Blair Commission on Africa releases new report

In 2005, the Commission on Africa was formed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to guide the G8 on African development. Today, the same commission will give a new report that shows the progress the made on the initial recommendations.

the Blair commission asked for a doubling of aid to the the African continent, but that aid has only increased by 60 percent. The commission also says that very little progress has been made on increasing African trade and health and education spending.

From the Global and Mail, writer Geoffrey York previews the commission report.

Five years later, in a report to be released on Monday, the commission says it is disappointed by the lack of progress on many fronts, even though Africa has quadrupled its level of foreign investment and trade in recent years.

The commission’s most famous recommendation in 2005 was a call for the doubling of foreign aid to Africa. It persuaded the G8 and other donors to commit themselves to debt relief for Africa and a doubling of their aid flows by 2010. Under their pledge, Africa would receive an additional $25-billion (U.S.) in aid annually by 2010 in a concerted push to reduce poverty.

But in reality, the wealthy nations fell far short of their promise. Their aid for Africa increased by just 60 per cent of the promised amount, and much of this went to high-income and middle-income countries, rather than the poorest African countries, the commission says.
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But on other issues, much less has been achieved, the commission said. There has been no improvement in higher-education funding, so Africa continues to face a shortage of doctors, teachers and other professionals. The commission had called for a 50 per cent increase in irrigated farmland by 2010, but instead it increased by just 0.9 per cent.

On trade issues, the results have been “dismal,” the commission said. “Trade is perhaps the area in which the least progress has been made in the past five years,” it said.

Despite an increase in African exports in recent years, Africa still accounts for only 3.3 per cent of global trade – “a very modest share and the smallest of any region in the world,” the commission said.

Video: Tony Blair on faith and poverty fighting

This video is a lecture from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on faiths role in critiquing and shaping globalization. It includes how faith can shape globalization to include the poor. The video comes from Yale University's You Tube channel.

Blair report spares Africa's feelings

from the BBC

By Martin Plaut

In its first report, the Africa Commission, launched by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has largely ducked the problem of "naming and shaming" Western countries that have fallen short on promises to increase aid and African states that have not brought in reforms to improve democracy.

The report, launched in London by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, does spell out the shortcomings on both sides, but is careful to avoid pointing the finger at the states that have fallen below the terms agreed at the Gleneagles summit in 2005.

Only Zimbabwe is really singled out for direct criticism, although the conflicts in Darfur, the instability in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and the chaos in Somalia are mentioned.

At Gleneagles the aim was clearly laid out - for Africa's leaders to end the cycle of coups, crises and corruption and for the rich states to back their reforms by doubling aid budgets by 2010.

What is apparent from this report is that although both sides have fallen short of the mark, the feelings of the leaders concerned are mostly spared.

Follow-up

The panel appears not to be the vigorous watchdog Mr Blair promised to establish, to monitor progress towards the Commission's goals.
At its launch in 2005 he said: "The one sure-fire way of this gathering dust… is if there isn't a follow-up mechanism, and that is why in my view there has to be."

Mr Blair still backs the commission's work.

Speaking on a visit to Sierra Leone last week he told the BBC: "It has lived up to my expectations, but I now want it to live up to my hopes.

"We still have a way to go on aid, on trade, on peacekeeping, on conflict resolution and on some of the Millennium Development Goals.

"There are some countries that have shown it can be done. We have more democracies than people would have thought possible 10 years ago."

Achievements

The report is able to celebrate some real progress.

There are developments in Africa that the Commission has done much to helped to foster.

* The number of people living in poverty has levelled off over the past few years, and Africa's poverty rate has declined by almost 6% since 2000
* Primary school enrolment has increased by 36% between 1999 and 2005 and infant and child mortality have declined in many parts of Africa
* The Global Fund for Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis received $10 billion - these resources will go far in terms of combating these diseases in Africa

At the same time there are long sections of the report detailing the current food crisis and Africa's vulnerability to climate change.

On aid, there has also been real progress.

Shortfall

Huge sums of Africa debt have been written off - $60 billion dollars in total.

But the report points out that the rich countries - the G8 - are falling behind on the promises they made to double aid by 2010.

LIST OF AFRICAN DEMOCRACIES
Democracies: Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia
Non-democracies: Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Somalia, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Source: Steve Radelet
Center for Global Development

"Current trends indicate that without major changes in programmable aid, most countries will be well below this target."

But none of the offending countries are named.

According to the Organisation for Co-operation and Development's latest report, six industrialised countries failed to meet their aid targets: Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Japan and Norway.

Others have escaped by shifting the targets.

So in 2007 President Nicholas Sarkozy of France simply announced that the pledge given at Gleneagles to provide 0.5% of gross domestic product by 2007 was moved to 2010.

The preliminary figures for 2007 from the OECD show that France actually provided 0.39% - way short of its original promise.

Reform deficit

If the industrialised world failed Africa, then the continent also failed to live up to its promises.

The report shows that just 23 states can be considered democracies.

But it fails to name those that come up to the mark.

Luckily Steve Radelet, from the Center for Global Development, to whose work it refers, does.

That the Africa panel would use a source that describes Ethiopia as not being a democracy might come as something of a surprise to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, since he was a member of the original Blair Commission and helped draw up its 2005 report.

Rwanda, which is being advised by Tony Blair might also be concerned to be in the same category.

Britain's Blair to launch Faith Foundation

from Reuters India

By Claudia Parsons

NEW YORK - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will launch a Faith Foundation on Friday that he said aims to improve understanding between different religions and fight global poverty by mobilizing people through faith.

"Religious faith will be of the same significance to the 21st Century as political ideology was to the 20th Century," Blair said in a statement before Friday's launch in New York.

"In an era of globalization, there is nothing more important than getting people of different faiths and cultures to understand each other better and live in peace and mutual respect," he said.

Blair, who converted to Catholicism in December after stepping down as prime minister in June, was often reticent about his faith during his 10 years in power in Britain, where religion and politics rarely mix.

Time magazine, which published an interview with Blair on Thursday, said the foundation aimed to build up a "war chest" of several hundred million dollars to fund projects to fight global poverty, such as an anti-malaria campaign.

It aims to support the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, a set of targets adopted by world leaders in 2000 to reduce hunger and halve extreme poverty.

"Tony Blair has argued that faith has to be rescued from those who would use it to divide and those determined to write it off as an irrelevance," the statement from his office said.

"By stressing the values of respect, justice and compassion which the great religions hold in common, he believes faith can help unite the world and shape its direction for the better."

It said in the first three years of the Foundation, priority would be given to encouraging inter-faith initiatives to tackle global poverty and to improve understanding of the great religions through education at every level.

Africa: Experts Fret Over Blair's Legacy On Continent

from All Africa

Abimbola Akosile
Lagos

As Mr. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of United Kingdom bows out of office this week, analysts are wondering if his legacy for Africa's growth and development can be sustained by his successor, Mr. Gordon Brown.

Analysing the legacy in a discussion, Mr. Simon Maxwell, Director of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), claimed trade talks are failing and aid volume to Africa is way below target.

"Africa was on the agenda in Germany because Blair won Merkel over. He persuaded her not to focus exclusively on her preferred topic, energy security. This was a brave decision, because Germany is one of the countries in the firing line for not meeting pledges made at Blair's own G8, at Gleneagles, in 2005", Maxwell said.

Blair set up the Africa Commission, which reported two years ago and which provided the intellectual framework for a 'big push' on Africa. It recommended doubling aid by 2010, from $50bn to $100bn, of which an extra $25bn for Africa, along with a deal on debt and agreement on trade.

"Gleneagles marked a high point in the international commitment to Africa, and was the result of a sustained campaign by Tony Blair and other members of the Government. Remember Gordon Brown's initiatives on debt relief, on HIV/AIDS, on education. And remember Hilary Benn, helping to build the grand bargain of 2005, in which the West promised more aid and a better trade deal, and in return, Africa promised democracy, good governance and the rule of law. No government has given this issue such profile and such priority, both at home and internationally", he said.

The director added that at Gleneagles. Africa was promised its aid, also debt relief for 18 of the poorest countries, an end to export subsidies, and universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS and malaria.

"Two years on, the UK and some others have delivered, but many have not. Debt relief matters and has made a difference. In December, Sierra Leone became the 21st country, and the 17th in Africa, to reach 'completion point' under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries scheme, becoming eligible for 100% debt cancellation from the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank".

To him, the aid picture is less encouraging. The latest figures, issued by the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, show that aid to Africa increased by only 2 per cent last year. Italy's aid fell by 30 per cent; US aid fell by 20 per cent; Japanese aid fell by 10 per cent. Germany's went up, but by less than 1 per cent. UK aid rose by 13 per cent.

"Despite the shortfall, Africa is growing faster than at any time since the 1960s, partly boosted by debt relief and aid, but more by the impact of China's demand for natural resources, which has driven the terms of trade sharply in Africa's favour. Growth in per capita income is 4 per cent, faster than developed countries. Poverty is falling, too: down from 46 per cent to 41 per cent in the past five years. The numbers are still too high, of course, and with population rising, the absolute number of poor people has barely changed, at 300 million living below one dollar a day".

"Nevertheless, it is better to have growth and relative poverty reduction than not. At the same time, democracy is spreading and governance standards are rising, though too slowly. Africa's own institutions are getting stronger, especially through the African Union. Africa remains the poorest continent. Darfur is a real scar on the conscience of the world. But there is good news in Africa", he said.

The economist urged that growth in Africa needs to reach Asian levels, while decrying health and education standards, which are still woeful by global standards.

He said, "Africa faces the new challenge of global warming. Climate change has been another Blair campaign of great relevance to Africa. As the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change has reported, Africa is especially at risk".

"A rise of 2 degrees in average temperature could decimate the coffee industry in Uganda, for example. Across the continent, according to the IPCC, yields from rain-fed agriculture could fall by 50% by as early as 2020. Across the world, at least 250 million people will be exposed to water stress".

"The poorest are always most at risk. That is why Tony Blair has been right to keep pressing Africa's case in the international arena, and why Gordon Brown will want and need to continue. There is a legacy of vision, of will, and of UK action, which must be geared to deliver an international legacy of collective responsibility", Maxwell said.

Blair seeks to bring Bush on board poverty agenda

From ABC Australia and reporter John Shovelan

ELEANOR HALL: The leaders of two of the world's wealthiest countries met in Washington today to try to work out what to do about the poorest continent on the planet – Africa.

But while a lot of money has been promised, the proposal put forward today by US President George W. Bush has not matched up to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's ambitions.

As host of the next G8 summit, Mr Blair has made eliminating African poverty a key goal for the developed world, and he met US President George W. Bush at the White House to try to bring him on board.

Prime Minister Blair also challenged the Bush administration's position on global warming. But in his meeting today he failed to convince the US President on his formula for either, as John Shovelan reports.

JOHN SHOVELAN: Today was Washington in what's part of an international lobbying blitz by the British Prime Minister ahead of next month's G8 summit. He's already had talks with Italian Prime Minister and will visit the leaders of France, Germany and Russia before the summit in Gleneagles Scotland.

Prime Minister Blair is seeking a doubling of international aid for Africa, in an effort to get beyond emergency relief in favour of a more comprehensive, long-term help for the continent's problems.

TONY BLAIR: I think there is a real and common desire to help that troubled continent come out of the poverty and deprivation that so many millions of its people suffer. In a situation where literally thousands of children die from preventable diseases every day, it's our duty to act, and we will.

JOHN SHOVELAN: But President Bush offered no commitment to double aid. His administration announced a food aid package of about US $850 million – money which comes from an existing allocation.

REPORTER: Prime Minister Blair has been pushing for wealthy nations to double aid to Africa. With American aid levels among the lowest in the G8 as a proportion of national income, and the problems on the continent so dire, why isn't doubling US aid a good idea?

GEORGE BUSH: Well, first as I said in my statement, we tripled aid to Africa. Africa is an important part of my foreign policy. I remember when I first talked to Condy when I was trying to convince her to become the National Security Advisor, she said are you going to pay attention to the continent of Africa? I said, you bet. And I fulfilled that commitment.

In terms of whether or not the formula that you commented upon are the right way to analyse the United States commitment – I don't think it is. We've got a significant HIV-AIDS initiative that we're undertaking. Our country is taking the lead in Africa and we'll stay there. It's the right thing to do, it's important to help Africa get on her feet.

JOHN SHOVELAN: The left leaning Centre for American Progress issued a statement saying "when it comes to delivering desperately needed aid to Africa, President Bush has refused to meet Blair part-way, let alone halfway. His offer amounts to a phantom that will do nothing to reverse the trend towards poverty in Africa."

Both leaders have reached a deal on debt relief for poor countries but have to seek agreement from the other G8 creditors before it can be implemented.

TONY BLAIR: I think in relation to the debt cancellation, yes, I think we're well on the way to agreement on that.

Blair hails 'common cause' with US

From This Is London

Tony Blair has emerged from talks with President George Bush hailing a "real and common desire" to tackle African poverty.

The Prime Minister said the international community would not fail in its duty to help lift millions of people out of poverty.

On Africa I think there is a real and common desire to help that troubled continent come out of the poverty and deprivation which so many millions of its people suffer, in a situation where literally thousands of children die from preventable diseases every day, it is our duty to act and we will," he said.

Mr Blair has promised to make tackling African poverty one of the twin pillars of his presidency of the G8 group of rich nations.

He said it was vital to increase aid to the continent. But he said money alone was not enough.

He said it must be tied to debt relief, fairer trade and tackling diseases such as HIV/Aids and malaria.

And he said it must not be a "something for nothing deal".

"We also need to make sure there is a commitment on the part of the African leadership to proper governance, to action against corruption, to making sure the aid and the resources we are prepared to commit actually go to the people that need it and do the job it is supposed to do."