Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Jun 8 2005 (IPS) — A U.S. promise to disperse 674 million dollars for famine relief in Africa has disappointed independent development groups, who decried the proposal as a sham that offers too little in face of the continent’s mounting crises.

Pres. George W. Bush announced the funding Tuesday in response to humanitarian emergencies in Africa. Some 414 million dollars of this sum will be provided immediately to avert famine in the Horn of Africa.

The White House says that the aid will help 14 million people at risk in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti.

The announcement was made at a joint press conference in Washington with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Britain expects to contribute some 300 million dollars this year in response to humanitarian needs in Africa, including 50 million dollars for Ethiopia.

But despite intensive lobbying, Blair failed to cash in on his political capital with the U.S. president to get Bush to give more than a verbal commitment to consider a plan to cancel the debt owed by Africa’s most impoverished nations. He also failed to get a pledge from the U.S. to double aid to Africa, as recommended by his Commission for Africa.

Blair was a key ally in the U.S. invasion of Iraq and a main supporter of its occupation of the Arab country.

“Both Bush and Blair claim a commitment to addressing Africa’s challenges, but the sad reality is that their current agenda promotes ‘compassionate showmanship’ over sea-change in Africa policy,” said Ann-Louise Colgan, of Africa Action, a Washington-based advocacy group.

The money committed Tuesday will go through the United Nations and some directly to non-governmental organisations providing relief in emergency settings.

Together, Pres. Bush and Prime Minister Blair called on the international community to increase their funding for humanitarian emergencies in Africa. The move comes in the lead-up to the G8 summit next month in Scotland, hosted by Britain, where Africa and the debt issue is likely to take centre stage.

The British premier has made the promotion of reform and development in Africa a centrepiece of the G8 summit. He has been trying over the past two weeks to rally support among industrialised nations for what some in London call the Marshall Plan for Africa.

The Group of Eight (G8) includes Russia plus the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised nations – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

The United Nations estimates that combating root causes of humanitarian problems in Africa would require an additional 3.5 billion dollars in aid. It has appealed for a total of 4.5 billion in resources for humanitarian emergencies in Africa, to help 44 million people obtain basic human requirements of food, water, shelter, health care, and sanitation.

The U.N. Development Programme released preliminary data Wednesday showing that if current trends continue, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa would miss the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for poverty reduction, child mortality and education by a wide margin.

Some 4.8 million children in sub-Saharan Africa die before the age of five every year – nine deaths per minute – accounting for 45 percent of all child deaths in the world. It is also the only region where the number of child deaths is rising, the U.N. notes.

Of 45 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, 10 have actually gone backward since 1990, while another 19 countries are progressing so slowly that the MDG target on child mortality will be missed by more than 35 years.

Still, independent aid and development groups stress that the United States, the world’s largest economy, has refused to agree to a target of 0.7 percent of its national income in international aid.

Bush played down the accusation, saying that Washington was already doing much for the continent and that African nations should rely on trade rather than aid to better their situations.

“Over the past four years, we have tripled our assistance to Sub-Sahara Africa, and now America accounts for nearly a quarter of all the aid in the region,” he said. “And we’re committed to doing more in the future.”

“And by the way, I think one of things that many African nations have come to discover is that through trade, they can develop a more hopeful society rather than through aid,” he said.

Africa Action reacted by calling the plan “disingenuous” and said in a statement that the new joint U.S.-UK initiative would provide only a small increase in humanitarian assistance to African countries threatened with famine. The group said it “does nothing to address the crisis of African countries’ illegitimate debts.”

Long-time demands by development groups for Africa include an effective plan that involves multilateral efforts to promote peace and security and for rich nations to fulfill their previous promises and open their markets for African goods.

Perhaps most important are demands for the full cancellation of Africa’s burdensome foreign debts and increased funding to fight HIV/AIDS.

During his joint press conference with Blair, Bush said he was committed to debt cancellation – without giving details.

“We also agree that highly indebted developing countries that are on the path to reform should not be burdened by mountains of debt,” Bush said.

Britain says it is working with Washington to develop a proposal for the G8 that will eliminate 100 percent of that debt without taking away money for international public lenders like the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

Campaigners for debt relief say that immediate action is needed, or the loss of human life and suffering on the continent will continue.

“Unless Africa’s debts are cancelled, all new aid will simply flow back out of Africa in the form of debt service payments,” said Marie Clarke Brill, director of public education at Africa Action.