Africa Needs $40b Extra Aid, Says Annan

17th June 2008

Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says Africa faces an aid shortfall of $40 billion. Speaking at the launch of a new report by the Africa Commission, he said African leaders needed to live up to their promises on good governance. Mr. Annan also chastised the industrialised world for failing to meet pledges they gave to double aid by 2010.

The current rate of increase would not hit this goal, he said. "Our reports show that at the present rate of growth the G8's pledge to double assistance to Africa by 2010 will not be fulfilled," Mr. Annan said at the launch of the report in London. But the report, written by the panel set up to monitor progress towards the Africa Commission's goals, however, failed to name which industrialised countries were not coming up with the money, the BBC reports.

The UN ex-chief singled out Zimbabwe and Darfur as two crises that had to be addressed, and called on African leaders to act. The Commission was set up in 2005 by then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair on the basis that African countries would improve their democratic credentials, while the West would double aid by 2010. Mr. Annan also warned that the global food crisis threatens to reverse what he said were many of Africa's hard-fought gains.

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