Kofi Annan addresses MPs and peers about contemporary poverty in Africa and calls for G8 promises to be fulfilled.

Annan plea on Africa poverty - Guardian

Extract:

"In a rare address to MPs and peers the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan yesterday marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain by arguing that an attack on contemporary poverty in Africa was the best way to heal the wounds of slavery.

Mr Annan rejected calls for reparations, saying: "Many Africans believe history has not yet repaired past wounds at all. The movement for reparations is fuelled by the desire for recognition. This is a battle better fought in the development domain."

Speaking in the Lords Gallery, Mr Annan was introduced by John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, who has overseen much of the British commemoration. Mr Prescott expressed the government's "deep regret and sorrow" over the trade.

Mr Annan said: "A bold investment in addressing poverty in Africa, as promised by the G8 in Gleneagles, would be the best way to heal the wounds of the past and turn the page.""

The West's foot-dragging over aid pledges to Africa was described last night as "grotesque" and a threat to the lives of the world's poor

In 2005, G8 pledged $50bn for Africa. Now the reality - Guardian

Extract:

"The west's foot-dragging over aid pledges to Africa was described last night as "grotesque" and a threat to the lives of the world's poor by the body set up by Tony Blair to monitor the results of Britain's Gleneagles summit.

Almost two years after the G8 group of leading industrial nations promised to boost development assistance by $50bn a year by 2010, the Africa Progress Panel headed by the former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said rich countries were only 10% of the way to their target.
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"If the efforts to double aid by 2010 are not increased soon it will be too late," Mr Annan said as the APP presented its findings in Berlin to the prime minister and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who will host this year's G8 summit in early June.

Mr Annan said the commitment to doubling aid had fallen year on year since Gleneagles. "In 2005 we did well, by 2006 we were sliding, and unless we now make about $5bn available a year we will not make that target," he said.

Bob Geldof, the musician and lobbyist who also sits on the APP, said the promises of "economic justice" made at Gleneagles, on which Mr Blair had staked his legacy as prime minister, were in danger of collapsing. This amounted to a "grotesque abrogation of responsibility"."