Justice for Africa postponed

ActionAid UK

For immediate release: Friday 8 July
Justice for Africa postponed. The campaign continues.

Hints towards cutting strings on aid

Verdict:
· The summit has failed to deliver justice for Africa. A comprehensive package on aid, trade and debt relief has not materialised.
· The deal announced today will not tackle poverty effectively. Some steps have been made, but it falls far short of what is needed.
· Make Poverty History campaigners have succeeded in putting poverty and Africa at the centre of the G8 agenda, but there is still a yawning gulf between expectations raised and policy promises delivered.

Trade:
· G8 leaders failed to end the scandal of forced liberalisation. There is also deep concern that we will see a further push on liberalising services and non-agricultural markets that will threaten livelihoods and jobs in poor countries worldwide.
· No date has been set to end export subsidies. George Bushs offer to axe subsidies by 2010 comes at the same time as derisory proposals on cotton subsidies. US cotton exports will be reduced by just 1.7%, dashing the hopes of 10 million cotton farmers in West Africa.
· Despite word games in Gleneagles, in ongoing trade talks in Geneva the US and EU are still pushing to retain subsidies by another name.
· The developing world is deeply disappointed that the announcement on trade contains no increase in poor countries access to markets; no special treatment, such as allowing them to protect their farmers; and no undertaking to make multinationals legally accountable for their social and environmental impact.

Debt:
· The summit brings nothing new. The announcement by G8 Finance Ministers in June was good news for the 18 countries that will have their debts cancelled, but addressed only 10% of the problem and fell far short of the full debt cancellation desperately needed by more than 60 countries. This leaves many spending more on debt repayments than on education or healthcare. And if you check the small print, it largely uses money from existing aid budgets.
· Debt relief will still come with harmful strings attached. G8 leaders have at last recognised that poor countries should be free to determine their own economic policies, but have given no indication that this will apply to debt relief. Women such as Sabina Nicholas, a nurse in Tanzania who had her water cut off following a privatisation project forced through via debt relief, will continue to suffer.

Aid volume:
· G8 leaders have promised $50bn more in aid by 2010, $25 bn for Africa. While any aid increase is welcome, this is still too little and it comes too late for the 50 million children who will die between now and 2010. Less than half of this funding between $15-20 bn is genuinely new money.
· If the G8 is serious about making poverty history, they should announce $50bn in aid now, not in five years time.

Aid quality:
· At long last, G8 leaders have recognised that economic policies should be determined by local people, not Washington based bureaucrats. The litmus test on whether the G8 are really serious will be the extent they use their power on the World Bank board to end policy conditionality at its review in September.
· The G8 have offered warm words on other aspects of aid quality, but have failed to make any concrete commitments, for example to untie aid.

Aids treatment:
The G8 has responded to the global movement for Aids treatment by supporting universal access by 2010. But a funding gap for HIV and AIDS of $18 billion over the next three years still remains. The first test will be the Global Fund replenishment conference in London in September.

Bad news:
· No progress on trade, a disaster for a continent where 60% of employment comes from small scale farming.
· The aid increase is too little too late, condemning 50 million children to death over the next five years. And the G8 will do little to improve the effectiveness of their aid.
· The aid announced is insufficient to meet the G8s Aids treatment target.
· The debt deal offers only 10% of what is needed and comes with harmful conditions.
· What we have is only promises, on past record it is far from certain how much will actually be delivered.

Good news:
· Millions of people came together in a global campaign to end to poverty, wearing white bands, watching Live 8 concerts, sending personal messages to world leaders, and joining the largest-ever march in Scotland.
· The UK government responded to campaigners and southern leaders by putting poverty and Africa at the centre of the Gleneagles agenda.
· The G8 have been made some steps: cancelling some debts of some poor countries, providing small amounts of extra aid and recognising that countries must be free to determine their own economic policies tantamount to recognition that the current practice of attaching strings to aid must be radically altered.
· The campaign does not end here. The spotlight will remain on G8 leaders as people around the world scrutinise their policies and actions. Momentum behind the call for justice is growing and pressure for the World Trade talks, World Banks conditionality review, and the UNs Millennium Review Summit to deliver before the year is out is now intense.