AU’s $72 billion landmark plan to fight poverty
Posted 3rd July 2008 at 04:44 PM by NewsTracker
By Kwaku Osei Bonsu
Sharm-El-Sheikh - A landmark plan of action, targeting an estimated $72 billion a year in external funding to help Africa win the battle against poverty, has been launched at the gathering of the continent's political leaders in this Egyptian Red Sea resort.
President Thabo Mbeki was among the Heads of State and Government of the 53-nation African Union (AU), who attended the two-day summit on Monday held under the theme "Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on Water and Sanitation".
The action plan, an initiative of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, provides a roadmap for fighting extreme poverty, hunger and disease to achieve the MDGs by 2015 and comes at a time when there is growing anxiety that many African nations are not on track to meet the goals.
It outlines focused investments in agriculture, education, health and infrastructure, seen as critical to present and future efforts to reach the MDGs, and was jointly produced and endorsed by the UN, the AU Commission, African Development Bank (AfDB), and the European Commission.
The others are the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Islamic Development Bank Group, OrganiSation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank.
AU Chairman Jakaya Kikwete described it as "a call to action" and said it needed to be implemented immediately to halt the spread of suffering.
AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping said African leaders were looking to the Group of Eight (G8) most industrialised nations to turn their existing promises into action.
"The credibility of international commitments is at stake. There are many development success stories across Africa that can be replicated in more countries with additional funding," said Mr Ping.
He noted that the existing EU and G8 commitments, combined with the present aid flows from others sources, were sufficient to fund the plan.
With the momentum generated by strong economic growth rates in many African countries, increased commitment to domestic resource mobilisation, improving governance and better policy performance, Africa could still achieve the MDGs by the year 2015.
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is also to use the forth coming G8 Summit as a platform to reaffirm the African Action Plan Programme, President Thabo Mbeki said.
The G8 Summit will be held in Japan from 7 July.
The Africa Action Plan, which was adopted in Canada 2002 commits each of the G8 countries to establishing enhanced partnerships with African countries that have demonstrated a commitment to development.
Mr Mbeki, in an interview with the Southern African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on Wednesday, said NEPAD will follow up on the promises that were made then.
“We want to say, here is a basic programme and any follow up must be about the whole Africa Action Programme and not particular items within the action programme that are chosen by the host G8 countries.”
Issues which will be raises include water and sanitation and high food prices, said Mbeki.
Previously there had been resources committed by the G8 to address these matters of water and sanitation but because the mechanism between the G8 and Africa collapsed they have not been able to follow up on those.
President Mbeki said there had been long discussions on how to deal with the problems in developing countries.
These solid efforts by the governments needed to be matched by follow-through on G8 aid pledges to help the continent to make major gains against poverty.
The G8, at its summit in Gleanagles, Scotland, in 2005 pledged to increase official development assistance (ODA) to Africa by $25 billion annually by 2010.
Current statistics show that net annual ODA to Africa has so far increased by only about a quarter of the $25 billion promised. – BuaNews-NNN
Sharm-El-Sheikh - A landmark plan of action, targeting an estimated $72 billion a year in external funding to help Africa win the battle against poverty, has been launched at the gathering of the continent's political leaders in this Egyptian Red Sea resort.
President Thabo Mbeki was among the Heads of State and Government of the 53-nation African Union (AU), who attended the two-day summit on Monday held under the theme "Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on Water and Sanitation".
The action plan, an initiative of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, provides a roadmap for fighting extreme poverty, hunger and disease to achieve the MDGs by 2015 and comes at a time when there is growing anxiety that many African nations are not on track to meet the goals.
It outlines focused investments in agriculture, education, health and infrastructure, seen as critical to present and future efforts to reach the MDGs, and was jointly produced and endorsed by the UN, the AU Commission, African Development Bank (AfDB), and the European Commission.
The others are the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Islamic Development Bank Group, OrganiSation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank.
AU Chairman Jakaya Kikwete described it as "a call to action" and said it needed to be implemented immediately to halt the spread of suffering.
AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping said African leaders were looking to the Group of Eight (G8) most industrialised nations to turn their existing promises into action.
"The credibility of international commitments is at stake. There are many development success stories across Africa that can be replicated in more countries with additional funding," said Mr Ping.
He noted that the existing EU and G8 commitments, combined with the present aid flows from others sources, were sufficient to fund the plan.
With the momentum generated by strong economic growth rates in many African countries, increased commitment to domestic resource mobilisation, improving governance and better policy performance, Africa could still achieve the MDGs by the year 2015.
The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is also to use the forth coming G8 Summit as a platform to reaffirm the African Action Plan Programme, President Thabo Mbeki said.
The G8 Summit will be held in Japan from 7 July.
The Africa Action Plan, which was adopted in Canada 2002 commits each of the G8 countries to establishing enhanced partnerships with African countries that have demonstrated a commitment to development.
Mr Mbeki, in an interview with the Southern African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on Wednesday, said NEPAD will follow up on the promises that were made then.
“We want to say, here is a basic programme and any follow up must be about the whole Africa Action Programme and not particular items within the action programme that are chosen by the host G8 countries.”
Issues which will be raises include water and sanitation and high food prices, said Mbeki.
Previously there had been resources committed by the G8 to address these matters of water and sanitation but because the mechanism between the G8 and Africa collapsed they have not been able to follow up on those.
President Mbeki said there had been long discussions on how to deal with the problems in developing countries.
These solid efforts by the governments needed to be matched by follow-through on G8 aid pledges to help the continent to make major gains against poverty.
The G8, at its summit in Gleanagles, Scotland, in 2005 pledged to increase official development assistance (ODA) to Africa by $25 billion annually by 2010.
Current statistics show that net annual ODA to Africa has so far increased by only about a quarter of the $25 billion promised. – BuaNews-NNN
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