Geldof labels G8 pledges 'a farce'

The G8 agreed on a programme worth more than $60bn (€44.9bn) in aid, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

However, in its final report, the amount pledged had no timeframe and did not specifically single out Africa as the beneficiary.

The leaders agreed there should continue to be an annual progress report on how far they are meeting their promises on Africa.

They also confirmed an extra $500m (€374m) this year alone as part of the project to provide free schooling in Africa and confirmed there would be support for long-term funding.

A deal was also struck to try to cut malaria deaths by half through projects in 30 African countries.

But Bono, the musician and social activist who has pushed for more help for Africa, said the old promises have become harder to keep.

“They say 60 billion dollars for Aids, TB and malaria and it sounds great, but that’s not earmarked for Africa, it’s a global figure and there’s no timeline,” he said.

Anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof also attacked the deal as “a total farce”.

An array of independent aid groups said the declaration fell short of the goals first unveiled two years ago in Scotland amid a wave of concern that saw social activists and Prime Minister Tony Blair urging immediate help for Africa.

Another German official, development minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, said the money was earmarked for fighting malaria and tuberculosis as well as HIV/Aids. About half would come from the United States, with Germany contributing €4bn between now and 2015.

“The situation (in Africa) is simply so dramatic,” she said in Berlin.

One activist said it was not enough.

“What we came here for was a comprehensive funding plan. Instead, in the last three days, the G8 have diluted their commitment to universal access,” said Aditi Sharma, the head of anti-poverty group ActionAid’s HIV and Aids campaign.

But outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has made Africa a personal project, said the declaration was a blanket call for reaffirmation of promises made at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005.

“The important thing about what we have agreed today is that we have recommitted ourselves to all the commitments we made a couple of years ago at Gleneagles,” Blair said. “But the important thing is we have set out how we are going to do them.”

Blair said the effort also includes more support for peacekeeping efforts in Africa, better governance and support for African trade and commerce.

“Just as we have recommitted ourselves to substantial increases in support and help, so Africa has recommitted itself to its responsibilities as part of the partnership,” he said.

He also cited “immense progress” so far on both sides, and praised Japan for announcing that it would put Africa high on the agenda at next year’s G8 summit.

The G8 declaration came on the third and last day of the annual summit in nearby Heiligendamm.

“At the same time, we stress our firm resolve to implement the commitments on development made, in particular, in Gleneagles,” the group said in its declaration. “These include the historic multilateral debt relief of up to 60 billion dollars, the implementation of which is now well under way.”

Proponents of debt relief in Africa and other social activists criticised the world’s leading industrial nations for failing to live up to those promises.

Max Lawson, a senior policy adviser with Oxfam International, said the 60 billion dollars works out to just $3bn (€2.24bn) extra in aid by 2010. “This means the G8 will still fall far short of their Gleneagles pledges.”

He called it “a small step when we need giant leaps”.

Geldof, who nurtured the historic Live Aid concert in 1985 and the series of Live 8 concerts in 2005, seethed, calling the initiative and the whole summit a “grotesque pantomime.”

“Do me a favour, get serious guys, get serious,” he said. “This wasn’t serious. This was a farce. A total farce.”

In another Africa-related issue, the G8 ruled out the use of military action in Sudan’s Darfur region, and urged a quicker deployment of humanitarian aid to the region.

The leaders, in their formal report, said they were “deeply concerned about the tragic security and humanitarian situation,” but underlined “that there is no military solution to the conflict in Darfur.”