British Minister of Finance Gordon Brown claimed strong backing from his European Union colleagues on Tuesday for a plan to revive Africa through debt cancellation and a doubling in aid.
Fresh from a four-nation African tour, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said a meeting of EU finance ministers agreed on the need to ease the burden of debt owed by the poorest nations to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
”I’ve come from Africa to put the case that African people have asked me to put to Europe,” Brown told reporters in Brussels, Belgium.
”[EU] countries will go back to see what they can commit but I believe there will be very widespread support,” he said.
Britain hopes that its stewardship this year of the G8 nations and, from July, of the EU will herald a new focus on the world’s poorest continent.
Brown said he aims for the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July to agree on the total cancellation of $80-billion of debts owed by poor nations to the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
The chancellor renewed his calls made in Africa for easing trade barriers for African products, and said agricultural subsidies in the EU are hindering the continent’s efforts to pull itself out of poverty.
During his tour, Brown announced that Britain will now service 10% of the debt owed by Tanzania and Mozambique to the World Bank.
He called on the rest of the EU and the European Commission to make similar pledges, and repeated a request for the IMF to revalue or sell part of its gold reserves to write off its own loans extended to developing countries.
Without action, Brown said, the goal of primary education for all will not be reached by 2015 but by 2130 — 115 years late — and that reducing poverty by half will not be attained before 2150 — 135 years late.
”Unless we provide additional resources, there is no chance of reaching the goals that every EU member has signed up to,” he said.
The EU’s aim, Brown said, should be ”that we use this year to write off this historic debt, that we finally, once and for all, bring to an end this sorry and tragic saga of the burden of unpayable debt”.
France and Italy have already pledged support for a British-led International Finance Facility, which plans to double aid to the world’s poorest countries to $50-billion a year.
Brown said that with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, set up by the Microsoft founder, the putative facility will soon launch a pilot project to offer vaccinations for common childhood diseases.
”Five million lives could be saved in the next 10 years if we front-load money for vaccines,” he said. ”A number of European countries have said they would be willing to contribute to the pilot scheme.” — Sapa-AFP