By David Clarke
LONDON (Reuters) - The world's richest nations are fallingshort on pledges to double aid to Africa by 2010 at a time whensoaring food prices risk destroying decades of economicprogress on the continent, a watchdog said on Monday.
The Africa Progress Panel, set up to monitor commitmentsmade at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in 2005 at Gleneagles inScotland, said in a report rich nations would be $40 billion(20 billion pounds) shy of their pledges based on currentplans.
During a visit to London, U.S. President George W. Bushsaid he would push, along with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, atthe G8 summit in Japan next month for more African aid.
"My message at the G8 is: 'looking forward to working withyou, thanks for coming to the meeting, just remember that thereare people needlessly dying on the continent of Africa today',"he told a joint news conference with Brown.
"We expect you to be more than pledge-makers, we expect youto be cheque writers," Bush said.
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan chairs the panel,which includes former Prime Minister Tony Blair, formerInternational Monetary Fund chief Michel Camdessus and leadinganti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof.
At a news conference in London, Annan also urged Europe'sleaders and G8 members to back their pledges with action.
"We are once again at a defining moment (for Africa),"Annan said. "The only promises that matter are the ones youkeep."
The report, "Africa's Development: Promises and Prospects",said debt relief agreed at the 2005 summit had been significantbecause poor countries had boosted spending on health andeducation, over and above the amount of relief.
But unless rising food prices were halted and reversed,there would be a significant increase in hunger, malnutrition,and infant and child mortality in Africa.
"The food crisis is a major setback which is creating amajor humanitarian emergency," the report said.
GLOBAL LOTTERY
Steps to halt the surge in oil and food prices will be highon the G8 agenda in Japan, partly because they are contributingto an economic slowdown in rich nations and a backlash fromdisgruntled voters.
But the Africa Progress Panel said it was increasinglyclear the pressure on government finances in rich countriesmeant they would not meet their aid pledges to Africa.
It said they should come up with innovative fundingmechanisms for increased aid, such as taxes on foreign exchangetrades, carbon taxes, levies on air travel and freighttransport -- or even a global lottery.
The report said there was a critical need for a rethink oftrade policies to give Africans more access to markets and fairtrading rules so they could generate enough income to buy food.
It said the market for fertilisers should be liberalised aspart of multilateral trade talks so more were produced in a bidto boost agricultural output worldwide.
Developed nations should review subsidies for biofuels asthe growth of crops as an energy source may be hurting foodproduction and contributing to global food price rises.
Also, with climate change likely to hurt food production inAfrica more severely than other parts of the world, richnations should spend more on renewable energy sources on thecontinent.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
