Civil society groups and anti-debt campaigners in Africa have cautiously welcomed a British proposal for the debt of Africa’s poorest states to be cancelled. "It’s a good start for a G8 member like Britain," said Charles Mutasa, a research and policy analysis programme officer at the Harare-based African Forum and Network on Debt and Development. (The G8, or Group of Eight, comprises the world’s eight leading industrialized nations: Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.) But, notes Sanusha Naidu, a researcher at the Pretoria-based Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, "We need specifics."