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Commonwealth Secretariat press release

Africa needs more support for its efforts to help itself

1 July 2002

"The outcomes of the G8 summit at Kananaskis are disappointing for all of us who are keen to support Africa's efforts to help itself and were expecting more. To justify Kananaskis's outcomes it must be seen as a first step in what is expected to be a far more generous process. There is still a long way to go and we must go the distance as the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has the potential to transform Africa. The leadership given by the Commonwealth countries - Canada and the United Kingdom -which are members of the G8 in seeking to bring about this progress was commendable and must be supported," Commonwealth Secretary-General, Don McKinnon, said today.

The Secretary-General stressed that there had to be a radical shift in the mindset of the major players in the international community. "The G8 countries have to move away from an attitude which consistently delivers 'too little, too late' to a more generous-spirited approach that provides Africa with a level playing field to enable it to help itself."

Mr McKinnon said that the initiative of African leaders to improve governance and the rule of law and to initiate peer reviews needed a more generous response. He said that it is utterly unsustainable and a threat to democracy to continue with such an imbalanced economic playing field. Africa needed trade access, investment, aid and debt relief before it could be said to be competing on a level playing field with the West. The Secretary-General noted that after World War II the Marshall Plan had saved Europe, but sadly now that same level of generosity didn't seem to exist for Africa. Agricultural subsidies were a case in point: "There must be a firm and time-bound commitment to phase out the massive agricultural subsidies in the industrial countries which bankrupt vulnerable African farmers by artificially depressing world prices. To preach trade liberalisation while maintaining such perverse subsidies is unsustainable."

Mr McKinnon noted that the G8 had promised too little on debt relief. He hoped that their effort to encourage a topping-up of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Fund would bear fruit, because the additional US$1 billion was simply inadequate to ensure a sustainable exit from the debt problem. "Half the countries which have embarked upon the programme for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries are still spending more on repayments to their creditors than on public health. This lack of funds for health care means that millions of people are dying from preventable diseases." Mr McKinnon commented that the additional US $6 billion of aid announced for Africa was disappointing. It was just a repackaging of what was announced at Monterrey; a drop in the bucket for the G8; and inadequate when the United Nations had estimated that Africa needed US $25-35 billion to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The Secretary-General noted that of course any partnership arrangement involves give and take and that the call for good governance and corporate governance in Africa was an organic element of NEPAD. "The Commonwealth attaches sanctity to the political values which NEPAD advocates. Many of our member states have taken these values seriously. Others must do better," he added.

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