Britain Prevails on EU Countries on ‘aid Pledges’ for Africa.

Britain has urged all European Union (EU) countries to fulfill their aid pledges to Africa following a new report showing that the G8 has delivered only a seventh of the financial assistance promised at the Gleneagles summit three years ago.

The Africa Progress Panel, set up to monitor commitments made at the Gleneagles G8 summit, came out with startling findings early this week, warning that rich nations have US$40 billion short of their pledges.

According to a high-powered watchdog, the world’s richest nations (G8) are falling short on pledges to double aid to Africa by 2010 at a time when soaring food prices risk destroying decades of economic progress on the continent.

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Friday told the European summit in Brussels that the world will have no chance of hitting the development goals for 2015 set by the UN if rich countries such as France, Germany and Italy fail to increase their aid budgets.

A report by DATA (an advocacy agency dedicated to the eradication of extreme poverty and aids in Africa), the aid organization set up by rock stars Bono and Sir Bob Geldof, said the G8 had only provided 14% of the $21.8 billion it pledged to give to Africa in aid by 2010.

World-renowned musician and activists; Angeligue Kodjo, Bono and Bob Geldof, have also added their voices, challenging French President Nicolas Sarkozy to increase aid to Africa.

The artists accused France of failing to live up to commitments it made at a summit of leading industrialized countries in 2005.

The DATA report says that of the seven countries that made commitments to Africa at Gleneagles, only Italy is doing worse than France with a net decrease in aid since 2005. “The best performer is Japan, which has already fulfilled its pledges”

The report said that 2.1 million Africans are on life-saving AIDS drugs, up from 50,000 in 2002; that 26 million children were immunized against life-threatening diseases from 2001 to 2006; and that 29 million children in Africa entered school for the first time between 1999 and 2005 because of debt relief and increased aid.

The US and UK come out relatively clean in the report, which shows that: while Washington was not on track to meet its pledge to increase total development aid to 0.7% of GDP by 2012, ‘it has sufficient increases in the pipeline’ to meet its 2010 promise for Africa.

The UK, which had done more than any other country to increase aid to Africa ‘will come close’ to meeting its 2010 target, the report says.

Source African Press Agency

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