Merkel to press G8 on Africa aid promises

BERLIN – Pressing industrialised nations to deliver on African aid pledges has leapt to the top of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s agenda for a G8 summit next month, as hopes for an agreement on combating climate change fade.

Unlike a G8 meeting two years ago in Gleneagles, Scotland, where British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a commitment from world leaders to double development aid by 2010, Merkel is unlikely to grab headlines with a major new aid plan. Instead aid groups hope she can convince other G8 nations to live up to the generous debt and development aid commitments they made in 2005 amid signs that some – including Germany – are falling dangerously behind on their promises.”The time for setting targets in the international community is over,” Merkel said on Thursday in a speech to the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.”Now it is about delivering and there is a great deal of political credibility at stake,” she added.”We will live up to our promises.I say that quite clearly.”The summit in the Baltic coast resort of Heiligendamm is expected by some to be a shot in the arm for efforts to reduce African poverty after the continent’s problems slipped off the agenda at last year’s G8 meeting in St Petersburg.Underlining Africa’s importance, Berlin played host to various conferences this week that brought together delegates from the continent with German politicians and business people.”I believe that Germany will not allow the allow the ball to drop,” said Nigerian World Bank executive Obiageli Ezekwesili at one conference this week.”It will re-energise the focus on Africa that we saw in Gleneagles.”NEW METHODS Merkel is pushing new ways of tackling African poverty.For instance, she wants to use revenue from the auction of carbon emissions certificates to help fund Germany’s development aid goal of 0,7 per cent of gross domestic product by 2015.She has also encouraged German firms to invest more in Africa, part of an increasing awareness among G8 nations of the rising influence of Chinese companies in Africa.The G8 nations are also expected to stump up more cash for the fight against HIV-AIDS in African mothers and children, who could drive efforts to boost the continent’s economy.However, Debt AIDS Trade Africa or DATA, the campaign group co-founded by U2 singer Bono, says Germany is one of the development aid laggards among the Group of Eight nations.The G8 nations need to pledge more than US$6 billion this year to get back on track while only around US$2 billion has actually been committed, DATA says.Germany alone needs to come up with around 700 million euros to meet its commitments to the continent.”Last year, G8 nations did less than half of what they needed to do to meet their Gleneagles commitments while this year, they have done at best a third of what is required,” said DATA’s managing director Jamie Drummond.The group says only Japan and Britain are on track to meet their commitments, while other G8 members Germany, Italy, the United States, Russia, France and Canada all lag behind.Irish rockers Bono and Bob Geldof, who both campaign for African aid, have both met with Merkel in recent months to press their case.”There is a certain moral compass in the German people that the world needs to see,” Bono told reporters recently.Nampa-ReutersInstead aid groups hope she can convince other G8 nations to live up to the generous debt and development aid commitments they made in 2005 amid signs that some – including Germany – are falling dangerously behind on their promises.”The time for setting targets in the international community is over,” Merkel said on Thursday in a speech to the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.”Now it is about delivering and there is a great deal of political credibility at stake,” she added.”We will live up to our promises.I say that quite clearly.”The summit in the Baltic coast resort of Heiligendamm is expected by some to be a shot in the arm for efforts to reduce African poverty after the continent’s problems slipped off the agenda at last year’s G8 meeting in St Petersburg.Underlining Africa’s importance, Berlin played host to various conferences this week that brought together delegates from the continent with German politicians and business people.”I believe that Germany will not allow the allow the ball to drop,” said Nigerian World Bank executive Obiageli Ezekwesili at one conference this week.”It will re-energise the focus on Africa that we saw in Gleneagles.”NEW METHODS Merkel is pushing new ways of tackling African poverty.For instance, she wants to use revenue from the auction of carbon emissions certificates to help fund Germany’s development aid goal of 0,7 per cent of gross domestic product by 2015.She has also encouraged German firms to invest more in Africa, part of an increasing awareness among G8 nations of the rising influence of Chinese companies in Africa.The G8 nations are also expected to stump up more cash for the fight against HIV-AIDS in African mothers and children, who could drive efforts to boost the continent’s economy.However, Debt AIDS Trade Africa or DATA, the campaign group co-founded by U2 singer Bono, says Germany is one of the development aid laggards among the Group of Eight nations.The G8 nations need to pledge more than US$6 billion this year to get back on track while only around US$2 billion has actually been committed, DATA says.Germany alone needs to come up with around 700 million euros to meet its commitments to the continent.”Last year, G8 nations did less than half of what they needed to do to meet their Gleneagles commitments while this year, they have done at best a third of what is required,” said DATA’s managing director Jamie Drummond.The group says only Japan and Britain are on track to meet their commitments, while other G8 members Germany, Italy, the United States, Russia, France and Canada all lag behind.Irish rockers Bono and Bob Geldof, who both campaign for African aid, have both met with Merkel in recent months to press their case.”There is a certain moral compass in the German people that the world needs to see,” Bono told reporters recently.Nampa-Reuters