G8 agree to $60 bln in health spending to Africa

from Business Weekly, Zimbabwe

The Group of Eight leaders agreed Tuesday to spend 60 billion dollars to fight disease in Africa over five years and reaffirmed commitments to double aid to the continent.

The G8 leaders, issuing a joint statement after talks in Japan, set a timeframe of five years to make good on promises made at least year's summit in Germany to spend 60 billion dollars to fight malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis.

Specifically, the leaders set a goal of providing 100 million insecticide-treated nets by the end of 2010 to halt the spread of malaria in developing countries.

They also reconfirmed pledges made at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland in 2005 to boost aid to Africa by 25 billion dollars by 2010.

African nations had pushed on the spending commitments during talks an expanded session on Monday with the leaders of the G8 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Aid groups have voiced concern that most G8 countries have not come close to meeting their pledges made at Gleneagles and wanted an explicit reiteration of their past promises.

The Gleneagles summit pledged to double aid by the G8 powers by 50 billion dollars by 2010, half of it to Africa.

Delegates said that there was dispute during the talks as well on setting a timeframe for the health spending promised at last year's G8 summit.

Britain had pushed for the most ambitious commitment of spending all 60 billion dollars within a few years, while on the opposite end Canada had initially hesitated at setting any timeframe, sources said.

Japan had called for this year's summit to focus on health and development as it comes halfway through the UN-backed Millennium Development Goals, which set the target of eradicating the world's worst poverty by 2015.

"We reiterate our support to our African partners' commitment to ensure that by 2015 all children have access to basic health care," the G8 leaders said in their joint statement.

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