G8 Africa Action Plan
We, the Heads of State and Government of eight major
industrialized democracies and the Representatives of the
European Union, meeting with African Leaders at Kananaskis,
welcome the initiative taken by African States in adopting
the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a bold
and clear-sighted vision of Africa's development. We accept
the invitation from African Leaders, extended first at Genoa
last July and reaffirmed in the NEPAD, to build a new
partnership between the countries of Africa and our own,
based on mutual responsibility and respect. The NEPAD
provides an historic opportunity to overcome obstacles to
development in Africa. Our Africa Action Plan is the G8's
initial response, designed to encourage the imaginative
effort that underlies the NEPAD and to lay a solid
foundation for future cooperation.
The case for action
is compelling. Despite its great potential and human
resources, Africa continues to face some of the world's
greatest challenges. The many initiatives designed to spur
Africa's development have failed to deliver sustained
improvements to the lives of individual women, men and
children throughout Africa.
The New Partnership for
Africa's Development offers something different. It is,
first and foremost, a pledge by African Leaders to the
people of Africa to consolidate democracy and sound economic
management, and to promote peace, security and
people-centred development. African Leaders have personally
directed its creation and implementation. They have formally
undertaken to hold each other accountable for its
achievement. They have emphasized good governance and human
rights as necessary preconditions for Africa's recovery.
They focus on investment-driven economic growth and economic
governance as the engine for poverty reduction, and on the
importance of regional and sub-regional partnerships within
Africa.
We welcome this commitment. In support of the
NEPAD objectives, we each undertake to establish enhanced
partnerships with African countries whose performance
reflects the NEPAD commitments. Our partners will be
selected on the basis of measured results. This will lead us
to focus our efforts on countries that demonstrate a
political and financial commitment to good governance and
the rule of law, investing in their people, and pursuing
policies that spur economic growth and alleviate poverty. We
will match their commitment with a commitment on our own
part to promote peace and security in Africa, to boost
expertise and capacity, to encourage trade and direct
growth-oriented investment, and to provide more effective
official development assistance.
Together, we have an
unprecedented opportunity to make progress on our common
goals of eradicating extreme poverty and achieving
sustainable development. The new round of multilateral trade
negotiations begun at Doha, the Monterrey meeting on
financing for development, this G8 Summit at Kananaskis and
the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg,
are key milestones in this process.
NEPAD recognizes
that the prime responsibility for Africa's future lies with
Africa itself. We will continue to support African efforts
to encourage public engagement in the NEPAD and we will
continue to consult with our African partners on how we can
best assist their own efforts. G8 governments are committed
to mobilize and energize global action, marshal resources
and expertise, and provide impetus in support of the NEPAD's
objectives. As G8 partners, we will undertake mutually
reinforcing actions to help Africa accelerate growth and
make lasting gains against poverty. Our Action Plan focuses
on a limited number of priority areas where, collectively
and individually, we can add value.
The African
peer-review process is an innovative and potentially
decisive element in the attainment of the objectives of the
NEPAD. We welcome the adoption on June 11 by the NEPAD Heads
of State and Government Implementation Committee of the
Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate
Governance and the African Peer Review Mechanism. The
peer-review process will inform our considerations of
eligibility for enhanced partnerships. We will each make our
own assessments in making these partnership decisions. While
we will focus particular attention on enhanced-partnership
countries, we will also work with countries that do not yet
meet the standards of NEPAD but which are clearly committed
to and working towards its implementation. We will not work
with governments which disregard the interests and dignity
of their people.
However, as a matter of strong
principle, our commitment to respond to situations of
humanitarian need remains universal and is independent of
particular regimes. So, too, is our commitment to addressing
the core issues of human dignity and development. The
Development Goals set out in the United Nations Millennium
Declaration are an important component of this
engagement.
At Monterrey, in March 2002, we agreed to
revitalize efforts to help unlock and more effectively
utilize all development resources including domestic
savings, trade and investment, and official development
assistance. A clear link was made between good governance,
sound policies, aid effectiveness and development success.
In support of this strong international consensus,
substantial new development assistance commitments were
announced at Monterrey. By 2006, these new commitments will
increase ODA by a total of US$12 billion per year. Each of
us will decide, in accordance with our respective priorities
and procedures, how we will allocate the additional money we
have pledged. Assuming strong African policy commitments,
and given recent assistance trends, we believe that in
aggregate half or more of our new development assistance
could be directed to African nations that govern justly,
invest in their own people and promote economic freedom. In
this way we will support the objectives of the NEPAD. This
will help ensure that no country genuinely committed to
poverty reduction, good governance and economic reform will
be denied the chance to achieve the Millennium Goals through
lack of finance.
We will pursue this Action Plan in
our individual and collective capacities, and through the
international institutions to which we belong. We warmly
invite other countries to join us. We also encourage
South-South cooperation and collaboration with international
institutions and civil society, including the business
sector, in support of the NEPAD. We will continue to
maintain a constructive dialogue with our African partners
in order to achieve effective implementation of our Action
Plan and to support the objectives of the NEPAD. We will
take the necessary steps to ensure the effective
implementation of our Action Plan and will review progress
at our next Summit based on a final report from our Personal
Representatives for Africa.
To demonstrate our support
for this new partnership, we make the following engagements
in support of the NEPAD:
I. Promoting Peace and
Security
Time and again, progress in Africa has been
undermined or destroyed by conflict and insecurity. Families
have been displaced and torn apart, and the use of child
soldiers has robbed many individuals of the opportunity to
learn, while also sowing the seeds of long-term national
disruption, instability and poverty. Economic development
has been deeply undermined as scarce resources needed to
fight poverty have too often been wasted in deadly and
costly armed conflicts. We are determined to make conflict
prevention and resolution a top priority, and therefore we
commit to:
1.1 Supporting African efforts to resolve the principal armed conflicts on the continent – including by:
Providing additional support to efforts to bring peace to
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, and to
consolidate peace in Angola and Sierra Leone within the next
year;
Assisting with programmes of disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration; at the appropriate time,
Taking joint action to support post-conflict development
in the Great Lakes Region and Sudan; and,
Endorsing the
proposals from the UN Secretary-General to set up, with the
Secretary-General and other influential partners, contact
groups and similar mechanisms to work with African countries
to resolve specific African conflicts.
1.2 Providing
technical and financial assistance so that, by 2010, African
countries and regional and sub-regional organizations are
able to engage more effectively to prevent and resolve
violent conflict on the continent, and undertake peace
support operations in accordance with the United Nations
Charter – including by:
Continuing to work with African
partners to deliver a joint plan, by 2003, for the
development of African capability to undertake peace support
operations, including at the regional level;
Training
African peace support forces including through the
development of regional centres of excellence for military
and civilian aspects of conflict prevention and peace
support, such as the Kofi Annan International Peace Training
Centre; and,
Better coordinating our respective
peacekeeping training initiatives.
1.3 Supporting
efforts by African countries and the United Nations to
better regulate the activities of arms brokers and
traffickers and to eliminate the flow of illicit weapons to
and within Africa – including by:
Developing and adopting
common guidelines to prevent the illegal supply of arms to
Africa; and,
Providing assistance in regional
trans-border cooperation to this end.
1.4 Supporting
African efforts to eliminate and remove antipersonnel
mines.
1.5 Working with African governments, civil society and others to address the linkage between armed conflict and the exploitation of natural resources – including by:
Supporting United Nations and other initiatives to
monitor and address the illegal exploitation and
international transfer of natural resources from Africa
which fuel armed conflicts, including mineral resources,
petroleum, timber and water;
Supporting voluntary
control efforts such as the Kimberley Process for diamonds,
and encouraging the adoption of voluntary principles of
corporate social responsibility by those involved in
developing Africa's national resources;
Working to
ensure better accountability and greater transparency with
respect to those involved in the import or export of
Africa's natural resources from areas of conflict;
Promoting regional management of trans-boundary natural
resources, including by supporting the Congo Basin
Initiative and trans-border river basin commissions.
1.6
Providing more effective peace-building support to societies
emerging from or seeking to prevent armed conflicts –
including by:
Supporting effective African-led
reconciliation efforts, including both pre-conflict and
post-conflict initiatives; and,
Encouraging more
effective coordination and cooperation among donors and
international institutions in support of peace-building and
conflict prevention efforts – particularly with respect to
the effective disarmament, demobilization and reintegration
of former combatants, the collection and destruction of
small arms, and the special needs of women and children,
including child soldiers.
1.7 Working to enhance African
capacities to protect and assist war-affected populations
and facilitate the effective implementation in Africa of
United Nations Security Council resolutions relating to
civilians, women and children in armed conflict – including
by supporting African countries hosting, assisting and
protecting large refugee populations
II. Strengthening
Institutions and Governance
The NEPAD maintains that
"development is impossible in the absence of true democracy,
respect for human rights, peace and good governance". We
agree, and it has been our experience that reliable
institutions and governance are a precondition for long-term
or large-scale private investment. The task of strengthening
institutions and governance is thus both urgent and of
paramount importance, and for this reason, we commit
to:
2.1 Supporting the NEPAD's priority political governance objectives – including by:
Expanding
capacity-building programmes related to political governance
in Africa focusing on the NEPAD priority areas of: improving
administrative and civil services, strengthening
parliamentary oversight, promoting participatory
decision-making, and judicial reform;
Supporting African
efforts to ensure that electoral processes are credible and
transparent, and that elections are conducted in a manner
that is free and fair and in accordance with the NEPAD's
commitment to uphold and respect "global standards of
democracy";
Supporting African efforts to involve
parliamentarians and civil society in all aspects of the
NEPAD process; and,
Supporting the reform of the
security sector through assisting the development of an
independent judiciary and democratically controlled police
structures.
2.2 Strengthening capacity-building
programmes related to economic and corporate governance in
Africa focusing on the NEPAD priority areas of implementing
sound macro-economic strategies, strengthening public
financial management and accountability, protecting the
integrity of monetary and financial systems, strengthening
accounting and auditing systems, and developing an effective
corporate governance framework – including by:
Supporting
international and African organizations such as the African
Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and the African Regional
Technical Assistance Centres (AFRITACs) initiative of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) in expanding
regionally-oriented technical assistance and
capacity-building programmes in Africa; and,
Financing
African-led research on economic governance issues (through
the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA),
sub-regional and regional organizations, and other African
institutions and organizations with relevant expertise).
2.3 Supporting African peer-review arrangements –
including by:
Encouraging cooperation with respect to
peer-review practices, modalities and experiences between
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) and the ECA, including the participation by the ECA
in the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
peer-review process where the countries under review so
agree;
Encouraging, where appropriate, substantive
information sharing between Africa and its partners with
respect to items under peer-review; and,
Supporting
regional organizations in developing tools to facilitate
peer-review processes.
2.4 Giving increased attention to
and support for African efforts to promote and protect human
rights – including by:
Supporting human rights activities
and national, regional and sub-regional human rights
institutions in Africa;
Supporting African efforts to
implement human rights obligations undertaken by African
governments; and,
Supporting African efforts to promote
reconciliation and to ensure accountability for violations
of human rights and humanitarian law, including genocide,
crimes against humanity and other war crimes.
2.5
Supporting African efforts to promote gender equality and
the empowerment of women – including by:
Supporting
African efforts to achieve equal participation of African
women in all aspects of the NEPAD process and in fulfilling
the NEPAD objectives; and,
Supporting the application of
gender main-streaming in all policies and programmes.
2.6 Intensifying support for the adoption and
implementation of effective measures to combat corruption,
bribery and embezzlement – including by:
Working to secure
the early establishment of a UN Convention on Corruption,
and the early ratification of the UN Convention Against
Transnational Organized Crime;
Strengthening and
assisting the implementation and monitoring of the OECD
Convention on Bribery and assisting anti-bribery and
anti-corruption programmes through the international
financial institutions (IFIs) and the multilateral
development banks;
Intensifying international
cooperation to recover illicitly acquired financial assets;
Supporting voluntary anti-corruption initiatives, such
as the DAC Guidelines, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational
Enterprises, and the UN Global Compact;
Supporting the
role of parliamentarians in addressing corruption and
promoting good governance; and,
Assisting African
countries in their efforts to combat money laundering,
including supporting World Bank/IMF efforts to improve
coordination in the delivery of technical assistance to
combat money laundering and terrorist financing in African
countries.
III. Fostering Trade, Investment, Economic
Growth and Sustainable Development
Generating economic
growth is central to the NEPAD's goal of mobilizing
resources for poverty reduction and development. A
comprehensive effort is required to stimulate economic
activity in all productive sectors while paying particular
attention to sustainability and social costs and to the role
of the private sector as the engine for economic growth. In
this context, the particular importance of infrastructure
has been emphasized by our African partners – including as a
domain for public-private investment partnerships, and as a
key component of regional integration and development. In
order to achieve adequate growth rates, Africa must have
broader access to markets. The launch of multilateral trade
negotiations by World Trade Organization (WTO) members in
Doha, which placed the needs and interests of developing
countries at the heart of the negotiations, will help create
a framework for the integration of African countries into
the world trading system and the global economy, thus
creating increased opportunities for trade-based growth. We
are committed to the Doha development agenda and to
implementing fully the WTO work programme, as well as to
providing increased trade-related technical assistance to
help African countries participate effectively in these
negotiations. With these considerations in mind, we commit
to:
3.1 Helping Africa attract investment, both from within Africa and from abroad, and implement policies conducive to economic growth – including by:
Supporting
African initiatives aimed at improving the investment
climate, including sound economic policies and efforts to
improve the security of goods and transactions, consolidate
property rights, modernize customs, institute needed legal
and judicial reforms, and help mitigate risks for investors;
Facilitating the financing of private investment through
increased use of development finance institutions and export
credit and risk-guarantee agencies and by strengthening
equivalent institutions in Africa;
Supporting African
initiatives aimed at fostering efficient and sustainable
regional financial markets and domestic savings and
financing structures, including micro-credit schemes – while
giving particular attention to seeing that credit and
business support services meet the needs of poor women and
men;
Enhancing international cooperation to promote
greater private investment and growth in Africa, including
through public-private partnerships; and,
Supporting the
efforts of African governments to obtain sovereign credit
ratings and gain access to private capital markets,
including on a regional basis.
3.2 Facilitating
capacity-building and the transfer of expertise for the
development of infrastructure projects, with particular
attention to regional initiatives.
3.3 Providing greater market access for African products – including by:
Reaffirming our commitment to conclude negotiations no
later than 1 January 2005 on further trade liberalization in
the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations taking
full account of the particular circumstances, needs and
requirements of developing countries, including in Africa;
Without prejudging the outcome of the negotiations,
applying our Doha commitment to comprehensive negotiations
on agriculture aimed at substantial improvements in market
access, reductions of all forms of export subsidies with a
view to their being phased out, and substantial reductions
in trade-distorting domestic support;
Working toward the
objective of duty-free and quota-free access for all
products originating from the Least Developed Countries
(LDCs), including African LDCs, and, to this end, each
examining how to facilitate the fuller and more effective
use of existing market access arrangements; and,
Ensuring that national product standards do not
unnecessarily restrict African exports and that African
nations can play their full part in the relevant
international standard setting systems.
3.4 Increasing
the funding and improving the quality of support for
trade-related technical assistance and capacity-building in
Africa – including by:
Supporting the establishment and
expansion of trade-related technical assistance programmes
in Africa;
Supporting the establishment of sub-regional
market and trade information offices to support
trade-related technical assistance and capacity-building in
Africa;
Assisting regional organizations in their
efforts to integrate trade policy into member country
development plans;
Working to increase African
participation in identifying WTO-related technical
assistance needs, and providing technical assistance to
African countries to implement international agreements,
such as the WTO agreement;
Assisting African producers
in meeting product and health standards in export markets;
and,
Providing technical assistance to help African
countries engage in international negotiations, and in
standard-setting systems.
3.5 Supporting African efforts
to advance regional economic integration and intra-African
trade – including by:
Helping African countries develop
regional institutions in key sectors affecting regional
integration, including infrastructure, water, food security
and energy, and sustainable management and conservation of
natural resources;
Working towards enhanced market
access, on a WTO-compatible basis, for trade with African
free trade areas or customs unions;
Supporting the
efforts of African countries to eliminate tariff and
non-tariff barriers within Africa in a WTO-consistent
manner; and,
Supporting efforts by African countries to
work towards lowering trade barriers on imports from the
rest of the world.
3.6 Improving the effectiveness of
Official Development Assistance (ODA), and strengthening ODA
commitments for enhanced-partnership countries – including
by:
Ensuring effective implementation of the OECD/DAC
recommendations on untying aid to the Least Developed
Countries;
Implementing effectively the OECD agreement
to ensure that export credit support to low-income countries
is not used for unproductive purposes;
Supporting
efforts within the DAC to reduce aid management burdens on
recipient countries and lower the transactions costs of aid;
Taking all necessary steps to implement the pledges we
made at Monterrey, including ODA level increases and aid
effectiveness; and,
Reviewing annually, within the DAC
and in coordination with all relevant institutions, our
progress towards the achievement in Africa of the
Development Goals contained in the United Nations Millennium
Declaration.
IV. Implementing Debt Relief
4.1 Our aim
is to assist countries through the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) Initiative to reduce poverty by enabling
them to exit the HIPC process with a sustainable level of
debt. The HIPC Initiative will reduce, by US$19 billion (net
present value terms), the debt of some 22 African countries
that are following sound economic policies and good
governance. Combined with traditional debt relief and
additional bilateral debt forgiveness, this represents a
reduction of some US$30 billion – about two-thirds of their
total debt burden – that will allow an important shift of
resources towards education, health and other social and
productive uses.
4.2 Debt relief alone, however, no matter how generous, cannot guarantee long-term debt sustainability. Sound policies, good governance, prudent new borrowing, and sound debt management by HIPCs, as well as responsible financing by creditors, will be necessary to ensure debt sustainability. We are committed to seeing that the projected shortfall in the HIPC Trust Fund is fully financed. Moreover, we remain ready, as necessary, to provide additional debt relief – so-called "topping up" – on a case-by-case basis, to countries that have suffered a fundamental change in their economic circumstances due to extraordinary external shocks. In that context these countries must continue to demonstrate a commitment to poverty reduction, sound financial management, and good governance. We will fund our share of the shortfall in the HIPC Initiative, recognizing that this shortfall will be up to US$1 billion. We call on other creditor countries to join us. Once countries exit the HIPC process, we expect they will not need additional relief under this Initiative. We support an increase in the use of grants for the poorest and debt-vulnerable countries, and look forward to its rapid adoption.
V. Expanding Knowledge: Improving and Promoting
Education and Expanding Digital Opportunities
Investing
in education is critical to economic and social development
in Africa, and to providing Africans with greater
opportunities for personal and collective advancement.
Education also holds the key to important goals such as
achieving full gender equality for women and girls. Yet most
African countries have made poor progress towards the
attainment of the Dakar Education for All (EFA) goals. In
addition, the capacity of information and communications
technology (ICT) to help Africa exploit digital
opportunities, has not yet been realized. ICT has been
identified by the NEPAD as a targeted priority for economic
and human development in Africa. With this in mind, we
commit to:
5.1 Supporting African countries in their efforts to improve the quality of education at all levels – including by:
Significantly increasing the support
provided by our bilateral aid agencies to basic education
for countries with a strong policy and financial commitment
to the sector, in order to achieve the goals of universal
primary education and equal access to education for girls.
In that regard we will work vigorously to operationalize the
G8 Education Task Force report with a view to helping
African countries which have shown through their actions a
strong policy and financial commitment to education to
achieve these goals; and to encourage other African
countries to take the necessary steps so that they, too, can
achieve universal primary education by 2015;
Supporting
the development and implementation by African countries of
national educational plans that reflect the Dakar goals on
Education for All, and encouraging support for those plans –
particularly universal primary education – by the
international community as an integral part of the national
development strategies;
Giving special emphasis and
support to teacher training initiatives, in line with the
NEPAD priorities, and the creation of accountability
mechanisms and EFA assessment processes;
Working with
IFIs to increase their education-related spending, as a
further supplement to bilateral and other efforts;
Supporting the development of a client-driven "Education
for All" Internet portal;
Supporting programmes to
encourage attendance and enhance academic performance, such
as school feeding programmes; and,
Supporting the
development of community learning centres to develop the
broader educational needs of local communities.
5.2
Supporting efforts to ensure equal access to education by
women and girls – including by:
Providing scholarships
and other educational support for women and girls; and,
Supporting African efforts to break down social,
cultural and other barriers to equal access by women and
girls to educational opportunities.
5.3 Working with
African partners to increase assistance to Africa's research
and higher education capacity in enhanced-partnership
countries – including by:
Supporting the development of
research centres and the establishment of chairs of
excellence in areas integral to the NEPAD in Africa; and,
Favouring the exchange of visiting academics and
encouraging research partnerships between G8/donor and
African research institutions.
5.4 Helping Africa create
digital opportunities – including by:
Encouraging the
Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force) International
e-Development Resources Network to focus on Africa, and
supporting other DOT Force initiatives that can help to
create digital opportunities, each building wherever
possible on African initiatives already underway;
Working towards the goal of universal access to ICT by
working with African countries to improve national, regional
and international telecommunications and ICT regulations and
policies in order to create ICT-friendly environments;
Encouraging and supporting the development of
public-private partnerships to fast- track the development
of ICT infrastructure; and,
Supporting entrepreneurship
and human resource development of Africans within the ICT
Sector.
5.5 Helping Africa make more effective use of
ICT in the context of promoting sustainable economic, social
and political development – including by:
Supporting
African initiatives to make best use of ICT to address
education and health issues; and,
Supporting African
countries in increasing access to, and making the best use
of, ICT in support of governance, including by supporting
the development and implementation of national e-strategies
and e-governance initiatives aimed at increased efficiency,
effectiveness, transparency and accountability of
government.
VI. Improving Health and Confronting
HIV/AIDS
The persistence of diseases such as malaria and
tuberculosis has remained a severe obstacle to Africa's
development. To this burden has been added the devastating
personal and societal costs resulting from AIDS, the
consequences of which stand to undermine all efforts to
promote development in Africa. The result has been a
dramatic decrease in life expectancy in Africa and a
significant new burden on African health systems and
economies. Substantial efforts are needed to confront the
health challenges that Africa faces, including the need to
enhance immunization efforts directed at polio and other
preventable diseases. Therefore, recognizing that HIV/AIDS
affects all aspects of Africa's future development and
should therefore be a factor in all aspects of our support
for Africa, we commit to:
6.1 Helping Africa combat the effects of HIV/AIDS – including by:
Supporting programmes
that help mothers and children infected or affected by
HIV/AIDS, including children orphaned by AIDS;
Supporting the strengthening of training facilities for
the recruiting and training of health professionals;
Supporting the development, adoption and implementation
of gender-sensitive, multi-sectoral HIV/AIDS programs for
prevention, care, and treatment;
Supporting high level
political engagement to increase awareness and reduce the
stigma associated with HIV/AIDS;
Supporting initiatives
to improve technical capacity, including disease
surveillance;
Supporting efforts to develop strong
partnerships with employers in increasing HIV/AIDS awareness
and in providing support to victims and their families;
Supporting efforts that integrate approaches that
address both HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis; and,
Helping to
enhance the capacity of Africa to address the challenges
that HIV/AIDS poses to peace and security in Africa.
6.2
Supporting African efforts to build sustainable health
systems in order to deliver effective disease interventions
– including by:
Pressing ahead with current work with the
international pharmaceutical industry, affected African
countries and civil society to promote the availability of
an adequate supply of life-saving medicines in an affordable
and medically effective manner;
Supporting African
countries in helping to promote more effective, and
cost-effective, health interventions to the most vulnerable
sectors of society – including reducing maternal and infant
mortality and morbidity;
Continuing support for the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and
working to ensure that the Fund continues to increase the
effectiveness of its operations and learns from its
experience;
Supporting African efforts to increase
Africa's access to the Global Fund and helping to enhance
Africa's capacity to participate in and benefit from the
Fund;
Providing assistance to strengthen the capacity of
the public sector to monitor the quality of health services
offered by both public and private providers; and,
Supporting and encouraging the twinning of hospitals and
other health organizations between G8 and African countries.
6.3 Accelerating the elimination and mitigation in
Africa of polio, river blindness and other diseases or
health deficiencies – including by:
Providing, on a fair
and equitable basis, sufficient resources to eliminate polio
by 2005; and,
Supporting relevant public-private
partnerships for the immunization of children and the
elimination of micro-nutrient deficiencies in Africa.
6.4 Supporting health research on diseases prevalent in
Africa, with a view to narrowing the health research gap,
including by expanding health research networks to focus on
African health issues, and by making more extensive use of
researchers based in Africa.
VII. Increasing Agricultural
Productivity
The overwhelming majority of Africa's
population is rural. Agriculture is therefore the principal
economic preoccupation for most of Africa's people.
Agriculture is central not only to the quality of life of
most Africans, but also to the national economy of nearly
all African states. Increased agricultural production,
efficiency and diversification are central to the economic
growth strategies of these countries. In support of the
NEPAD's growth and sustainable development initiatives on
agriculture, we commit to:
7.1 Making support for African agriculture a higher international priority in line with the NEPAD's framework and priorities – including by:
Supporting the reform and financing of international
institutions and research organizations that address
Africa's agricultural development priority needs;
Supporting efforts to strengthen agricultural research
in Africa as well as research related to issues and aspects
that are of particular importance to Africa; and,
Working with African countries to improve the
effectiveness and efficiency of ODA for agriculture, rural
development and food security where there are coherent
development strategies reflected in government budget
priorities.
7.2 Working with African countries to reduce
poverty through improved sustainable productivity and
competitiveness – including by:
Supporting the development
and the responsible use of tried and tested new technology,
including biotechnology, in a safe manner and adapted to the
African context, to increase crop production while
protecting the environment through decreased usage of
fragile land, water and agricultural chemicals;
Studying, sharing and facilitating the responsible use
of biotechnology in addressing development needs;
Helping to improve farmers' access to key market
information through the use of traditional and cutting edge
communications technologies, while also building upon
ongoing international collaboration that strengthens
farmers' entrepreneurial skills;
Encouraging
partnerships in agriculture and water research and extension
to develop, adapt and adopt appropriate demand-driven
technologies, including for low-income resource-poor
farmers, to increase agricultural productivity and improve
ability to market agricultural, fish and food products;
Working with African countries to promote property and
resource rights;
Supporting the main-streaming of gender
issues into all agricultural and related policy together
with targeted measures to ensure the rights of women for
equal access to technology, technical support, land rights
and credits;
Working with African countries to support
the development of agricultural infrastructure including
production, transportation and markets; and,
Working
with African countries to develop sound agricultural
policies that are integrated into Poverty Reduction
Strategies.
7.3 Working to improve food security in
Africa – including by:
Working with African countries to
integrate food security in poverty reduction efforts and
promote a policy and institutional environment that enables
poor people to derive better livelihoods from agriculture
and rural development;
Working with appropriate
international organizations in responding to the dire food
shortages in Southern Africa this year;
Working with
African countries to expand efforts to improve the quality
and diversity of diets with micro-nutrients and by improving
fortification technologies;
Supporting African efforts
to establish food safety and quality control systems,
including helping countries develop legislation, enforcement
procedures and appropriate institutional frameworks; and,
Supporting efforts to improve and better disseminate
agricultural technology.
VIII. Improving Water Resource
Management
Water is essential to life. Its importance
spans a wide range of critical uses – from human drinking
water, to sanitation, to food security and agriculture, to
economic activity, to protecting the natural environment. We
have noted the importance of proper water resource
management. We note also that water management is sometimes
at the centre of threats to regional peace and security. We
also appreciate the importance of good water management for
achieving sustainable economic growth and development, and
therefore we commit to:
8. Supporting African efforts to improve water resource development and management – including by:
Supporting African efforts to promote the
productive and environmentally sustainable development of
water resources;
Supporting efforts to improve
sanitation and access to potable water;
Mobilizing
technical assistance to facilitate and accelerate the
preparation of potable water and sanitation projects in both
rural and urban areas, and to generate greater efficiency in
these sectors; and,
Supporting reforms in the water
sector aimed at decentralization, cost-recovery and enhanced
user participation.
06/27 Kananaskis Summit Document: The Kananaskis Summit Chair's Summary
06/27 Kananaskis Summit Document: Statement by G7 Leaders — Delivering on the Promise of the Enhanced HIPC Initiative
06/27 G8 Africa Action Plan Highlights
06/27 Africa Facts
06/27 Kananaskis Summit Document: The G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction
06/27 Kananaskis Summit Document: G8 Africa Action Plan
06/26 Kananaskis Summit Document: Report of the G8 Education Task Force
Strengthening Global Economic Growth and Sustainable Development
Building a New Partnership for Africa’s Development
Fighting Terrorism
Updated: 2002-06-27