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G8 leaders turn to Africa, accused of not doing enough

Aid for Africa — and whether enough is coming from the world’s major economic powers — was in the spotlight yesterday as the G8 countries prepared to meet with seven African leaders at their annual summit.

Activists have accused some G8 countries, particularly France, Canada and Italy, of skimping on aid to Africa, and urged them to ramp up their contributions.

US President George W. Bush, arriving on Sunday for his eighth and final G8 summit, emphasized the urgency of providing aid for Africa, calling on wealthy countries to provide mosquito nets and other aid to prevent children from “needlessly dying from mosquito bites.”

“I’m concerned about people going hungry. We’ll be very constructive in the dialogue about the environment — I care about the environment — but today there’s too much suffering in the continent of Africa,” Bush said during a press conference after a one-on-one meeting on Sunday with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, host of the gathering.

“Now is the time for the comfortable nations to step up and do something about it,” Bush said.

Aid to Africa was the centerpiece of the G8 summit three years ago in Gleneagles, Scotland, where leaders pledged to double aid to the continent to US$25 billion by 2010 and to cancel the debt of the most heavily indebted poor countries.

Collectively, the G8 has delivered just US$3 billion of the US$25 billion pledged to Africa in 2005, said Debt, AIDS and Trade in Africa (DATA), an advocacy group founded by U2 singer Bono and music producer Bob Geldof.

Germany, the US and Britain were following through on commitments, while progress from Japan, France, Italy and Canada was either unclear or weak, DATA said.

Accusing world powers of backtracking on aid, the British charity Oxfam described the progress as “desperately slow.”

“They’re gradually stepping away from the promises they’ve made,” Oxfam activist Max Lawson said.

“We can’t let them step away from their promises,” he said. “For rich countries this is peanuts. For African countries this is life or death.”

Oxfam urged Fukuda — who pledged ahead of the G8 summit to double Japan’s aid to Africa in five years — to show stronger leadership as current G8 host.

“We hope that Japan will come up with more in the next couple of days,” particularly in health and agriculture, Oxfam Asia and Europe director Oliver Buston said.

Japan said there had been no backtracking on commitments made by the G8 to Africa.
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