CALGARY (CP) - The G-8 leaders' multi-billion-dollar deal to help Africa's poor needs a detailed action plan if it's going to be more than empty promises, says a former adviser to Jean Chretien.
"The last thing Africa needs are more promises from us, more commitments," said Gordon Smith, director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, which plans to examine how the plan endorsed by G-8 leaders is implemented. Smith was Chretien's top adviser, or sherpa, during the 1995 G-7 summit in Halifax. Adopting the New Partnership for Africa's Development, or NEPAD, was Chretien's centrepiece objective when the world's richest leaders gathered in Kananaskis, Alta., earlier this week.
The plan calls for more aid, economic and other support to African countries that demonstrate good governance, rule of law and sound economic policies. The aim is to improve the lives of African people by reducing corruption, poverty and human rights abuses.
Critics have said the plan is short on details and filled with qualifying language that can allow countries to back out of funding promises.
"We've come to the point where unless we're serious that we're going to follow through on a promise, you're better not to make it," said Smith.
In Ottawa, federal Tory Leader Joe Clark said the African initiative was conditional, with no guarantees that most of the money would be delivered to the impoverished continent.
"The basic commitment Canada made was to contribute $500 million to Africa, if there are surpluses," said Clark. "That is a loophole through which you could fly a fleet of Challengers."
Clark said the five-year plan didn't go far enough to ensure the billions invested wouldn't be wasted.
"If the G-8 breaks its word, that will feed cynicism and despair, and drive Africa backwards," he said. "Virtually ignoring Africa, for years, has been bad enough. The only thing worse would be to promise now and not deliver."
Smith agreed, saying that G-8 officials and African leaders must work together to detail what needs to be done and track any progress.
"At the end of the day, you ought to be able to say 'we've succeeded at this one, this was kind of indifferent and we failed elsewhere,' " he said.
John Kortin, director of the University of Toronto's Centre for G-8 Research, says although Chretien didn't get the commitment he was seeking for least $6-billion US in annual aid, France has agreed to continue to push the African agenda when it hosts next year's G-8 meeting.
Kortin praised Canadian officials for enlisting France's help to ensure Africa would not fall off the radar screen.
"We knew that if there were any things left undone at Kananaskis - and there were a lot - that France could be counted on to stay the course," he said.
Canada has pledged $6 billion in new and existing resources over five years to African development, including the $500 million Canada Fund for Africa.
Chretien outlined how the money will be spent.
"We will match the efforts of African leaders with our own actions to help foster innovation and economic growth, strengthen African institutions that encourage responsible and accountable governance, and improve the well-being of future generations of Africans," the prime minister said.
In Moscow, there was suspicion after Russia was made a full member of the Group of Eight at the Kananaskis summit.
There was also a wariness of the $20-billion US disarmament package pledged by the world's richest leaders. The money, pledged over the next decade, is to help keep Russia's arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons out of the hands of terrorists.
"Russia is invited to join, but we are treated like a beneficiary, not as an equal," said retired general Leonid Ivashov, who questioned the motives behind the financial offer.
Bohdan Harasymin, who teaches Russian politics at the University of Calgary, is also skeptical, noting the G-8 leaders focused little attention on the huge numbers of conventional weapons sold by the United States, Russia and Britain which are being used in conflicts around the world.
"Those are actually killing people as opposed to these mythical weapons of mass destruction that might fall into the hands of somebody we don't like," said Harasymin.
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