STWR - Share The World's Resources

A new "scramble for Africa" is taking place among the world's big powers, who are tapping into the continent for its oil and diamonds.

Share The World's Resources would like to express its absolute support for the Commission for Africa (CfA) report and its recommendations. The question that we address here is whether the UK government is in a position to implement the report's recommendations, many of which will entail a u-turn in current UK policies.

Forty-six countries in the world are listed as politically "fragile" by the Department for International Development, and 23 of them are in sub-Saharan Africa.

The UK has pledged to pay 10% of the developing world's foreign debt bill in an attempt to fight poverty.

No-one can fail to have been moved by the recent pictures from Darfur, Sudan. Hundreds upon thousands of people driven from their homes, by terrible violence and fear. Tales of unspeakable atrocities are filling column inches, and night by night, our television screens bear witness to the unfolding humanitarian tragedy.

By UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has been chairing the first meeting of his Commission for Africa on Tuesday.

The African Commission Report has received considerable attention and praise for its encyclopaedic analysis of the problems confronting Africa today. Despite its warm welcome, some commentators have felt that its recommendations on dealing with corruption are incomplete.