G8 Summary on Africa
by Dave Randle
One Campaign Makes A Difference at G8
The G8 is now over and much success can be claimed with much more still left to do.
The good news is that despite no new money from the USA at the G8 Summit,
the world leaders have committed to increase AID to the poor to 50 billion a year.
In addition the U.S. has promised to double its AID by 2010 as well.
This means that deaths from Malaria can be cut in half by 2010. In other words some
600,000 people can still be alive in 2010 that would not have been otherwise.
It also means that any country with a credible plan for education will have the funding for it and that 9 million people will now have access to drugs for AIDS that did not before.
It was great to see that events like LIVE8 and work of the ONE Campaign could actually
get world leaders to begin to listen.
There is still much left to do particularly in the area of more debt cancellation and in creating more fair and just trade policies for Africa.
In the long run only trade policies rooted in justice will allow Africa to become more self-sustaining.
Senator Richard Luger has recently introduced the International Cooperation to Meet the Millennium Development Goals Act of 2005 to assess the progress of the U.S. in meeting the Millennium Goals, to highlight the important research of the Africa Commission and to ask the Secretary of State to produce a report within 60 days after the completion of the WTO Summit on the progress of the U.S. and the international community in achieving the Millennium Goals.
Money that has been committed by the Administration needs to be appropriated by Congress as well.
There is much more to be done but in the words of Bono “The world spoke, and the politicians listened. Now, if the world keeps an eye out, they will keep their promises. It is down to the hundreds of thousands -- indeed millions -- who have assembled on this issue to make sure they don't just sign the cheque, but that they cash it. If an Irish rock star can quote Churchill, this is not the end of extreme poverty, but it is the beginning of the end."
Sir Bob Geldof creator of Live8 echoed this thought when he stated “It is only time that will decide whether this summit is historic or not. What is true is that never before have so many people forced a change in policy onto the global agenda...... The beginning of the end of making poverty history starts now. The Summit at Gleneagles is a qualified triumph ..... We are beginning to see the lives of the poor of Africa determined not by charity but by justice.”
Groups like the One Campaign, the National Council of Churches, the United Religions Initiative, the Alliance for New Humanity and the Global Healing Initiative will be needed to make sure that the long walk to justice continues to keep moving forward.
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