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Africa: Sign-On Letter to G7
Africa: Sign-On Letter to G7
Date distributed (ymd): 020608
Document reposted by Africa Action
Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information
service provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa
Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American
Committee on Africa). Find more information for action for
Africa at http://www.africaaction.org
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +economy/development+
SUMMARY CONTENTS:
This posting contains a sign-on letter on Africa policy to be sent
to G7 finance ministers. The letter is initiated by ActionAid USA,
Africa Action, the 50 Years Is Enough Network; and TransAfrica
Forum. As indicated below, organizational sign-ons from groups,
including the country where they are based, should be sent to the
50 Years is Enough Network at
g7africa@yahoo.com, by 5 pm U.S. east
coast time on Wednesday, June 12. (June 14: A list of signatories received
before the deadline is included below at the end of the letter).
[The G7 are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, and USA.
When joined by Russia (for some meetings), they are called the G8.
The European Union also participates in the summits.]
The sign-on letter is preceded by a brief update on recent U.S.
congressional action on funding for HIV/AIDS, one of the issues
that should be high on the agenda of the G-7 leaders. It is
followed by selected links to more information on the forthcoming
G-7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada and related protest actions.
A related posting sent out today contains excerpts from a critique
from the South African Council of Churches and the South African
Catholic Bishops Conference of the current content of the New
Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), which features
prominently on the Kananaskis agenda.
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Africa Action Update
Under strong pressure from the Bush White House, the U.S. Senate
voted on June 6 by a narrow margin of 49 to 46 to turn down the
Durbin/Specter amendment, a bipartisan proposal to raise
additional funding for global action against AIDS to $500 million
this fiscal year, to be channeled through the Global Fund for
HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and bilaterally. An alternate
proposal from Republican Senators Frist and Helms for $100 million
for bilateral funding for programs to block
mother-to-child-transmission of HIV, passed, after Senator Frist
agreed to White House demands to reduce the original amount of $500
million for this purpose. As a result the bill, still to be
finalized in consultations between the House and Senate, now
contains only $200 million total for HIV/AIDS.
The Bush administration is reportedly preparing a proposal of its
own for additional funding for HIV/AIDS in future years. Advance
news stories say the proposal will probably focus on bilateral
funding for prevention of mother-to-child-transmission.
Of the $10 billion a year required for the Global Fund, only $725
million has been raised for this year, its first year of operation.
G7 countries as a group have pledged approximately 8 percent of
what they should pay, while the U.S. has pledged approximately 7
percent. See:
http://www.africafocus.org/docs02/gf0204.php>
ORGANIZATIONAL SIGN ON TO G7 FINANCE MINISTERS - AFRICA POLICY
Please send ORGANIZATIONAL (not individual) sign-ons to:
<g7africa@yahoo.com>, and include your location
The following letter is initiated by: ActionAid USA; Africa Action;
the 50 Years Is Enough Network; and TransAfrica Forum
Deadline for sign-ons: Wednesday, June 12 - 5 pm U.S. Eastern time
Statement to the G7 Finance Ministers,
on the occasion of their meeting in Halifax, Canada
- June 14-15, 2002
We, the undersigned groups, call upon you, the Finance Ministers
of the G7 countries, to use the occasion of your meeting on June
14-15 to commit to an agenda that will address Africa's most
critical economic challenges.
We welcome the proposed focus on Africa at this year's G7 Summit
in Kananaskis, Canada, and we urge you to ensure that action is
taken that will make a real difference in reducing poverty and
promoting development. It is critical that this meeting create a
new framework for partnership between the G7 and African
countries, based on a firm commitment to dismantling the barriers
to Africa's economic development and addressing the continent's
most urgent priorities.
The official African initiative, entitled the New Partnership for
Africa's Development (NEPAD), is likely to frame much of the
discussion at the G7 meetings. This is a significant new plan
defined by a group of African leaders that seeks to address the
continent's development challenges. However, NEPAD is still an
emerging initiative that requires broader consultation among
African leaders and civil society. In recent weeks, many of the
most-respected African civil society organizations and coalitions
[e.g. the Council for Development and Social Science Research in
Africa (CODESRIA), Third World Network-Africa, and the Trade Union
Advisory Committee to the OECD Group, as well as many prominent
African development experts, have publicly deplored the extremely
limited consultations -- which excluded many African governments
entirely, as well as the continent's civil society -- involved in
drafting NEPAD. In its current state, NEPAD reflects the
prevailing economic perspectives of donor countries rather than
those defined by Africans themselves. It cannot become the
cornerstone for a new partnership between African governments and
G7 governments until it has first become a partnership between
African governments and their own people. Unless this initiative
is more fully informed by African voices, it cannot be regarded as
a blueprint for Africa's development.
The focus of the upcoming G7 meetings, therefore, should be on the
particular role and responsibilities of the G7 countries
themselves. The agenda must address the actions required of G7
governments to remove the impediments to poverty reduction in
Africa. The G7 Action Plan for Africa, drafted in secret by
officials of G7 countries and designed to complement NEPAD, does
not address Africa's most immediate priorities. The Plan utterly
fails to focus on the concrete actions already available to G7
governments that would have a real and positive impact.
Specifically, the G7 governments have the power to cancel Africa's
oppressive burden of illegitimate foreign debt; the resources to
increase investments in human development and especially to fully
finance the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria;
and the influence to redress the structural imbalance in trade
relations between rich and poor countries. This should be the
Africa agenda in Halifax and Kananaskis.
Africa's burden of foreign debt, much of it arguably illegitimate
or "odious," represents the single largest obstacle to the
continent's development. So long as African countries are forced
to spend almost $15 billion per year repaying debts to G7
countries and the international financial institutions, they will
be unable to address their urgent domestic needs. The constant
outward flow of desperately needed resources undermines poverty
reduction initiatives and cripples efforts to cope with the
devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The current
international debt relief framework, the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) Initiative, has failed to resolve Africa's debt
crisis. Even by its own measure, this framework is not reducing
debt to levels described by the World Bank as "sustainable". The
HIPC plan is a flawed approach to addressing Africa's debt crisis.
It offers insufficient relief to a limited number of countries, it
ties debt relief to specific austerity measures, and it serves
chiefly the interests of creditors. It fails also to address the
question of illegitimacy hovering over so much of this debt.
"Enhancements" of HIPC at this time of gathering crises could only
be seen as a shell game. A serious commitment to addressing
Africa's challenges must begin by releasing the continent from
debt bondage.
There is an urgent need for a greater commitment of resources from
the G7 countries to support African efforts to address the
continent's health crisis and related social and economic
challenges. Increased public investment of this kind should be seen
as an obligation of G7 countries. The enormous wealth of the
world's richest countries is directly related to the impoverishment
of Africa and the global South more broadly. The growing disparity
between the poor and the wealthy in the world is both
unconscionable and destabilizing.
More money is essential to address the impact of the HIV/AIDS
crisis in Africa and to stem the spread of the pandemic worldwide.
The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is an
important new mechanism to finance the war on AIDS. Currently, its
effectiveness is being undermined by a lack of funding from rich
country governments. Whereas the Global Fund requires $10 billion
a year if it is to succeed in financing both prevention and
treatment, especially the provision of essential medicines, less
than $2 billion has been pledged so far. The war on AIDS can be
won. But only if the G7 commits far greater resources than it has
to date.
Just as the committed funding for combating HIV/AIDS is far short
of what is needed, so too are resources, including fresh research
in the service of the public interest rather than private profit,
dedicated to fighting health challenges with a longer history in
Africa. Diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria remain major
killers in Africa, despite the fact that we already know how to
control them; what we lack is the political will and the resources
to get effective treatment to Africans.
More broadly, the G7 should invest in promoting health and
education for Africa's people as a foundation for sustainable
growth. It is widely recognized that such investments in human
development are indispensable to poverty reduction. They are also
essential if the Millennium Development Goals are to be met. Yet,
levels of development assistance from rich countries have fallen in
a consistent downward trend in the past decade. Despite repeated
commitments from western governments to provide 0.7% of their
gross national product (GNP) for official development assistance,
not one of the G7 countries reaches half of that figure. The true
measurement of the G7's new commitment to Africa will be revealed
by the degree to which these figures change as a result of the
Kananaskis summit.
While debt cancellation and increased public investment by rich
countries must form two key pillars of a successful approach to
Africa's economic challenges, trade can also play an important
role. In order for trade to generate sustainable growth, however,
there must be a more equitable trading relationship between rich
countries and African countries. Over the past two decades, the
vulnerability and marginalization of African countries in the
global economy has been exacerbated rather than eased by trade
liberalization policies imposed by external powers. Africa's share
of world trade has declined to less than half of what it was in
1980, resting now at only 1.5%. African economies remain overdependent
on primary commodities, while trade barriers imposed by
rich countries severely restrict access for African products to
foreign markets. Changing this dynamic will require a commitment
on the part of the G7 countries to simplify expanded market access
for African goods and to dismantle trade barriers. It will
necessitate the establishment of more equitable terms of trade and
an end to the current double standards in international trade
rules. At present, developing countries face tariff barriers that
are four times higher than those encountered by rich countries.
These barriers cost poor countries an estimated $100 billion a
year. Trade can only be a successful contributor to economic
growth in Africa to the extent that the G7 countries take actions
to level the playing field in the global economy.
Finally, a new partnership between the G7 and African countries
must be based on a shift away from the practice of imposing
economic policies dictated by G7 governments and the International
Financial Institutions. Instead, a true partnership must focus on
priorities and strategies defined by African countries themselves
to reduce poverty and promote development.
Your meeting in Halifax must move beyond rhetoric to immediate
actions such as debt cancellation that would make a real difference
for Africa's people.
>> Please send ORGANIZATIONAL (not individual) sign-ons to:
<g7africa@yahoo.com>, and include your location.
Thank you!
Signatories
ActionAid USA (co-initiator), Washington, DC USA
Africa Action (co-initiator), Washington, DC USA
50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice
(co-initiator), Washington, DC USA
TransAfrica Forum (co-initiator), Washington, DC USA
NON-G7 / AFRICAN COUNTRIES
Action Pour la Promotion des Initiatives Communautaires (APIC),
Parakou, Benin
African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD),
Harare, Zimbabwe
COMODE, Antananarivo, Madagascar
Concern for Development Initiatives in Africa (ForDIA), Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania
Dynamic Stability CC, Bellville, South Africa
East African Center, Takaungu, Kenya
FIKRIFAMA, Antananarivo, Madagascar
HakiKazi Catalyst, Tanzania
KAIPPG/Kenya, Mumias, Kenya
Kenya Human Rights Commission, Nairobi, Kenya
Network Movement For Justice & Development, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Rural Food Security Policy and Development Group (KIHACHA), Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania
Tanzania Association of NGOs, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
G7 COUNTRIES
Africa AIDS Action Committee, Philadelphia, PA USA
Columban Justice & Peace Office, Washington, DC USA
Ghana Union, Hannover, Germany
Global Exchange, San Francisco, CA USA
Halifax Initiative Coalition, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Holy Cross International Justice Office, Notre Dame, IN USA
Jubilee USA Network, Washington, DC USA
KAIPPG/International, Rhode Island, USA
MCPR - Rwanda, Massachusetts, USA
Nigerian Democratic Movement, Washington, DC USA
Sisters of the Holy Names, California Justice and Peace Committee,
San Jose, CA USA
Solidarity Voice for Africa Development, London, UK
Southern Africa Committee of the Michigan Coalition for Human
Rights, Detroit, MI USA
Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, Mary Wood Branch,
Springfield, IL USA
Additional Related Links
G8/G7 Information Centre
http://www.g7.utoronto.ca
G8/G7 2001 Summit in Genoa
http://www.africafocus.org/docs01/gen0107.php>
G8/G7 2000 Summit in Okinawa
http://www.africafocus.org/docs00/g7-0007.php>
G6Billion People's Summit in Calgary
http://www.g6bpeoplessummit.org
G8 Activism
http://g8.activist.ca/link
50 Years is Enough
http://www.50years.org
Action Aid
http://www.actionaid.org
TransAfrica Forum
http://www.transafricaforum.org
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by
Africa Action (incorporating the Africa Policy Information
Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa).
Africa Action's information services provide accessible
information and analysis in order to promote U.S. and
international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights.
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