All the commitments made by both donors and African countries to lift the continent out of poverty will be consolidated into one action plan and monitored on an annual basis, the UK Department for International Development said Wednesday.
The leading Group of Eight nations have pledged universal access to HIV treatment by 2010. There has also been a commitment to set a date for the ending of export subsidies, which will give poor countries a fairer trading environment with the west. Anti-malarial drugs and treated mosquito nets will be available to 85 percent of Africans vulnerable to malaria by 2015.
Meanwhile, African nations have pledged to undergo a review of democratic processes once every two years. All of these promises will be consolidated into an action plan that will be reviewed annually. The action plan will be formulated by next April and the first annual review will be in October, the DfID said.
The plan was agreed at the Africa Partnership Forum. Members met in London to discuss how to ensure pledges made for improving the continent are met. A support unit, based at the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, will be created to help with the monitoring task.
On whether the forum would sanction those who did not fulfill their promises, the UKs International Development Secretary Hilary Benn said:
– It is not a question of compelling or censuring. It is each of us taking on the responsibility to do the things that we said we were going to do. In the end, what will call all of us to account is pressure from within our own countries, the normal operation of democracy, the cut and thrust of politics.
The Africa Partnership Forum involves representatives of the G8, OECD, African Union, the New Partnership for Africas Development and international institutions like the UN, World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
