The G8’s Partnership with Africa

Background

There are also positive developments in governance and security, despite persistent regional crises. Protracted, brutal armed conflicts have been resolved in countries like Angola, Burundi, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Uganda. At the same time, democratic processes have advanced strongly since the first national conferences in the early 1990s: while presidential elections were held in only three countries before 1990, 39 out of the 46 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding the island states of the Indian Ocean) have held presidential elections since then. And there have been 34 multi-party presidential elections since 2004.

The G8 has a strong and longstanding partnership with Africa. The leaders of the founding countries of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) as well as the chairs of the African Union and NEPAD have been associated for a number of years with the G8 Summit. NEPAD is an initiative that was launched in 2001 by five African heads of state (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa) and has since become a fully-fledged body of the African Union. At the Kananaskis Summit in 2002, the G8 adopted an action plan for Africa and set up a network of Personal Representatives for Africa for the G8 heads of state and government to strengthen dialogue with NEPAD. In 2003, the Africa Partnership Forum was launched on France’s initiative after the Évian Summit. The forum has extended dialogue to the main bilateral and multilateral partners in Africa’s development.

The G8’s commitment to Africa has been reflected tangibly. At Gleneagles, the G8 members and other donors pledged to increase their official development assistance to Africa by $25 billion by 2010, which is double the 2004 amount. In 2009, total ODA for Africa rose to $47 billion, an increase of $22 billion (or 90%) on 2004, in current dollars. The G8 countries provide almost 70% of total global ODA, and allocate an average of 36% of that aid to Africa. France is the world’s second-biggest donor. It spent more than $12 billion on ODA in 2009 and allocates 58% of its bilateral aid to Africa.

Examples of the G8’s action for Africa include:

 Cancellation of the poorest countries’ debt, to which the G8 has made a strong contribution since the Lyon Summit in 1996;

 The creation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2001 to spur efforts to combat those pandemics. Since then, the fund has provided the bulk of funding for access to AIDS treatment and has thus made a major contribution to achieving the goal of universal access to AIDS treatment;

 In 2004, the G8 pledged to train 75,000 African troops for peacekeeping and security, mainly in Africa. The pledge has been more than fulfilled.

Objectives of the French presidency of the G8



 Politically, the following questions may be discussed: What is Africa’s role in global governance? How can we help build African capabilities to deal with regional crises and new common threats? How can we bolster security and development in the Sahel and Somalia? How can we fight transatlantic trafficking (new drug routes)?

 When it comes to development, France plans to continue monitoring G8 commitments (accountability), building on the initiative taken by the Canadian presidency in 2010. In 2011, a report will focus on commitments made in the areas of health and food security, so that we can discuss results and best practices in these two areas. An important objective will likewise be to broaden the transparency efforts that G8 members have already begun to include our partners, especially our African ones, in the spirit of mutual and shared accountability.

 We will also address the idea of encouraging development of the private sector, a growth driver in Africa.

Learn more about the G8 here