Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Jul 5 2005 (IPS) — As Pres. George W. Bush heads to a meeting of the world’s richest nations in Scotland, dozens of anti-poverty groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) called on Washington Tuesday to offer more than token aid to help African nations and fight poverty around the world.

The calls came on the eve of the three-day summit of the Group of Eight most industrialised nations (G8) Wednesday in Scotland, where African development, debt, global poverty and climate change are key themes.

The G8 is made up of Russia plus the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised nations: Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Japan, Italy and Canada.

Africa and global poverty have been receiving global attention as millions of people gathered at the Live 8 concerts featuring famous musicians in 10 cities around the world to raise awareness of the brutal poverty afflicting millions of people.

InterAction, an alliance of some 160 U.S.-based NGOs, said in a statement Tuesday that its members want to see "a greater U.S. commitment to Africa, and to hold the U.S. administration accountable for the promises it has made."

Last week, Bush promised to double aid to Africa, and committed 1.2 billion dollars in additional funding to prevent and treat malaria, 400 million dollars for teacher training and girls’ education, and 55 million dollars for women’s empowerment.

"We expect the president to deliver on his promises, and to follow through in the months to come," said Mohammad Akhter, president of InterAction. "The G8 Summit is only the beginning of this fight."

But Bush’s announcement was met with broad scepticism by some economists and advocacy groups who believe that the promise exaggerated aid, and that previous pledges never materialised. They fear this could be repeated during and after the G8 summit.

Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development (CGD), a Washington-based think tank, said that the administration has not yet succeeded in extracting from Congress the resources it pledged four years ago.

In fact, the U.S. has struggled to get its Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) programme off the ground. Announced in March 2002, the MCA is meant to disburse five billion dollars per year to qualifying poor nations.

But so far, the Millennium Challenge Corp. has agreed on compacts with only four countries: Cape Verde, Honduras, Madagascar, and Nicaragua. It has yet to disburse any significant funds.

Among the other controversial statements that Pres. Bush made ahead of the G8 summit was that Washington had tripled aid to Africa to three billion dollars per year, and that this would double again by 2010 to six billion dollars per year.

The CGD points out that most of the increase has previously been announced; about two billion dollars would be accounted for by full funding for the MCA and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Much of the additional one billion dollars would take effect only after the 2008 presidential election, it added

An independent advocacy group, ActionAid International USA, faulted the assistance on other grounds – that it was conditioned on contracts for U.S. companies.

"It should be noted that 70 percent of this increase is tied to the purchase of U.S. goods and services," said Patrick Watt, policy analyst at Action Aid. "Such aid can actually be detrimental towards the sustainable development of an impoverished nation, as it discourages the growth of local businesses and commerce."

During the G8 summit, Bush also will also face another pressing question – whether to increase aid to internationally agreed levels.

Oxfam America called on G8 leaders to agree to an additional 50 billion dollars a year in aid to poor countries – with 25 billion dollars for Africa – effective immediately, and to reach the U.N. target of spending 0.7 percent of their national income on aid by 2010.

"The U.S. should be a leader in this movement, as Americans are a generous people and care about these issues," said Oxfam America’s Director of Policy Chad Dobson in a statement.

"While France is in the lead, saying they will reach the 0.7 target by 2012, followed by the UK with 2013, and Germany and Italy with 2015, the U.S., along with Canada and Japan, are nowhere near."

Despite recent promises of debt relief for the poorest countries, the G8 leaders may need to end doubts about the effectiveness of their plan.

The U.S.-based NGOs reiterated their calls that debt relief plans include more countries and fewer conditions for qualifying. Washington spearheaded calls for tying aid and debt relief to on the ground economic and political changes.

The finance ministers of the G7 who met in London in June agreed to write off the debt of 18 countries, 14 of them in Africa, owed to the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and African Development Bank.

Jubilee USA Network, a group active in anti-debt campaigning, said that more than 10,000 people of faith and conscience all over the United States wrote to Pres. Bush and Treasury Secretary John Snow urging them to agree to 100 percent cancellation of debt to all multilateral creditors for all impoverished countries, without strings attached.

U.S. officials say that they are confident that the summit will bring progress on most of those issues.