Despite promises, rich nations cut aid to Africa - study

Despite big pop concerts and promises to dramatically boost aid, rich nations have cut contributions to Africa and ignored vows to improve trade conditions for the continent, according to a study released on Tuesday.

Knowing this, some are beginning to call for an exit strategy for Africa, drawing on the continent's own forces and resources. One of the most important strategies to do so, say NGOs, is to push for increased access to rich agricultural markets, which will benefit Africans more than aid that doesn't trickle down. This immediately brings up the continent's potential as a major biofuel producer (earlier post). However, increasing access to agricultural and bioenergy markets requires the abandonment of unfair tariffs, non trade barriers and subsidies in the US and the EU.

Declining aid
African Monitor, an independent group formed in 2005 to track pledges made by the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised countries after what was dubbed "the Year of Africa", said real aid inflows began to decline as early as 2006 (a fact that was already observed by others).

"Donors who have promised to double aid to the continent are largely not fulfilling that promise. In 2007 and 2008 aid is expected to drop even further," Cape Town Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, who founded African Monitor, told a Johannesburg news conference. "Promises have been made to Africa. The time to act is now."

The report comes as G8 countries vow again to put Africa on the agenda at their annual summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, next month. The meeting will be headed by Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country also holds the current EU presidency.

At the G8's 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, British PM Tony Blair announced a commitment from world leaders to double development aid to Africa by 2010 as well as to boost African access to markets, particularly in agriculture. Live 8 concerts were organised by icons such as Bob Geldof with many a celebrity joining the calls for more aid. But Ndungane said a detailed study now shows the rich nations' promises have turned out to be hollow, once again.

Excluding debt relief - a growing category of Western help for Africa - official development assistance to Africa from 22 rich Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries fell from US$106 billion in 2005 to US$103 billion in 2006, the study said.

It added that OECD aid money fell to an average 0.3 percent of gross national income (GNI) in 2006 from 0.33 percent in 2005, despite a G8 promise to increase development assistance budgets to 0.7 percent of each country's (GNI) by 2015. Table 1 (click to enlarge) shows the latest OECD figures per country for 2006. Only a handful of them has reached the 0.7 percent mark:
bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: international aid :: development assistance :: trade :: Doha :: G8 :: Africa ::

Donor darlings
The African Monitor report said 55 percent of overall aid to Africa went to just 10 countries - "donor darlings" that often have strategic rather than humanitarian claims to Western help.

Nigeria, a key source of oil for many rich economies and the continent's primary beneficiary of debt relief efforts, received 18 percent of aid to Africa in 2005, while other top recipients included Ethiopia, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Lesotho, one of Africa's poorest nations and gripped by one of the world's worst AIDS pandemics, was among the countries receiving the least aid assistance, the report said.

"If vulnerability is not a dominant criteria for choosing (aid) beneficiaries, it is worthwhile to consider what motivates donors to select a particular country," it said.

Access to agricultural markets
Moreblessings Chidaushe of AFRODAD, a non-governmental group that looks at African debt issues, said slow progress in the flow of aid showed Africa could not wait for handouts from rich nations.

"Africa needs to start working on an exit strategy," she said. "Aid will not take Africa out of this quagmire."

The African Monitor study indicated that, despite steady growth in oil and other African exports, the continent struggled for access to rich markets, particularly for agricultural goods that have a more direct impact on the lives of most Africans.

Ndungane said the G8 should focus on reviving the Doha round of global free trade talks, saying Africa's farmers still face crippling export barriers and unfair competition from subsidised Western producers.

"If the G8 countries are serious, they should drop subsidies, drop tariffs and create market access for Africa," he said.