28 June 2002
Prime Minister
First of all I would like to thank Canada and Prime Minister Jean Chretien for hosting this G8 Summit and I would pay tribute to Jean Chretien’s leadership at the Summit, and for the organisation for the Summit, which has been excellent. And there was a huge range of issues obviously that we discussed: Russia, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the destruction of weapons of mass destruction, Afghanistan…in particular the drugs trade there…but in the end this rightly will be remembered and known as the Summit that devoted the lion’s share of its attention to Africa.
What we have agreed today was described by President Obasango of Nigeria a little earlier as an historic turning point. I think at the very least what it is, is a new departure in relations between the developed and the developing world. For the first time we have a partnership between Africa and the developed world, we have a partnership based on a comprehensive view of all the different issues that need to be tackled in order to give Africa some change for the future, and thirdly we have agreed a whole series of specific measures that will make an enormous difference if we follow them through in the way that we should.
Some of these issues have been immensely difficult, but the important point about the partnership for Africa is that in each area there is now a specific action plan that we can carry through. For example, on conflict resolution we have agreed that we will work with African countries to produce a plan for better peace-keeping in Africa, combined with a devotion on our part of attention particularly for the conflicts at the moment in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Sudan and Angola.
Those conflicts which blight the lives of literally hundreds of millions of people.
Secondly, in relation to debt we have made up to a billion dollars additional extra in order to ensure that some of the poorest countries in the world are using the money and the resources that they do have to improve the lives of their people, to educate them, to lift them out of poverty, rather than servicing debt.
Thirdly, on aid, there was a commitment at Monterey, Mexico back in March for increases in aid, but today for the first time what we have agreed is to devote at least half of the additional $12 billion to Africa.
Now that is dependent on African countries fulfilling their side of the bargain that $6 billion of extra aid is a significant uplift in the present provision of aid for Africa and again provided we get the proper co-operation, provided the Africans keep their side of the bargain, that should allow many African countries to do the things on education, on their infrastructure, on their governance that they have wanted to do for many years.
Then, in relation to education and health, there are again specific plans. We published a report today which gives us a route map now for how we help African countries develop their proper education. There are again millions and millions of African children that have no access to proper primary school provision and only the most rudimentary education. In today’s world that is unacceptable. The report today allows us to get behind those countries that have got a proper plan for their education system, back it and drive it through. In relation to health, we have reiterated our support for the Global Health Fund and in particular we have given a specific commitment that we will devote the additional resources necessary to eradicate polio in Africa by 2005.
The other part of this though is governance, and what the African countries themselves have agreed to do. The African countries have agreed a whole series of initiatives on the rule of law, on proper commercial and legal systems, on rooting out corruption, on respect for democratic rights, and the processes of democracy. Those countries that do respect those obligations are going to get the additional help that we have set out. And that really brings me to, I think, the fundamental point about this.
Before the last Election I said that Africa would be a big priority for the government in our second term. And I described Africa as a scar on the conscience of the world. And that is for a very simple reason. There are round about 200 million people in Africa who don’t have either proper sanitation, access to clean water or proper health care. There are literally 20 million Africans that have died of AIDS in the past three years. Every 3 seconds a child in Africa will die, either of conflict, famine or disease.
And yet we know that it is not possible to change Africa unless Africa itself takes responsibility for leading that process of change. So what we have agreed is a plan that is comprehensive, that deals with all the issues that need to be dealt with, but deals with them not on the basis of old fashioned aid…simply handing out money to people…but on the basis rather of a deal.
We are going to help Africa to help itself. This isn’t old fashioned aid. It is a genuine partnership for the renewal of Africa and I believe that today’s document will send out a signal of hope. There is much, much work that needs to be done, but a few years ago it would have been unthinkable that the developed world and the developing world could come together in this way, and we have, and what we need to do now is to take this process forward and to make sure that in each one of these areas, and in particular incidentally the area of trade, where access to our markets is vital and where we have agreed not just that we will keep to the basic process of free trade that was agreed in Doha last year, but also that in particular we will commit ourselves to phasing out the very damaging agricultural subsidies that keep African goods out of our markets. So it is a new departure, but there is much more that now needs to be done, and we intend to do it.
Question
On the issue of free trade would you urge President Bush to step back from the massive farm subsidies that he has introduced.
Prime Minister
I think what this document does actually is to say to all of us, not just America, but Europe as well, that we have to commit ourselves to free trade for the future. We commit ourselves to the World Trade Organisation talks going. There were some people thought we might retreat from that position we adopted some months ago.
We have restated it, and in particular we have singled out agricultural produce. So whatever positions countries are taking now, in the future we want to move towards freer and more open trade, because along with aid and debt relief, free trade is what African countries need. And they need it incidentally not just between African countries and countries in Europe and America, they actually need it inside Africa as well where tariffs are also very high.
Question
On the issue of hard guarantees for money, money which Africa knows it is going to get, you pledged a billion dollars in debt relief, yet Russia is getting $2 billion a year out of this Summit. Wasn’t this meant to be the Summit for Africa…
Prime Minister
I think you are forgetting that actually overall in debt relief we will now be giving somewhere in the region of $30 billion and the additional $1 billion is to make up the shortfall that there was as a result of the fall in commodity prices in Africa. And there is also of course the uplift in aid. Not just the basic aid that we are giving, and as you know our country has increased its aid provision substantially to Africa.
But the important point is that we have agreed that half of that money that a few months ago was allocated to aid overall, half of that money is now to go to Africa, provided that Africa keeps its side of the bargain, and that is an extra $6 billion a year. So a great deal more than we are doing, though for Russia the issue of non-proliferation there is important.
Question
Africa has been on the receiving end of a lot of promises in the past. What guarantees are there that the G8 leaders are really going to keep to this programme.
Prime Minister
It is completely different this. We have never, ever tried to do this in this way before. We have given our aid to Africa, but I think a lot of people have often thought, well the aid is given out, but it is often wasted or corruption takes a lot of it, or it is not used properly for the people. For the first time we have said we are going to look at everything together, and there are obligations on the African side as well as ours, and it is not a question of saying that the past is a whole lot of broken promises towards Africa. I think that is too simplistic. I think the past has been based on a very passive relationship between us giving money, and them receiving it.
And what we are saying is from now on that is not the deal any more. The deal is, we are equal partners in this process. We will give the additional money, we will give the extra help, we will help you with things like resolving the conflicts of Africa, but you in Africa have also got obligations, against corruption in favour of democracy and human rights, and proper adherence to the rule of law.
Question
Finally, you have spent two days talking here at a cost of some £200 million in security and hospitality. Is the world really a better place as a result of this Summit.
Prime Minister
Well the vast cost I am afraid is security, but as I said to people about Genoa last year, it is a sort of smart but ultimately foolish thing for people to think that it is a bad idea for leaders to meet. There are issues here that we have discussed that wouldn’t have been discussed or acted upon unless we were meeting together. And the African Plan is the result of that.
Now unfortunately because there are protesters who would disrupt these meetings and prevent us meeting, well they have to be done in seclusion here and at a security cost, but the alternative to that is world leaders not speaking to each other about issues in a world that is increasingly dangerous and yet more interdependent. So I think for all the problems, yes I think it is right that we meet and we talk and this is certainly the first time that anything as specific as a plan like this for Africa has been done at one of these Summits.
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