Leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) nations slammed the door in Africa’s face in Gleneagles last week, just as the continent thought it was on the verge of a breakthrough in new aid and fair trade, ActionAid said on Thursday.
Caroline Sande, the British-based organisation’s Southern Africa representative, had hoped for further reaching and deeper debt cancellation, a fairer trade deal and lowering of agricultural subsidies.
”We felt we were at the doorstep of a major breakthrough, but that didn’t happen,” she told journalists in Johannesburg. ”We felt that the door was slammed in our faces.”
The G8 leaders said on Friday they had agreed on a support package for Africa, including a $50-billion aid package, debt cancellation and progress toward a deal on fair trade.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the deal was not what everyone wanted, but added that ”it is progress — real and achievable progress”.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo described the G8 summit as a ”great success”.
Sande said only $15-million to $20-million of the $50-million is new money, and of this only $9-million is new money for Africa.
”We need to get to the small print to understand what this is all about. We know that political leaders are famous for pumping up rhetoric and scoring political points,” she said.
”What the G8 leaders have done is include existing commitments made prior to the summit.”
G8 leaders made a commitment in 1970 to spend 0,7% of their gross domestic product on foreign aid, but Sande said not one country has lived up to that commitment.
There is also a fear, Sande said, that debt cancellation money will merely be taken out of existing aid packages.
She said G8 leaders did not say anything purposeful about fair trade.
”They had missed a chance to set the atmosphere for World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong at the end of the year,” she said.
Sande praised Blair and his government for putting Africa on the G8 agenda. However, the British government is ”particularly astute” at practising spin.
”This is obvious when you look at the rhetoric coming out of Number 10 Downing Street and compare it with what is coming out of the Trade Department,” she said.
Sande said the British government’s stance on Africa is contradictory because it is a major supplier of arms to Africa, earning about $4,6-billion from this every year.
Corruption among African leaders is a tired old excuse for not providing aid, Sande said.
”Things are changing. There are areas where we can see progress.”
Sue Mbaya, the director of the Southern African Regional Poverty Network, told journalists she is concerned about talk that the terror attacks in London, which happened as the G8 summit was starting, will push Africa off the agenda.
”The terror attacks in London may have hijacked the agenda, but how many people a day are dying in Africa due to poverty? It makes me question the commitment [to help Africa] in the first place,” she said.
Mbaya said a positive from the meeting is that for the first time there has been acknowledgement that the way the world economy is handled affects on Africa.
”That is a first,” she said. — Sapa