The Globe and Mail (Canada)   March 11/2005

World leaders address Africa with activist voice   by Stephanie Nolen

Johannesburg:There is nothing new in what the authors of the Blair Commission on Africa want.

Their report, to be released in London today, calls for an immediate doubling of foreign-aid spending by rich countries to a total of $50-billion (U.S.) a year, cancellation of Third World debt and the end of subsidies and tariffs that cripple African trade.

All predictable demands, if they came from aid and trade activists. But this time, the authors include people with the power to make things happen.

They include British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his treasury secretary Gordon Brown, Canadian Finance Minister Ralph Goodale, a handful of African leaders, the Africa adviser to French President Jacques Chirac, and former U.S. senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker, hand-picked for the job by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

It is unprecedented for people who hold the purse strings in developed nations to call for such dramatic and far-reaching changes in how Africa is treated.

Crotchety Irish rock star Bob Geldof, who conceived the commission and persuaded Mr. Blair to set it up in advance of this year’s G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, said yesterday he was amazed at the strength of its conclusions.

“In my wildest dreams I didn’t expect these G8 people and established politicians to be as radical as they ended up, with language this robust,” he said in a telephone interview from London.

The leader of the umbrella group representing major Canadian foreign-aid agencies said he was “astounded and delighted” with the conclusions.

“This is the light at the end of the tunnel. It is nothing short of extraordinary,” said Gerry Barr, president of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation.

Sir Bob pushed for the commission after travelling to Africa in 2003 and finding that conditions appeared to have deteriorated since he organized the Live Aid concert for Ethiopian famine relief in 1985.

Checking the figures, he found it was true. Alone among the world’s regions, sub-Saharan Africa has suffered a decline in standard development indicators.

Sir Bob and Mr. Blair invited people such as Mr. Goodale and Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa to take part in an attempt to reconsider the developed world’s relationship with Africa and efforts to end poverty � not in their official capacities but as individuals.

That resulted in Mr. Goodale lending his name to a document that calls for several steps that he has refused to take as Finance Minister. “Now we need to bridge the gap between the moral individual and the empirical professional,” Sir Bob said.

The report includes a recommendation that rich countries spend 0.7 per cent of their income on foreign aid, a long-standing United Nations target. Mr. Goodale’s recent federal budget stopped well short of that commitment.

But he said yesterday there was no contradiction between the budget and his endorsement of the report.

“In my personal capacity I don’t mind setting the bar a little higher,” he said in a telephone interview from Edmonton. “You set ambitions at a very high level and work toward them.”

Sir Bob noted that while Canada is the only G8 nation with a current budget surplus, France and Britain have nonetheless committed to a timetable for reaching the 0.7-per-cent target.

Mr. Goodale defended Ottawa’s record on assistance to Africa, saying Canada is “way ahead of the pack” on trade reform and has made new spending commitments on issues such as AIDS and malaria that meet the commission’s larger goal of doubling the current level of aid. In the budget, he committed to doubling Canada’s foreign aid from 2002 levels by 2010.

Besides the immediate doubling of aid to Africa, the report calls for a further $25-billion a year in aid starting in 2015.

It notes that Africa’s share of world trade has fallen to just 2 per cent from 6 per cent in the past 20 years. It says rich countries should agree to eliminate immediately trade � distorting support to cotton and sugar exports, as well as tariffs on African goods and restrictive “country of origin” rules.

It also urges African leaders to open their markets, remove trade barriers and curb corrupt customs practices. They must embrace good governance and accountability for foreign aid, it says.

AIDS is identified as a key threat to progress. The report calls for an additional $10-billion for treatment and prevention by 2010, and says African governments should honour pledges to allocate 15 per cent of budgets to health spending.

The 17 commissioners, including nine Africans, note that Africa needs skilled professionals to absorb increased aid. They want $500-million a year over 10 years for higher education and up to $3-billion for centres of excellence in science and technology. Primary school fees should be abolished, they say, with donors initially footing the cost.

Developed countries could easily comply with the recommendations, Sir Bob said. “This is . . . peanuts, [the cost of] half a stick of gum every day from each person” in Canada and the other G8 nations.