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Toyako: Japan may take the credit for engaging Africa in the summits of the Group of Eight (G8) wealthy nations. It did this in 2000 when it played host to annual event. It is doing this again as seven African leaders - from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania - are showing up at the G8 summit, which started on Monday.
Observers are, however, concerned that Africa, which has apparently borne the brunt of the steep rises in prices of crude oil and food, may not elicit substantial attention during discussions of an agenda teeming with issues ranging from global warming, economic slowdown to nuclear non-proliferation.
"I am worried that the agenda on Africa may get shoved to the back burner because Japan may be satisfied with what was achieved at Ticad IV," said Sayaka Funada- Classen, an associate professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, referring to the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad) in Yokohoma last May. "Activities by private companies are crucial for African growth. This is another reason why it is imperative for us to improve infrastructure," Fukuda told Ticad last May, citing improvement in the continent's public safety and political conditions. He said Japan would dispatch a joint team from the public and private sectors to Africa later this year.
Japan has also pledged to train 100,000 African health workers over the next five years. Other support measures promised by Japan include doubling rice production in the next 10 years and providing significant emergency food aid to Africa as part of a $100 million package crafted to help the countries hard hit by the global food crisis.
Still, non-governmental organisations accuse the G8 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US - of failing to deliver on their promises to Africa. At their Gleneagles summit in Scotland in 2005, G8 leaders promised to double their African aid to $25 billion by 2010. But some donors are unlikely to meet that target.
"Gleneagles was supposed to be the least minimal achievable promise," said Takumo Yamada of the non-governmental group Oxfam Japan.
Burdens
"Climate change and the food crisis have added new burdens on the poor. G8 leaders should therefore be speaking of scaling up aid. But this is doubtful if even the existing promises are unlikely to be met. In the past six months, the G8 countries used over $1 trillion to bail out collapsing banks in their countries," added Yamada.
On the first day of their summit, G8 leaders discussed development in the continent with seven African leaders and ways to ease the impact of the soaring prices of crude oil and food on their countries.
"If Japan wants the G8 summit to make a significant contribution toward reducing poverty in Africa, it should take the initiative in drawing up a plan to meet the Millennium Development Goals," said Toko Tomita of the Hunger Free World, a non-profit organisation based in Tokyo.
Background
Deciding on aid
Ticad started in 1993 and is held every five years in Japan. The latest edition of the gathering, which drew representatives of 51 African countries, was held under the theme 'Towards a Vibrant Africa: Continent of Hope and Opportunity'. During Ticad IV, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda unveiled a package of aid and programmes to enhance 'Africa's prospects for the future". He pledged to double Japan's net official development assistance to Africa to $1.8 billion by 2012, extend up to $4 billion in new loans over the next five years and set up a $2.5 billion fund to help Japanese firms invest in Africa.
- R.A.S.
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