TOKYO: Leaders of the Group of Eight industrial powers will confirm promises to double aid to Africa at a summit next week but are divided on a timeframe for boosting health spending, a G8 source said Thursday.
The G8 leaders, meeting next week in Japan, have no intention of backtracking on their commitment, the source who is closely involved in the negotiations told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The G8 nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States — pledged at a summit in Gleneagles, Scotland in 2005 to double their aid to Africa by 2010.
Recent press reports have said that they may backtrack on that pledge during their summit starting Monday in the mountain resort of Toyako.
The G8 source denied that, but said countries were still divided on the timetable for other aid to Africa — in particular, 60 billion dollars pledged at last year s G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany to fight disease.
A draft declaration obtained by AFP says the G8 reiterates its commitment to provide at least 60 billion dollars in aid for fighting infectious diseases and strengthening of health systems as set out in Heiligendamm.
The source said that host Japan and Britain were pushing for a firm date for the health spending to give it more credibility, but that Canada and Italy were hesitant.
Activists have been trying to ramp up pressure ahead of the Group of Eight summit to force nations to fulfill the commitments made at Gleneagles.
One, a pressure group backed by U2 rocker Bono, issued a report last month which said that the G8 nations were falling far short of their commitments to double aid to Africa, calling it a disgrace.
The report found that only Japan had already doubled aid but said Tokyo s commitment was not ambitious to begin with. Of the donors, Britain has done best by boosting aid to Africa by the greatest volume, the study found.
The funds and the resources that were promised in Gleneagles have not been forthcoming, Joseph Ssuuna, secretary general of the Zambia-based Pelum group representing smallholder farmers in Africa, told a news conference in Tokyo.
He noted that this year marked the halfway point for the UN-backed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include halving poverty around the world by 2015.
Japan can actually force other developed countries to honestly put their money in MDGs, very global aspirations that we all agreed to, he said.
Japan has invited leaders of seven African nations — Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania — along with the African Union chairman to hold an outreach summit with the G8.
Japan in May hosted a separate summit, bringing 40 African heads of state to Yokohama near Tokyo, where it pledged to double its assistance to Africa again by 2012 despite recent budget cuts to its overall international aid budget.
Takumo Yamada, a leader of the NGO Forum meeting on the summit s sidelines, said that the Toyako meet would be a historic failure if it neglected promises to Africa.
The situation of poor people in developing nations has worsened due to climate change and the food crisis, he said.
Japan, if it fails to lead, would become the target of strong criticism for hosting the first summit that ignored the promises of Gleneagles, Yamada said. -AFP
