African Monitor’s Response to G8

(African Monitor)--It is time for African civil society and its partners to re-think its engagement strategy with the G8 and the rest of the developed world. Never before has Africa faced such a toxic combination of crippling development challenges as it faces today.

The World Bank predicts that the current food crises will wipe out 7 years of progress made towards poverty alleviation. It is likely that more than 100 million people will be plunged even deeper into poverty. For a continent
like Africa, which has been struggling to deal with hunger and malnutrition for decades, these news are dismal. It was only last year that the United Nations announced that Africa was unlikely to meet most of the MDG’s, particularly those related to hunger and malnutrition. The current food crises, rising oil prices and effects of climate change will have a combined disastrous effect on Africa’s efforts towards poverty alleviation. Is the world acting with sufficient urgency to circumvent the current crises? A quick answer is NO. The recent G8 summit held in Japan is a case in point. While Africa was in the agenda together
with other items like food security, climate change, and rising oil prices, the solutions discussed and commitments made hardly reflect the urgency and gravity of the global development crises. The G8 went about its business as usual, while throwing in a commitment here and there with no indication of how they would be actualized.

Global food crisis

In the “2008 G8 Progress Report” launched prior to the summit, G8 leaders committed US10 billion to support food aid and agricultural input as a step towards averting the current food crisis. They have further committed to doubling major crops, and have set up a G8 Experts Panel that will support developing countries as they step up their agricultural production. However in the usual tendency, the G8 summit fell short of offering practical steps, and measurable commitments to work towards improving global food security. We expectecd that the
G8 would make a pronouncement aimed at both mitigating the current urgent crises, while launching mid-term and long-term targets to promote sound policies and double food production in key African countries. Some of these interventions could have included immediate action to support the World Food Program (WFP), which needs in excess of $750 million to maintain its existing programs. Donor contributions could immediately be spread proportionately to prioritize agriculture along side other sectors such as health, education, etc. African Monitor research shows that donors are contributing the least to Agricultural production in Africa, and in the last decade, their contribution to agriculture has drastically declined. Humanitarian efforts to increase all types of food aid to countries impacted by the crisis need to be increased as well. However, none of these solutions will address the problem in the long-term. Increasing agricultural productivity remains the most sustainable medium and long-term solution. Direct support to Africa-led initiatives such as the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) would result in investment in agricultural production, thus contributing directly to poverty alleviation.

Climate change

Global warming has had its consequences on the change in weather patterns of the world. Climate change represents a great challenge globally but it presents a much more precarious scenario for the future of the people of Africa, whose continent is least responsible for global warming. After much struggle, the G8 has agreed “to seek to adopt as a global target the goal of at least 50% reductions” of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In a nutshell, there is no commitment currently emerging from the G8, except to say that they will think about reducing emissions. Moreover, the summit left each country to pursue its own path in tackling pollution, which is largely responsible for global warming. The absence of a baseline for the reductions and the failure to come up with numerical targets by the G8 is unfortunate and regrettable. Furthermore, the G8 still has not come up with a clear, practical adaptation plan for Africa, supported by the G8 countries (and China) in the form of an African emergency fund for climate change issues.
Whilst we recognize the call for talks to draw up a successor to the Kyoto protocol which expires in 2012, there is need for practical plans to adhere to the cutting of greenhouse gasses by the G8 countries. There is also need for practical action on greenhouse gasses in the interim, so that the drawing up of the successor to the Kyoto protocol does not delay the much needed action on this issue.

Aid commitments to Africa

Under current spending the G8 will fall $40bn short of its target on official development assistance. Studies also show that collectively, the G8 has delivered just $3 billion of the $25 billion that was pledged to Africa in 2005. At the 2008 summit, the G8 re-committed to meeting the commitments made in 2005 to increase ODA levels to $50 billion a year by 2010, with half of that going to Africa. In the past three years the G8 countries have consistently re-committed themselves, while ODA has steadily declined. Therefore, this re-commitment does not have much meaning without an undertaking to take concrete steps with clear plans and timelines on aid delivery by the G8 countries. The starting point for the G8 should have been to recognize that they are failing to meet the promised aid levels to Africa. Secondly, they should have made it clear how they plan to fund the shortfall in aid to Africa. It is encouraging that the G-8 discussed development in Africa, especially the focus on the need for accountability. It is also plausible that in this spirit of accountability, the G8 nations have released reports on health and anticorruption to demonstrate progress toward fulfilling past G8 commitments. We also note that the G8 leaders also committed to realistic, measurable commitments on health worker training, neglected tropical diseases and long-lasting insecticidetreated bed nets. Similar reports should also be released on ODA to Africa, including budgetary commitments towards development to Africa and this should be new money as opposed to money that was committed in the past.

Millennium Development Goals

There are seven years left before the deadline to meet eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the U.N. General Assembly in September 2000 to reduce world poverty by 2015. The G8 renewed their commitment to the MDGs while acknowledging in its statement that significant challenges remain at the mid-point to those goals despite some progress. The group expressed its determination to honor in full their commitments to fight infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and polio, and work towards the goal of universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care by 2010. A simple acknowledgement that there is need to upscale
is not enough. The G-8 needed the political guts to come up with specific measurable practical commitments with timelines to help particularly Africa meet its MDGs.

Trade justice

In his press statement at the end of the G8 summit, Prime Minister Fukuda restated the G8’s commitment to a successful World Trade Organization Doha Round. This statement is not new, despite the fact that the DOHA round has so far failed to address the needs of developing
countries. We have long argued that the global trading system is not in favour of developing countries, and G8 leaders seem to have ignored the importance of the removal of trade barriers as a pre-requisite for global food security and the emancipation of Africa in particular. Unfair trade practices such as agricultural subsidies should not hinder Africa’s agricultural development, especially in light of the food crisis. The conclusion of the Doha round should be viewed with even more urgency, as this will address some of the current global challenges.

Conclusion

In previous years civil society organisations concerned about Africa’s development have spoken earnestly about the dissappointing results of recent G8 summits. Year in and year out, the G8 conducts its business as usual, regugitating the same commitments with very little progress. Yet, the crises that the world faces are even more pronounced today, and deteriorate with every year
that passes. Independent voices from civil society have been almost unanimous in expressing deep disappointment about commitments that are not being met, and particularly commitments made but not followed by clear action plans. There has also been an increasing impatience with the lack of accountability shown by both African and G8 governments. It is time for African and international civil society organisations to come together and regroup, to think strategically about what advocacy interventions can inject the required amount of urgency
among relevent stakeholders in order to drive the African development agenda. In the next few months, African Monitor will explore with various partners opportunities for engagement and dialogue, which will hopefully lead to accelerated delivery of commitments by African and donor
governments. The ultimate aim for all our efforts should be to ensure delivery among grassroots communities, and to work towards the eradication of poverty in all its various forms.

About African Monitor

African Monitor (AM) is an independent continental body, acting as a catalyst within Africa’s civil society and advocating for urgent and effective implementation of commitments to Africa in ways that deliver tangible development at grassroots level. We seek to bring a strong African voice to the development debate, and to raise key questions from an African perspective:-
• Are development promises being kept?
• What difference do all these development programs make on the ground?
• To what extent do grassroots communities benefit from such development?
African Monitor aims to drive changes at grassroots level by:
• Ensuring that the voice of Africa’s people, their priorities and perspectives are heard
in the corridors of power by developing and implementing participatory monitoring
models.
• Developing the ability of local communities to engage with their governments and
with donors to achieve more effective program delivery.
• Enabling change through advocacy, at local, continental and international levels and
also harnessing both local and diaspora communities.
• Supporting advocacy through research and monitoring – quantitative and qualitative
• Raising expectations and awareness, improving accountability, motivating and
empowering grassroots communities to engage in the policies and programs that
affect them
• Strengthening the bridge between Africa and donor communities

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