African observer groups said the electoral process fell short of free and fair standards.
– US and British officials have been increasingly frustrated by South African President Thabo Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe which is also increasingly at odds with some members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), including Tanzanias President Jakaya Kikwete, one of a troika of SADC leaders who called for the poll to be postponed. Kikwete and Mbeki are both invited to Japan.
– G8 foreign ministers meeting in Japan on the same day as the Zimbabwe run-off said the results from the first round – in which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai came top – should be respected. They said they could not accept the legitimacy of a government not reflecting the will of the people.
– World prices for major food commodities have doubled in the past two years due to drought in big producers like Australia, rising demand from fast-growing economies including China and India, high oil prices that have pushed up transport and production prices, and increased use of land and crops to make biofuels.
– Anger over rising fuel and food prices has contributed to unrest in many countries around the world in recent months, including a number of African countries such as Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Cameroon.
– Many African countries have taken emergency measures to reduce the impact on poor households by suspending import taxes, subsidising agriculture and other measures, but such moves are costly to government budgets and could harm fiscal stability in the long term.
The UN General Assembly in September 2000 adopted the following eight targets to reduce world poverty by 2015, although development experts say some of the goals are all but unattainable now for many countries in sub-Saharan Africa:
* Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
* Achieve universal primary education
* Promote gender equality and empower women
* Reduce child mortality
* Improve maternal health
* Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
* Ensure environmental stability
* Develop a global partnership for development
Kilde: The Push Journal
