Suldaanka Posted March 11, 2005 The Commission for Africa, set up by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last year, has just delivered its report. It was tasked with finding the best ways of raising living standards on the world's poorest continent. Here are the report's key findings: Africa * Improve governance, by doing more to respect human rights and fight corruption * Progress has been made on democratisation * Provide free primary education * Improve health systems - by training extra health workers - and spending 15% of national income on health in the long term * Encourage trade within the continent * Use more aid money on infrastructure, such as ports, roads and airports * Do more to help orphans and vulnerable children Double the area of land being irrigated to grow more crops. The West * Double or treble aid flows, if the money can be absorbed - an extra $25bn a year by 2010 and a further $25bn by 2015 * Forgive 100% of debts * Move towards grants, not loans * Remove trade barriers and end subsidies on goods also exported by Africa, such as cotton and sugar * Spend more on the fight against HIV/Aids * Return billions of dollars, stolen by corrupt officials, now held in western bank accounts * Contribute $3bn a year to fund peacekeeping operations and stem the flow of arms to Africa * Spend $500m a year for 10 years to fund universities. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4337239.stm Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wind.talker Posted March 11, 2005 SXB, this looks too good to be true. Sounds like more talk from the G8 nations. All talk, no action - that's the West's Africa policy. But we'll see if this tree bears any edible fruits.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
