Christians Demand Decisive Action as Blair Pledges Double Aid to Africa

The long-awaiting report from the Commission for Africa, a British sponsored group formed in February 2004, has been grandly launched at the British Museum by Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday 11th March. Through looking into Africa’s past and present as well as the international community’s role in its development path, the 400-page report has proposed a blueprint on how rich nations in the world can help to end poverty, conflict and disease plaguing Africa.

The highlight of the report is the call to immediately double foreign aid to Africa to $50 billion. It also sets 100 percent debt cancellation as a goal and urges rich nations to drop trade barriers that hurt poor countries.

Basically, it corresponds to the three main principles laid down by the "Make Poverty History" campaign based in the UK, which sees 2005 as an important year for the UK to lead the other G8 industrialised nations into greater anti-poverty efforts as it holds the presidency of the G8 summit and EU.

Concerning the other aspects of the report, Blair urges all countries to make fighting AIDS a priority. It also says African leaders must move more quickly toward democracy, stamp out corruption and take other steps to improve how their countries are run.

"In a world where prosperity is increasing and more people sharing each year in this growing wealth, it is an obscenity that should haunt our daily thoughts that 4 million children in Africa will die this year before their fifth birthday," Blair expressed a sense of solidarity towards the fate of fellow brothers in Africa at the launch of the report.

"There can be no excuse, no defense, no justification for the plight of millions of our fellow beings in Africa today. There should be nothing that stands in our way of changing it. That is the simple message from the report published today," added Blair.

Aid agencies in the UK have overwhelmingly responded to the landmark report. Christian Aid welcomes the report, but it notes that "Without this action, the Commission report will be just another piece of paper."

Charles Abugre, head of policy for Christian Aid criticised that many proposals in the report are actually contradictory to the current policy in the UK. In terms of fair trade, while the Commission explicitly states that African countries should be allowed to choose when to open their markets based on their own development and poverty reduction plans, the UK government currently backs the EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), whereby 46 African countries must open their own markets in return for access for their goods to EU markets.

On debt, the Commission report commits to 100% debt cancellation for all sub-Saharan African countries, to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. However, Director Abugre warned, "In some countries, up to 50% of the debt burden is domestic debt, largely owed to international banks. This domestic debt crisis must also be tackled."

Blair called for an increase in aid to Africa of US$50 billion per year by 2015, but Christian Aid said that it is disappointing the recommendations do not set a timetable to meet existing aid targets.

"Again the UK government has a long way to go to satisfy the wishes of the Commission for Africa - which, after all, it set up," concluded Abugre.

On a press release from Oxfam Great Britain, similar comments are echoed. It stated, "It [the Report] offers a detailed and considered analysis of the crisis facing Africa. The challenge now is to turn analysis into action."

"This report can be a rallying call for a generation that will no longer tolerate the obscenity of extreme poverty in Africa - or it could end up gathering dust," said Adrian Lovett of Oxfam. "It's now up to world leaders to rise to the challenge, to take long-overdue action and make this a breakthrough year for Africa."