There's not much enthusiasm from Africans or the rich nations being asked to provide the money for the new African development plan that Prime Minister Jean ChrČtien will push at this month's G8 summit in Kananaskis, Alta.
A new report by the respected North-South Institute says prospects are not good for either the G8 African Action Plan or the New Partnership for Africa's Development, the made-in-Africa proposal on which the G8 leaders have based their plan.
"Both lack legitimacy," says the report released yesterday.
The partnership doesn't "because it does not recognize African diversity and does not yet have the support of the people, who remain almost entirely ignorant about it; and the African Action Plan because G8 leaders do not seem to be bringing anything to the new partnership."
Enthusiasm has been tepid, at best, for making Africa the centrepiece of the Kananaskis conference, which will bring together the heads of government from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Critics say that while Africa certainly is in need of a new approach and more help from the wealthy north, the powerful G8 nations would be wiser at this point in history to concentrate on the global terror threat, sorting out political crises in the Middle East and Indian sub-continent and dealing with the economic issues of globalization, which was the organization's raison d'Ítre.
Despite the lack of interest from the other countries, Mr. ChrČtien is insisting the Africa agenda will not be hijacked by the crisis of the day, as has happened at past summits. The prime minister will attempt to make it the main discussion topic on the second day of the June 26-27 conference after the leaders discuss terrorism and the economy on Day 1.
The New Partnership for Africa's Development, a document produced by five democratically elected African leaders, proposes a peer review to monitor countries' efforts toward democratic, economic and social reform. This would be reinforced through an agreement with the wealthy nations of the North, which would funnel development money to African countries that meet the still-vague targets.
The North-South Institute says the development plan was a hastily written document that remains relatively unknown to many African leaders and most African people, despite the prominence its been given by the G8. The independent Canadian research institute says the document "presents no new ideas for economic strategy or development," nor does it present concrete ideas for how to achieve and monitor the improved political and economic governance it professes as its goal. The institute is also critical of the document's lack of attention to the HIV/AIDS catastrophe that has engulfed the continent and its failure to address agricultural problems.
The report questions the impact on Africa of the G8's intention to send more developmental money to countries with "good" policies, questioning who will determine what is "good."
The report points to an Oxfam study claiming Africa needs $25 billion U.S. annually to achieve the UN's Millennium Development goals, a figure that could be met if the rich nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development met their promised targets of 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product to be dedicated to overseas development.
In fact, aid to Africa dropped by about 40 per cent in the past decade and Canada's share of overseas development assistance has fallen every year since 1993, now standing at about 0.23 per cent.
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