G-8 opens focussing on Africa, climate change and food crisis

JAPAN: Africa was in the spotlight Monday as leaders from the world’s major economic powers gathered for an annual summit that will also grapple with climate change and the global food crisis.

The Group of Eight leaders - representing the U.S., Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Russia - were to meet with seven African leaders to address key problems such as food supplies, infectious diseases and economic development.

Activists have accused some G-8 nations, particularly France, Canada and Italy, of skimping on aid to Africa, and urged them to ramp up their contributions.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also has urged G-8 leaders to take a tough stance on Zimbabwe in the wake of President Robert Mugabe’s widely denounced presidential election runoff victory.

U.S. President George W. Bush, arriving Sunday for his eighth and final Group of Eight summit, emphasized the urgency of providing aid for Africa, calling on wealthy nations to provide mosquito nets and other aid to prevent children from “needlessly dying from mosquito bites.”

“I’m concerned about people going hungry. We’ll be very constructive in the dialogue about the environment - I care about the environment - but today there’s too much suffering in the continent of Africa,” Bush said during a press conference after a one-on-one meeting Sunday with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, host of the gathering.

“Now is the time for the comfortable nations to step up and do something about it,” Bush said.

Aid to Africa was the centerpiece of the G-8 summit three years ago in Gleneagles, Scotland, where leaders called for increasing aid to US$50 billion a year through 2010 - with half of that going to Africa itself - and to cancel the debt of the most heavily indebted poor nations. Advocacy groups for Africa and hunger gave the G-8 a mixed report card on progress in reaching its commitments to Africa.

Collectively, the G-8 has delivered just US$3 billion of the US$25 billion pledged to Africa in 2005, according DATA, a group founded by U2 singer Bono and music producer Bob Geldof.

Germany, the U.S. and Britain were following through on commitments, while progress from Japan, France, Italy and Canada was either unclear or weak, DATA said. “We desperately need to see more money from the G-8, and for it to be new money,” said Max Lawson from Oxfam International, another advocacy group.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported in April that foreign aid by major donor countries slumped in 2007 as debt-relief plans tapered off and amid a global economic downturn in Japan and some other rich nations.

The related topic of soaring food prices was another key topic on the agenda at the summit, with some experts predicting that the leaders would announce a food aid package and possibly funds to invest in agricultural development in poorer nations.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he has received international support for his idea of creating an experts group to tackle the global food crisis, similar to the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Rusutsu, Monday, AP