U.S. & G8
Overshadowed by the London terrorist bombings, the G8 Summit has ended with a joint declaration on the major topics that we all expected. "President Bush and seven other world leaders pledged Friday to double African aid and spend $3 billion to facilitate peace talks between Israel and Palestine, wrapping up an economic summit in what British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the "shadow of terrorism," according to The Washington Post. If you are interested in what the G8 leaders actually agreed to, the final G8 communiqué can be found here in PDF format.
posted by Joel @ 12:06 PM
3 Comments:
Do you know how long it is supposed to take till aid to Africa is indeed twice as high as today?
Atlantic, I don't know the exact answer to that question. I suspect that it will be similar to tsunami relief in that pledges of aid actually take much longer to become firm commitments and actual financial transfers.
While looking into this, I found the following info, from Civicus:
"Last month’s ‘100 per cent debt cancellation’ deal is in fact a ten per cent deal
Last month’s debt deal by G7 Finance Ministers received massive media coverage in the South and North alike. However, the deal does not represent the "historic breakthrough" claimed by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown or “the most comprehensive statement that finance ministers have ever made on the issues of debt, development, health and poverty" argues EURODAD in a recent report. A coalition of UK NGOs has calculated that, rather than the announced “100 per cent debt cancellation” deal it is in fact a 10 per cent deal. And these figures only cover low-income countries. There has been no mention at all by policy-makers of the debt distress faced by any middle-income countries. There remains much to be done to ensure campaigners and the broader public are not misled and that the debt campaign goes on. For more information, see PDF at www.civicus.org/new/media/Overview_G7_debt_deal.pdf "
Thank you!
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