Blair's team calls for 100 per cent debt cancellation
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Your support makes all the difference.The commission for Africa set up by Tony Blair will call for an international arms trade treaty, an end to agricultural export subsidies, 100 per cent debt cancellation and an immediate aid increase of £13bn when it reports next week.
Africa Confidential magazine printed details last night from what it says is a final draft of the Commission's report, due for publication on 11 March.
A spokeswoman for the Commission insisted that the magazine did not have the version of the report that will be published. But Patrick Smith, the editor, said he was "absolutely certain" it accurately reflected the final document. "The draft is dated February 27, and the source from which we obtained it assured us that the latest stylistic changes and policy changes had been incorporated into the draft we have," he told BBC Radio 4's PM.
Mr Blair established the Commission in February last year to draw up a plan for change in the way the world deals with Africa's problems. Members, including Sir Bob Geldof and several African leaders, have met three times over the past year. Mr Blair hopes to use the report to put Africa at the top of the international agenda during the UK's chairmanship of the G8 group of industrialised nations this year.
Steve Tibbet, the head of policy at development charity ActionAid, said: "For all the good proposals in here - and are there are lots of them - the report has missed the central point that the way we do development has failed Africa. Ultimately, the final arbiter of success will be whether the detail comes through and whether pledges are delivered."
According to Africa Confidential, the report calls for African countries to "improve governance", but otherwise directs its recommendations at the rich world.
The Commission says aid to sub-Saharan Africa needs to increase by £13bn over the next three to five years, then a further £13bn by 2015. African governments are told they should end fees for basic education and a target is set for one million new health workers by 2015.
It also calls for an immediate end to rich world subsidies on cotton and sugar, along with a commitment to end all export subsidies and trade-distorting support in agriculture by 2010. An arms trade treaty should regulate all arms flows, not just small arms, it states.
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