Issues of Poverty in Africa - Essay Example

G8: Poverty in Africa Teacher's Scholar's Scholar's ID To What Extent have Members of the G8 Made a Practical Effort to Deal with Issues of Poverty in Africa As of now, politically, economically and militarily the most powerful nations of the world constitute Group of Eight or G8 nations. Current members of G8 are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and United States. These countries, especially since the G8 Gleneagles Summit, 6-8 July 2005 at Perthshire, Scotland, have become increasing concerned about global problem number one, i.e., "poverty"(Gangal and Gangal, 1984). Introduction: Background and Role Various types of , as it were, onslaughts on international entities in general and developed countries in particular have led to two immediate effects in this context. First, evolution and increasingly widening role of G8. Secondly, Group of Eight countries' rising concern for poverty in general and in Africa in particular. This has led not only to the formation but also to strengthening of G8 from time to time. The fabric of G8 is engulfing in its fold ever more areas of security, trade, development and other human concerns including environment and sustainable growth and advancement perspectives. Indeed, how it all started G8: Poverty in Africa The 'collapse' of the Brettonwoods system in 1971, formation of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries in 1967, Yom Kippur War of 1973 the 1973 Oil Crisis, economic recession and stagflation in 1970s are the major factors leading to emergence of G8 (Tinbergen, 1977. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis ). Their concern for poverty also has apparent reasons. Among developing and underdeveloped nations, Africa alone has about 170 million people living in subhuman circumstances with almost nothing but garbage to eat daily. This is, indeed, a vast potential of human resource going waste while living under severe conditions. Future of the world, to a great extent, lies in proper prospective development of these widespread pockets of poverty and squalor. G8, as such, has evolved from a 'Library Group' to G8 today. G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto provides a very concise account of G8's evolution. It says: Since 1975, the heads of state or government of the major industrial democracies have been meeting annually to deal with the major economic and political issues facing their domestic societies and the international community as a whole. The six countries at the first summit, held at Rambouillet, France, in November 1975, were France, the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan and Italy (sometimes referred to as the G6). They were joined by Canada at the San Juan Summit of 1976 in Puerto Rico, and by the European Community at the London Summit of 1977. From then on, membership in the Group of Seven, or G7, was fixed, although 15 developing countries' leaders met with the G7 leaders on the eve of the 1989 Paris Summit, and the USSR and then Russia participated G8: Poverty in Africa in a post-summit dialogue with the G7 since 1991. Starting with the 1994 Naples Summit, the G7 met with Russia at each summit (referred to as the P8 or Political Eight). The Denver Summit of the Eight was a milestone, marking full Russian participation in all but financial and certain economic discussions; and the 1998 Birmingham Summit saw full Russian participation, giving birth to the Group of Eight, or G8 (although the G7 continued to function along side the formal summits). At the Kananaskis Summit in Canada in 2002, it was announced that Russia would host the G8 Summit in 2006, thus completing its process of becoming a full member (http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/what_is_g8.html see also http://www.g8online.org/ , http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/ ). G8 and Millennium Summit Goals G8, at the latest Gleneagles Summit, has covered several areas of contemporary challenges to international community. One of the major concerns has been the question of poverty in Africa. It is for the first time that African continent received special attention at Gleneagles Summit although Africa has appeared at the agenda of G8 at its every Summit since the year 2000 (The Gleneagles Communiqu, section on Africa, 2005). At Gleneagles Summit, The international community committed itself to eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These are to be achieved by 2015. Main targets among these include: 'making poverty history', dealing with HIV and AIDS and malaria. Another resolution is that every child must receive primary education. Progress towards meeting these goals will have to be discussed at latter meetings. All these G8: Poverty in Africa challenges are having the most threatening dimensions in Africa, especially in the sub Saharan Africa. Prime Minister Tony Blair, therefore, made Africa a priority region for the G8 Summiteers at Gleneagles. The comprehensive package agreed at Gleneagles promises: A doubling of aid by 2010 - an extra $50 billion worldwide and $25 billion for Africa; Writing-off immediately the debts of 18 of the world's poorest countries, most of which are in Africa. This is worth $40 billion now, and as much as $55 billion as more countries qualify; Writing off $17 billion of Nigeria's debt, in the biggest single debt deal ever; A commitment to end all export subsidies. A date for this, probably 2010, should be agreed at the World Trade Organisation's Ministerial in December. The G8 have also committed to reducing domestic subsidies, which distort trade; Developing countries will "decide, plan and sequence their economic policies to fit with their own development strategies, for which they should be accountable to their people"; As close to universal access to HIV/AIDS treatments as possible by 2010; Funding for treatment and bed nets to fight malaria, saving the lives of over 600,000 children every year; G8: Poverty in Africa Full funding to totally eradicate Polio from the world; By 2015 all children will have access to good quality, free and compulsory education and to basic health care, free where a country chooses to provide it; Up to an extra 25,000 trained peacekeeping troops, helping the Africa Union to better respond to security challenges like Darfur (http://www.g8.gov.uk/servlet/Frontpagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1094235520151 ). G8 and Poverty in Africa G8 invited about several underdeveloped and developing nations also at Gleneagles Summit. Heads of State and Government form these countries delivered addresses to the Summit. This is clearly a sign of extending partnership to poorer nations in the global quest for development, peace and security (http://www.whitehouse.gov/g8/2005/ ). G8 Summit has had eight fold goals in the main. The foremost goal is that of eradicating poverty completely. One measure to do this is suggested through reducing by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day. The number of people, especially in Africa, suffering from hunger is also to be reduced by half. This goal is to be realised by 2015 ( http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ ). Africa has seen promises by G7 and G8 since the year 2000. For majority of the Africans, malnutrition, hunger, pennilessness, utter poverty, illnesses and illiteracy are matters of daily routine. For them, these are not exceptions but gross realities of their G8: Poverty in Africa minute to minute life (http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/whatwewant/index.shtml ). G8 programmes and policies have not yet made any tremendous impact. Maybe, it is perhaps too early to see meaningful results. After all, when dealing with live and precious human beings, matters cannot bring paradigmatic overnight changes in a few years' time. Several decades and even centuries are needed to see the result. Barriers to Poverty Eradication G8 is not a very compact group. Each of its members has its own political, economic and other types of global agenda and their own differences. Fundamental disagreements emerge within the G8: Global warming was a sticking point at the 2001 Genoa summit, where US President George W Bush underlined his rejection of the Kyoto treaty on emissions. Rifts among G8 members have also been evident over the US-led war in Iraq. The G8's stance on globalization has often led to vigorous response from opponents. Violence and riots have at times overshadowed Summits, for example, in Italy in 2001. Such violence has results in tightening of security that further separates protesters and politicians. All this reinforces the G8's closed-door image. Conclusion G8's drives to counter disease, including HIV-Aids, development programmes and debt-relief schemes are mostly linked to pre-conditions of respect for democracy and good governance in countries receiving diversified aid and concessions. G8: Poverty in Africa There is also a global competitiveness among G8 countries to penetrate prospective markets in developing countries. Poorer nations, majority of them, are great sources of raw material and skilled and unskilled human resource. These are current and futuristic needs of the G8 nations. It is in their interest to help eradicate poverty and illiteracy in poorer nations. If they are not able to do so now, there is little scope for them to get skilled and unskilled labour at very low premium from developing and underdeveloped nations. Therefore, this is high time when G8 must act forgetting various differences among its member countries. Despite a few measures like pardoning off Nigeria's $17 billion debt by the Paris Club, a lot more needs to be done regularly and more persistently (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4657034.stm). G8 can take its lead from various non-Governmental Organizations in this matter. For example, Live 8 Campaign, Greenpeace, One Campaign and others (see websites of these NGOs). What G8 has already extended in real terms to Africa in particular and others in general is so little and meager that it appears to be much less than 'peanuts' (Davis, 2005). Indeed, it is the donor who has to decide what needs to be given and not the one who is on the receiving end. References Davis, Evans. (2005) "Will G8 Money match the Rhetoric", http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4670957.stm Gangal, S. C. and Gangal, A.(1984) "Global Problems - A Vision for the Twenty First Century". Foreign Affairs Reports, 33 (11,12) p.95. Tinbergen, Jan. (1977) Reshaping the International Order. London: Club of Rome, pp. 21, 27, 31, 251. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4657034.stm http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/what_is_g8.html http://www.g8.gov.uk/servlet/Frontpagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1094235520151 http://www.g8online.org/ http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/ http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/whatwewant/index.shtml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ The Gleneagles Communiqu (2005). pp. 11-28, http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/PostG8_Gleneagles_Communique,0.pdf http://www.whitehouse.gov/g8/2005/ Read More