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AFRICA AND THE GLENEAGLES G8 SUMMIT

No one major international conference in recent times had been so eagerly expected, none whose discussions had been so well anticipated, whose outcome so eagerly awaited, as was the G8 Summit held at the Scottish town of  Gleneagles in July 2005.    

The outcome of this summit of the leaders of the world's richest nations must have been helped by the massive advocacy on debt cancellation as by the even more serious push by British Prime Minister Tony Blair for total debt cancellation for Africa's poor nations.

In early 2004 Mr Blair's government had established the Africa Commission which had, among other important things, called for no less than total debt cancellation for the poor nations of Africa. Mr Blair had used every opportunity before the summit to push forward this viewpoint and, as host of the Gleneagles Summit, was to push it even more vigorously. But the outcome of the Gleneagles Summit was, in some measure, a disappointment and none must have been more disappointed than Mr Blair, even though he managed to put a brave face on it.  For, thanks in large part to the United States, debt cancellation did not come in total form as anticipated.

Even more disappointing, the United Stated went about debt cancellation in what has been described by some experts as a rather miserly and insincere manner. For instance, of the additional annual aid of US$25 billion that the summit pledged, the US agreed to contribute only US$4 billion, while the EU pledged US$17 billion; quite a disappointment, considering the size of the US economy. The experts have taken pains to point out that not only is the bulk of the 'new' US contribution repackaged aid, unfulfilled commitments or portions of the Millennium Challenge Account, but that much of it is also designed to come in only in the last stages of the programme.

Moreover, these same experts remark, President Bush was not being sincere when he declared that his government had already tripled aid to Africa between 2004 and 2010, when the reality was a 56 per cent increase in real terms, more than 50 percent of which was emergency food aid. It took six G8 summit discussions on debt cancellation, world-wide agitation and the elaborate programme of Tony Blair to get the G8 to come to the July 2005 decision.

The world's richest nations - the G8 - are not known to be particularly adept at the timely delivery of the promises of aid they make to their poor cousins. Whatever has been pledged, therefore, needs to be delivered if more disappointment is to be avoided. If the whole world is to take the Gleneagles promises and pledges seriously, then the G8 leaders must ensure that they deliver on those promises appropriately and at the right time.

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