Britain purports to have Africa's best interests at heart, but can Tony Blair deliver? Gamal Nkrumah in London sounds out the big players Britain is to host the Gleneagles summit of G8 [group of eight wealthiest and most industrially advanced countries] in July. Africa is currently one of the top priorities of the British Labour government. So what's in it for Britain? "Interdependence is the governing characteristic of modern international politics," British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Al- Ahram Weekly. "This year offers a unique set of opportunities. I am committed to using the United Kingdom's G8 and European Union Presidencies to try and make a breakthrough on Africa and climate change," Blair explained. The Commission for Africa is an initiative of the British prime minister, launched in February 2004, specifically designed to help drive forward Africa's development and increase its prosperity. Blair and the team of 17 commissioners he heads agree that action is required if progress is to be made. The commission is about to produce "an independent, non-binding report" scheduled to be released in the middle of March, Blair clarified. He also emphasised that the majority of the commissioners are African. "Let me make it absolutely clear from the outset that this is very clearly an African-led agenda," Blair, as chairman of the Commission for Africa stressed. What then differentiates Blair's current Africa initiative from previous donor-driven initiatives that have found their way onto the shelves? Blair noted that Europe was rescued from the rubble in the aftermath of World War II by the Marshall Plan. "Our proposal is for each of the richest countries to reach 0.7 per cent of national income," in long-term and sustainable aid for investment in Africa. Britain has spearheaded an international campaign to focus international efforts on developing Africa. Blair's government has several key cabinet ministers who have a vested interest in Africa. Gordon Brown, Britain's dynamic chancellor of the exchequer and a member of the Commission for Africa, is as impassioned about Africa as Blair. Brown was unequivocal on the role of the commission. "Let the Commission for Africa also be the first official report to call for, and deliver, a lasting deep seated trade justice that would mean not only that Europe and the richest countries be honest about and address the scale of the waste scandal of agricultural protectionism, unfair Rules of Origin and Economic Partnership Agreements, but -- as I have heard from every African president and prime minister, finance minister and trade minister I have met -- to address infrastructure needs -- transport, power, water, telecommunications and then technical and vocational skills," Brown said in a speech at a Commission for Africa meeting in Cape Town, South Africa in January. The British government appears to strongly believe in supporting fragile African states that cannot manage their own affairs. But it is precisely this patronising attitude that infuriates not only Africans but some influential British political figures. "Hogwash and window-dressing," Conservative MP Roger Gale told the Weekly. "I don't think it is up to us to go to far-flung places and tell them what to do," he added. This reveals a worryingly wide gulf between the West and Africa's leaders over how to improve the lot of the world's poorest continent. Why is Africa falling behind the rest of the world? "The pace of development in Africa has to quicken. We have to move very fast," Gale stressed, adding that "wandering around the world making grand statements", presumably as Blair does, will not accelerate the pace of African development. Gale felt that it was cheeky of Western nations to denigrate African regimes as corrupt when they themselves are afflicted by the same ailment. "The EU itself is corrupt. Let us not try and say holier than thou, because we are not," Gale said. "Blair is riding high on people like Bono and Bob Geldof," he added. On the question of Zimbabwe and other states designated as pariah states by the British governments, Gale was adamant about the futility of economic sanctions. "You punish people, not presidents," Gale noted. The EU and Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) have worked together to support the institutional strengthening of the African Union (AU). "We must empower countries to sequence their own trade reform to the needs of their own development. And, that is why the Commission of Africa should see its task as to back and resource the New Economic Plan for African Development (NEPAD) with its peer review process -- the biggest and most comprehensive continent-wide programme of economic reform," Brown elaborated. He added that the Commission for Africa sees its task as mobilising the support of the richest countries for the programmes of NEPAD, the AU and individual African country by country programmes. "We must all, rich and poor countries alike, be fully transparent in our dealings, address corruption, be truly accountable, show where the money goes," Brown explained. "And the way to achieve this is for all of us rich and poor alike to put transparency and the best governance into practice by all of us opening our books," he added. The vice-president of the Commission for Africa, Hilary Benn, Britain's secretary of state for international development, was appointed Blair's G8 Africa personal representative. "The terms are set and informed by the messages given by the Africans themselves," officials at DFID told the Weekly. DFID is now planning to channel much of its development assistance to the three most populous countries in Africa south of the Sahara -- Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. "How do we, in Africa, hold our development partners accountable to their commitments and pledges," wondered K Y Amoako, the executive secretary of the Addis Ababa-based Economic Commission for Africa. "The old way of doing business must go," Amoako pointed out. He noted, however, that Africans have to learn how to open up to scrutiny. There is a huge onus on civil society to achieve to hold governments accountable. African countries are poor -- 34 of the 53 continent's countries are classified as least developed. The international community is facing up to this challenge. Other G8 nations are backing Britain and Blair's initiative. The Canadian government announced on 23 February that it is redoubling its aid to Africa. Even the Americans have expressed tentative support for the Africa initiative. "The issue isn't the money. The problem is mustering the political will to demand money," said Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, executive director of the UN's Nairobi-based environmental agency HABITAT. Tibaijuka, a member of Blair's Commission for Africa, stressed that "Africa and its friends share an interest in getting rid of poverty." The EU's Common Agriculture policy needs to be scrapped if Europe is serious about doing something significant for Africa, Tidjane Thiam, a member of the Commission for Africa from Ivory Coast concluded.
