By IPS Correspondents
BERLIN, Jun 30 2005 (IPS)

Fresh money for the world’s weakest economies will be a touchy topic when the world’s economically most powerful nations meet next week in Scotland. While Africa hopes for increased development funds, some G8 nations, like Germany, first want to see more progress on reforms.

”We want the G8 to recommit for support at a scale that will enable us to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015,” said Wiseman Nkuhlu, chief executive of the African ‘renewal framework’ NEPAD, in an interview with IPS.

African leaders are asking for a doubling of development assistance in three years and more predictable support on a multi-year basis for the African Union’s (AU) peace and security programme.

”We, the G8, decided in 2001 to support NEPAD on the foundation that it was a vision of reform and not an instrument to generate more development aid,” said Uschi Eid, the personal representative of German chancellor Gerhard Schröder for the G8 summit and Africa. ”If that foundation of the contract has changed, we should be told so.”

Eid, who was speaking at a panel discussion in Berlin hosted by the German development agency GTZ, said there were two schools of thought within the G8 (Group of Eight richest nations). While some believe in a ‘big push’ by doubling funds, Germany’s position is to support reforms before substantially increasing aid. ”In some sectors we need profound reforms, before we will invest more.”

NEPAD is the acronym for ‘New Partnership for Africa’s Development’, founded within the AU in 2001 by presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria.

Reinhard Hermle, head of VENRO, an association of non-government organisations (NGOs) concerned with development issues, criticised the fact that countries whose debt was cancelled by the G8 nations, after a decision reached by their finance ministers this month, would receive less aid, according to the ”small print”, he said.

”That would be a zero-sum game, of a logic I do not understand,” Hermle added. He hoped for clarification by the leaders of the G8 nations, which are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Critics frequently claim that the countries of Africa could not even absorb increased funds if they were actually disbursed.

But Nkuhlu said ”I believe there are a large number of African countries making huge progress, which are well positioned to absorb higher levels of support.” An increase in funding would not change the NEPAD agenda, he stressed, and it would be an incentive for those who lag behind to catch up.

Hermle, on the other hand, made a strong case to take care of those regions hardest hit by crises, to avoid ”black holes” in Africa – countries that have no real government.

His colleague Hans-Joachim Preuß of the development organisation Welthungerhilfe told IPS that many NGOs could absorb the funds for projects even in societies torn apart by civil war. ”The NGOs already do the dirty work for the governments in many countries,” he said.

Nkuhlu complained that the costs for receiving aid were very high as most of it was on a bilateral basis and the recipient countries had to deal with a large number of donors. He suggested that a significant portion should be pooled with the African Development Bank.

NEPAD also includes a peer review mechanism, where countries open themselves up to inspection by governance experts to determine whether they have conformed to certain principles like rule of law, property rights and human rights.

The review process is supported with 2.4 million euros by Germany. But Eid criticised that African leaders did not speak out clearly against human rights violations by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the government of Sudan in the Darfur region.

Preuß said it was ”pathetic” that NEPAD did not talk clearly about what was happening in Sudan and Zimbabwe. ”They have to show that the peer review mechanism is worth the paper it is written upon,” he added.

The G8 meets Jul. 6-8 in the Scottish town of Gleneagles. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, host of the summit, has declared African development the top priority along with climate change.

Besides debt cancellation and increased funding for development, NGOs and African nations also hope to see progress towards the abolition of subsidies for agricultural exports.

”We have won the moral argument,” said Nkuhlu, explaining the strategy of African leaders to mobilise popular support for their demands. But he also underlined that African administrations had to be serious on achieving good governance and fighting corruption. ”Once we become more and more reliable, our partners cannot stop short of delivering our demands.”

Nkuhlu said the attitudes of G8 leaders were softening on the important matters, but he added: ”Whatever we will get, it is not going to be the solution for everything.”

Excerpt: