G8's £30bn Aids pledge to Africa criticised
Updated on 08 June 2007
On the last day of the G8 summit in Germany, leaders promise to spend £30 billion on fighting Aids in Africa, but it has been criticised by poverty campaigners.
Don't hold your breath, say anti-poverty campaigners: the world's most powerful industrial nations have offered more than $60bn to fight AIDS - and Africa's other killer diseases.
But there's no timetable for delivery - and it's not even a firm commitment.
G8 leaders in Heiligendamm hailed the deal as a showcase achievement - but according to their critics - most of that amount was already promised two years ago.
And they say it still falls far short of international targets.
The G8 leaders say they've committed $60bn for Africa, $30 billion from the US. Existing aid is $9bn a year. At Heilingendamn they have pledged $3bn new money by 2010, whereas at Gleneagles is 2005, $25bn was pledged by 2010.
It is $60bn for Africa's health systems and the fight against disease. That includes $30bn over the next five years - already pledged by the United States last week.
But G8 officials admit the timetable for raising and spending the money is still unclear - saying it will flow 'over the coming years'.
Oxfam says if it's spread over five years - the total pledge is equivalent to $12bn a year. That's just $3bn more than existing aid.
A sharp contrast to Gleneagles two years ago when the G8 pledged $25bn - in new money - for Africa, by 2010.
'What the $60bn headline means at best is just $3 billion extra in aid by 2010'Oxfam
Broken promises?
So have the world's richest leaders broken their promises to the world's poor?
Even G8 member Canada, attacked by campaigners for blocking a more ambitious deal, was critical, with a senior official saying the pledge was "an aspirational statement."
"The projection is based on an extrapolation into the future of existing funding," the official added.
US President George W. Bush last week announced plans to double Washington's financial commitment to the anti-AIDS fight to $30 billion over five years, which was included in the G8's headline figure of $60bn.
Leaders also reiterated an overall pledge made at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005 to raise annual aid levels by $50 billion by 2010, $25 billion of which is for Africa.
Aid aid agency Oxfam said the G8 will fall far short of its Gleneagles pledges. "We must not be distracted by big numbers. What the $60 billion headline means at best is just $3 billion extra in aid by 2010."
