G8 Offers Africa Little, And At A Steep Price

Analysis by Sanjay Suri

(IPS) GLENEAGLES, Scotland -- The G8 leaders offered Africa a little with one hand, but that offer cloaked intent to take back more -- and with many more hands.

There were numbers around to satisfy rock stars turned anti-poverty campaigners. U2 frontman Bono had said on day one of the Group of Eight summit, "We could get to 50." So if you add statements of an additional $25 billion in aid to statements of $25 billion in aid at present, you have that magic figure of 50.

On the ground in Africa that figure may not appear so magical. The leaders announced that "the commitments of G8 countries and other donors will lead to an increase in official development assistance to Africa of $25 billion a year by 2010, more than doubling aid to Africa compared to 2004." So only "commitments" -- and those by 2010.

"That is some increase in aid, but not as much as has been hyped up," Claire Melamed from Christian Aid told IPS. "And a lot of what has been announced has been announced and promised before."

Still, that was something to show here at the Gleneagles golf resort, after host Britain had made Africa one of the two priorities (along with climate change) of the summit of the heads of government of the G8 most powerful industrialized countries (United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Britain).

But delayed, or even partly denied donations are not Africa's problem. The G8 pushed the privatization principle strongly in its communique, in the face of a host of studies, several of them accepted even by the World Bank, that rapid and unfettered privatization had ruined the economies of several strong and struggling nations alike.

"Private enterprise is a prime engine of growth and development," the leaders said in the communique that marked the end of the July 6-8 summit. "African countries need to build a much stronger investment climate: we will continue to help them do so." Within Africa "partnership between the public and private sectors is crucial."

The G8 offered help in building "the physical, human and institutional capacity to trade, including trade facilitation measures." But not a word about the agricultural subsidies in the European Union and the United States that make competition so tough they are crippling African farmers and their produce in their own land.

And who will take more advantage of privatization in Africa than companies from the United States and the European Union? "The G8's approach on trade seems to be 'Ask not what we can do for the poor, but what the poor can do for us,'" said Peter Hardstaff from the World Development Movement (WDM), an independent non-governmental organization.

"Trade is the main issue here. Trade is the thing the thing that has to change," Melamed said. And some of the wording needs to be "decoded," she said. "When they speak of an ambitious Doha round of trade negotiations, we think they mean lots of liberalization, and when they speak of balance here, we think they mean they want everyone to liberalise, including poor countries."

The so-called Doha Development Agenda arose from the World Trade Organization's ministerial meet in the Qatari capital in 2001, but several issues, including agricultural subsidies and market access, have been sticking points.

The G8 leaders said they will call on the international finance institutions to consider "additional assistance to countries to develop their capacity to trade and ease adjustment in their economies." The shadow of the infamous "structural adjustment" programs that pushed countries to liberalise their economies at an unsustainable pace has not quite lifted.

The G8 offered to support initiatives like the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance with the Africa Development Bank and to "encourage best practice in responsible investment through African private sector networks."

The G8 countries "sent a clear message that they will only consider taking action if poor countries liberalize in return," the WDM said in a statement. "The G8 push to get poor countries to liberalize has even extended as far as offering 'aid for trade' bribes -- giving poor countries some extra aid money in return for liberalization."

A sign of hope in the communique is an acknowledgement that "it is up to developing countries themselves and their governments to take the lead on development." The text adds: "They need to decide, plan and sequence their economic policies to fit with their own development strategies, for which they should be accountable to all their people."

But that note is heavily countered with a particular push to privatization throughout the document. The contradictory messages were some indication of the haste with which the summit's communique was finally agreed.

But Christian Aid said this was no more than a "nugget of good sense" in the communique. "Millions of campaigners all over the world have been led to the top of the mountain, shown the view and now we are being frog-marched down again."

The WDM said the communique is a disaster for the world's poor. "We are furious but not surprised," said Hardstaff. The tiny sums offered by way of more aid "are nothing more than a sticking plaster over the deep wounds the G8 are inflicting by forcing failed economic policies such as privatization, free trade and corporate deregulation on Africa."

The G8 had in fact hardened its stance on trade, said John Hilary from the group War on Want, "forcing more countries to open their markets, and threatening millions with the misery of poverty. When the moment came to act, the G8 turned their back on the world's poor."

The communique did set out specific commitments on supporting education in Africa, a program that has been backed strongly by President Bush. The G8 leaders agreed to support an "education-for-all" agenda.

The leaders committed themselves also to the aim of an AIDS-free generation in Africa and of "as close as possible to universal access to treatment for all those who need it by 2010."

But as with climate change, NGOs saw Africa also as an opportunity missed at the Gleneagles G8. And on what little was promised, "we will monitor developments very closely to see that these things actually happen," Melamed said.