Leaders to seek Africa aid deal

2005-06-06 14:20

Washington - United States (US) President George W Bush will meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday seeking agreement on aid to Africa prior to a summit of the world's eight richest nations in early July.

Blair will host the July 6-7 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland for leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US, as well as Britain. He would like Africa aid to top the agenda.

His proposal, based on the recommendations of a commission that he named, is that wealthy nations together increase aid to the African people by $25bn each year to 2010.

An additional $25bn would be added beginning in 2015. By way of comparison, total development aid from all countries now totals $50bn.

That initiative parallels another financial mechanism for poor countries called the International Finance Facility (IFF) backed by British chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown.

Bush does not want to hear talk of the IFF. "We've made our position pretty clear on that, that it doesn't fit our budgetary process," he said last week.

Aid money must be strictly controlled

According to Jamie Drummond, of Debt Trade Aids Africa (Data), Bush and Blair could, before the G8, come to an understanding on an increase in aid and on ways to alleviate 100% of Third World debt.

"The US is not philosophically opposed to an increase in aid," he said, noting Bush has doubled it, especially to fight Aids in Africa.

For Washington, the use of aid money must be strictly controlled.

"Countries such as ours are not going to want to give aid to countries that are corrupt or don't hold true to democratic principles, such as rule of law and transparency and human rights and human decency," Bush said when receiving his South African counterpart, Thabo Mbeki.

To this end, the Bush administration created in early 2002 the Millennium Challenge Account to provide assistance to countries that adhere to liberal economic practices.

It accompanied a commitment to double development aid by the end of 2005, about $5bn annually over 2002 levels.

So far, 16 countries are eligible but only two have been approved: Madagascar and Honduras.

Blair's proposition has not laid out how much each country should increase its development aid to reach the goals set by the commission.

That leaves manoeuvring room for Bush, who has not still not unveiled his intentions on the issue for his second four-year term, which began in January.

"It's hard for him to do it right now because of budgetary constraints," Drummond said.

However, he does not rule out an announcement before the G8 or during the Gleneagles summit itself.

Blair is Bush's closest ally in the international stage, especially in Iraq. The US president could back the Africa initiative and let Blair notch a success.

- AFP