Africa Hypocrisy

2005 was to be a turning point for Africa. Tony Blair launched the Commission for Africa and pledged that the continent would be a priority during the UK's presidencies of the G8 and the EU that year. We were told that security in Europe was dependent on recovery in Africa. G7 finance ministers agreed to cancel 100% of the debts owed to multilateral bodies like the International Monetary Fund. World leaders at Gleneagles assured the millions of Live8 and Make Poverty History protesters that they would double aid to Africa by 2010.

Today we learn how long the empty rhetoric promised commitment lasted – aid to sub-Saharan Africa, excluding debt relief for Nigeria, increased by just 2% last year and overall aid payments to the developing world fell by more than 5%.