Mbeki to take Africa's G8 message
Richard Mantu
5 July 2005
South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo will depart for Scotland to meet leaders of the Group of 8, at the conclusion of the African Union Summit in Sirte, Libya.
Mbeki will arrive in Scotland on Thursday for the two day summit.
The G8 summit, to be chaired by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will push for recommendations of the Commission for Africa report (CAR), which calls for debt cancellation and doubling of aid.
It will also look at the issue of climate change.
Mbeki, Obasanjo and a handful of other African leaders, will rally support from wealthy nations to endorse the CAR recommendations, which they have commended at the AU summit.
The AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government voiced support for the CAR but pointed out that the recommendations of the report supplement "previous initiatives including Nepad, the Strategic Plan for African Union Commission and the G-8
Kananaskis Africa Action Plan.
In his opening address on Monday, Obasanjo hailed the African Union socio-economy recovery plan, NEPAD, as a right plan to get the continent which has been plagued by conflicts, poverty and diseases - to the path of development.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan also cautioned rich nations against coming up with different plans to rid the world, particularly Africa of poverty and underdevelopment, saying leaders should use existing partnerships to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
"No new promises are needed to make this happen, just follow through on existing ones. Africa can achieve the goals by 2015 if the long-promised partnership is truly mobilised," he urged rich nations at the AU summit.
The AU declaration by African leaders at the summit urged rich nations to "act expeditiously' on the recommendations of the CAF.
The leaders of the 53 member continental body also requested the AU commission to
monitor the implementation of the evaluation of the G8 Kananaskis Plan of Action for Africa.
The African leaders go to the golf resort of Gleneagles, armed with a good report on good governance in the continent - recommended by the CAR a pre-requisite for Africa to get aid.
Most of Southern African countries including South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia have held 'free and fair elections" and a number of countries in the Great Lakes region are currently holding democratic polls.
Despite some violent clashes in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, elections are scheduled to take place later this year.
Experts say the G8 summit presents an opportunity for rich nations to be seen to be committed to seeing the world achieve its MDGs of halving poverty by 2015, which world leaders committed to in 2001.
The rich nations will now have to commit to cancelling Africa's debt which is estimated at $200-billion, which hampers the continent's
ability to invest into its own education, health systems and infrastructure development
Source: BuaNews
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