As the 2006 G8 Summit wound up this week, the distance between the promises of the world’s most powerful leaders and their performance on fighting poverty in Africa has never been so vast.
The meeting in St Petersburg was dominated by discussions on energy, trade and the rapidly spiralling violence between Hizbullah and Israel. Yet, by downplaying poverty, the G8 ignored the world’s most critical crisis.
In a strange parallel, Africa also dropped off the oak tables of G8 decision-making at last year’s in Gleneagles when London was bombed. Fortunately, a good package had already been negotiated.
The Gleneagles deal offered debt cancellation for 19 poor countries; a doubling of aid to $50-billion by 2010 — half of this going to Africa; support for HIV/Aids life-saving treatment for 80% of those who need it; and a world trade deal that would open markets for African products and give African nations space to develop and direct their own trade and development strategies.
In Africa, we have already seen this deal translate into the removal of education fees in Burundi, expanded access to health facilities in Zambia and quick responses to drought in Tanzania.
However, at least 20 other African countries require their debt cancelled if they are to meet their Millennium Development Goals on health and education. And, while debt cancellation is starting to be delivered, the aid that has gone to Africa is not enough to meet the promises made at Gleneagles.
The G8’s announcement earlier this month that aid had increased overall by 37% over 2004 levels is clearly deceptive. This figure is, in fact, mainly owing to a temporary spike caused by the inclusion of a substantial one-off debt cancellation deal for Nigeria and Iraq. When this deal is no longer part of the equation at the end of 2007, aid figures will plummet.
The reality is that, collectively, the G8 is way off track to meet its promises to increase aid by $25-billion to Africa by 2010. Aid levels from Italy and Germany, the next host of the G8 summit, have actually fallen.
The St Petersburg summit will probably be remembered for the G8’s inability to deliver comprehensively on last year’s Gleneagles package. While the progress report and its discussion on the agenda this year were welcome, the report’s claim that “substantial progress” has been made since Gleneagles was overstated. The progress is not substantial given the aspirations of the G8 to support a big leap forward in Africa and the urgent need in Africa for change.
Even as the doors of the Konstantinovsky Imperial palace close, African policymakers, the poor and their allies will continue to plan and act against poverty and justice in Africa.
Next year, the G8 summit will take place at the midway point for delivery on the UN Millennium Declaration and will also be the last year of the first Strategic Plan of the African Union. Perhaps what Africa needs before then is a people’s jury, 800-million African men, women and children pronouncing judgement on the world’s leaders. Then things would change — and quickly.
Irungu Houghton is pan Africa policy officer and Shehnilla Mohamed South Africa is director for Oxfam Great Britain