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The food crisis is threatening to "destroy years, if not decades, of
economic progress" as "100 million people are being pushed back into
absolute poverty", according to former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.
17th June 08 - Elizma Nolte, South Africa Times
Link to the report - Africa's Development: Promises and Prospects - Report of the Africa Progress Panel, June 16 2008
Launching the Africa Progress Panel's report in London on Monday, Annan
said it was the poorest people in the poorest countries who were
feeling the brunt.
Of the 37 countries hardest hit by the food crisis, 21 are in Africa.
Four of these - Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Somalia - are
classified as having "exceptional shortfalls".
Annan said: "If we don't act urgently and decisively, we will see a sharp increase in hunger and child mortality in Africa."
He demanded action from th
e G8 to meet their commitment to Africa,
remarking that "the only promises that matter are the ones that you
keep".
At the forthcoming G8 summit in Japan, the G8 must give immediate
attention to increasing the quantity of food on international markets
and providing greater financial assistance to affected countries.
At the current rate, the G8's commitment to doubling aid assistance to Africa by 2010 was unlikely to be fulfilled, Annan said.
The report identifies a shortfall of $40-billion (about R3-trillion) in
aid that needs to be filled if the G8 is to meet the targets set at
Gleneagles in 2005.
The report also calls for a rethink of trade policy and the immediate review of food stockpiling.
The 11-member Africa Progress Panel, chaired by Annan and including
Tony Blair, Graca Machel and Bob Geldof, was launched in 2007 to focus
world leaders' attention on fulfilling their commitments to the
continent.
Annan said the panel's report was not aimed only at the G8, but also at the African Union and every African.
"This is not something outsiders are going to do for us - they will help, but the basic responsibility is ours as Africans."
The report notes that governance has improved in Africa, but that there
is still much work to be done. The conflicts in Darfur and the eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the "total economic collapse"
in Zimbabwe are highlighted.
Annan said the situation in Zimbabwe was "extremely worrying and extremely complex".
He deplored the fact that aid workers have been prevented from doing
their work and said attempts to intimidate voters should be stopped.
Annan said "efforts are being made to get the government to bend" and
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon was sending an envoy to Zimbabwe.
He hoped election results would be announced promptly this time and
said neither Africa nor the international community would accept the
legitimacy of any leader who came to power fraudulently.
Link to original source
Report: Rich nations failing Africa
16th June 08 - Al Jazeera
The world's richest nations are falling short on pledges to double aid to Africa by 2010 at a time when soaring food prices risk a global food shortage, a watchdog has reported.
The Africa progress panel, set up to monitor commitments made at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in 2005, said delivery of aid is $40bn short based on current plans.
"Funding shortfalls against the 2010 targets should be addressed immediately, through a special plan to meet the pledge made at Gleneagles," the panel said on Monday.
The G8 summit at Gleneages in Scotland had gathered world leaders to find ways of relieving Africa from poverty and debt.
The Africa progress panel is chaired by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general and includes Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, Michel Camdessus, the former International Monetary Fund chief and Bob Geldof, a leading anti-poverty campaigner.
Limited success
The report, Africa's Development: Promises and Prospects, said debt relief agreed at the 2005 summit had been significant because poor countries had increased spending on health and education, over and above the amount of relief.
But unless rising food prices were halted and reversed, there would be a significant increase in hunger, malnutrition, and infant and child mortality in Africa.
"The food crisis is a major setback which is creating a major humanitarian emergency," the report said.
"In the immediate term, the supply of food to the world's most vulnerable citizens must be increased by raising the level of financial assistance."
The G8 did however deliver successfully in some areas, Tania Page, Al Jazeera's correspondent said.
"Foreign investment is increasing, the number of people living in poverty has levelled off, and $10bn is in the bank to spend on fighting disease.
"But while there has been some success, overall the G8 has failed to deliver," she said.
"The report issues a stark warning... that failure to come up with the cash could actually reverse all the economic progress that has been made, pushing 100 million Africans into abject poverty."
Innovative funding urged
The G8 meets next month in Japan and steps to halt the surge in oil and food prices will be high on the agenda, partly because they are contributing to an economic slowdown in rich nations and a backlash from disgruntled voters.
But the Africa progress panel said it was increasingly clear the pressure on government finances in rich countries meant they would not meet their aid pledges to Africa.
It said they should come up with innovative funding mechanisms for increased aid, such as taxes on foreign exchange trades, carbon taxes, levies on air travel and freight transport, or a global lottery.
The report said there was a critical need for a rethink of trade policies to give Africans more access to markets and fair trading rules so they could generate enough income to buy food.
It said the market for fertilisers should be liberalised as part of multilateral trade talks so that agricultural output could be boosted worldwide.
Developed nations should review subsidies for biofuels as the growth of crops as an energy source may be hurting food production and contributing to global food price rises.
Also, with climate change likely to hurt food production in Africa more severely than other parts of the world, rich nations should spend more on renewable energy sources on the continent.
"It may not be easy to overcome these problems, but the world has a stake in realising the African continent's huge potential to thrive," Annan wrote in a preface to the report.
Link to the original source
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