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World leaders mandated to evaluate
progress on Africa
Accra, June 16, Ghanadot/GNA - Mr. Kofi Annan, former UN
Secretary General on Monday called for stringent action to
deal with the threat of world food crisis, particularly in
Africa.
He said though Africa had made substantial progress in
recent years, the current food crisis threatened to reverse
many of the hard-fought gains that had been made.
This was contained in an official report from the
eleven-member Africa Progress Panel meeting in London on
global food crisis; “reversing decades of economic
progress”.
Mr. Annan said, “with 100 million people on the brink of
abject poverty, the cost of food would not be measured in
the price of wheat and rice, but in the rising number of
infant and child deaths across Africa.”
The Africa Progress Panel’s report revealed that the world
food crisis “threatens to destroy years, if not decades, of
economic progress” as “100 million people are being pushed
back into absolute poverty”.
The report said; unless some way can be found to halt and
reverse the current trend in food prices there will be a
significant increase in hunger, malnutrition, and infant and
child mortality”.
Focusing on the emergence of new trading partners with
Africa, the report stated that, China and other new entrants
had brought the continent “new dynamism and significant new
resources”, creating “greater opportunities for Africa’s
development”.
It counselled that, “if Africa’s development is to stay on
track, it is crucial for both old and new actors to comply
with agreed-upon principles of co-operation in the areas of
aid, trade, development finance, and debt sustainability”.
The report said, despite progress on debt relief and
significant increased in assistance by individual countries,
the G8’s commitment to double assistance to Africa by 2010
was not likely to be fulfilled.
The report identified a shortfall of US$ 40 billion in aid
that needed to be filled if the G8 was to meet the targets
set at Gleneagles.
The report, which assessed the state of the continent in
2008, highlighted six policy areas requiring immediate
attention at the forthcoming G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan.
They were food crisis, Aid levels and aid quality, Trade,
climate change, infrastructure and good governance.
Mr. Annan noted that, the G8 was also off-track, saying
European leaders at the forthcoming European Council Summit
must move decisively to fund shortfalls in aid, while Japan
must demonstrate clear leadership during its Presidency of
the G8, not least by addressing the stockpiling of food.
“Every G8 country has a critical role to play, by working
together to deal with immediate threats and by honouring the
longer-term commitments they have already made”.
“The whole international community has a stake in seeing
Africa become a secure, stable and prosperous continent. I
firmly believe that what is achieved in the months ahead
will be more than a test of leadership; it will also
determine the very future of the continent”, he added.
GNA
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