Not enough, say aid agencies
LONDON, England -- Aid agencies and media in Britain criticized the $674 million aid pledged to Africa by President George W. Bush as inadequate.
Jonathan Glennie, a senior policy analyst from Christian Aid, said: "The sum of $674 million is a drop in the ocean compared to what Africa really needs."
"Once again the Bush administration seeks to promote a 'compassionate conservative' image by repackaging old money for Africa, and once again greater scrutiny reveals this image to be disingenuous," Salih Booker, executive director of the lobby group Africa Action, told Reuters.
Glennie told the UK's Press Association the deal on debt was "very good news for some of Africa's poorest countries and it is definitely a move in the right direction."
But, he said, it was "important to be clear about what is on the table and what isn't on the table."
Said Glennie: "The president's scheme currently only applies to 14 African countries leaving 34 other sub-Saharan African countries without any immediate prospect of debt relief."
He added: "Christian Aid is calling for debt relief for all of the world's poorest counties immediately and without economic policy conditions."
Glennie hoped that Bush would improve on the $674 million pledge when he attends the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, next month.
"Let us hope this is only his opening gambit and that he comes to Gleneagles with a realistic and proper offer that will begin to match some of the expectations in Tony Blair's Africa Commission."
ActionAid policy officer Romilly Greenhill told PA: "Africa deserves more than crumbs from the richest country's table.
"An extra $674 million geared solely towards famine relief will do nothing to tackle endemic poverty.
"In the UK we spend more than that every year on anti-aging creams, whilst in Africa average life expectancy is 46."
Blair said Britain had made "significant" progress towards a deal with the U.S. after his talks in Washington with Bush. (Full story)
Criticism by aid agencies were echoed by sections of the media in Britain.
Under a headline "The Tight House," the Blair-supporting Daily Mirror said Bush had "thrown crumbs" to the British prime minister over aid for the world's poorest nations.
The biggest-selling British paper, the tabloid Sun, said Bush had given Blair "an embarrassing public lecture" over African aid.
"Blair fights to save Africa aid deal after brush-off by Bush," said a headline in the Daily Mail.
"Tony Blair was last night struggling to save Britain's £27 billion deal on African aid after George Bush refused point-blank to support it."
Kevin Watkins, director of the Human Development Report Office at the U.N. Development Program, said that "on debt at least it sounds encouraging, it seems there has been some progress."
"It is also good news that more aid has been announced for Africa, but all of this stops an awful long way short of where we need to be," he told BBC radio.
Watkins agreed with Bush that corruption should be high on the agenda.
"There is no way of short-circuiting bad government. If you have a government that is corrupt, it clearly undermines efforts to reduce child deaths and reduce poverty.
"The problem is that often you have governments that are putting in place the plans that could make a difference, to get child deaths down, to get children into school, to give people an opportunity in life, and those plans are not financed."
