Helping Africa

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The Group of Eight (G-8) summit, which convenes in Scotland today, will ostensibly focus on efforts to "make poverty history" in Africa. As host of the summit that will bring together the leaders of Russia and seven wealthy industrialized democracies (Great Britain, the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Canada), British Prime Minister Tony Blair chose the meeting's theme of massively increasing aid to Africa. Several months ago, the Commission on Africa, which was created by Mr. Blair, recommended that African aid should be increased by $25 billion per year by 2010. The G-8 leaders are also expected to approve a debt-relief plan that would cancel $40 billion in bad loans owed by 20 nations, mostly in Africa.

The G-8 meeting closely follows the Live 8 concerts that were held around the world over the weekend to focus attention on Africa's plight. The G-8 meeting also follows an African Union summit in Libya, where, sadly, African leaders could not muster the courage to condemn the anti-democratic, growth-destroying policies of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

Nobody can deny that Africa's problems are severe, and getting worse. Over the past 15 years, life expectancy in Africa has fallen from 50 years to 46 years (15 years below India and Bangladesh). Africa's per capita income has declined 13 percent since the 1980s, while the number of Africans living in "extreme poverty," which is defined as less than $1 per day, has doubled.

If writing off bad loans and increasing foreign aid by the amount recommended by Mr. Blair would eliminate poverty in Africa, few would complain about the cost. But as Jeffrey Sparshott reported yesterday in The Washington Times, 38 of the world's poorest nations, mostly in Africa, received $40 billion in debt relief between 1989 and 2002, while piling up $93 billion in new loans. Today, their cumulative debt burden totals $144 billion. Moreover, William Easterly, a development economist who spent years at the World Bank, has tallied nearly $600 billion (measured in today's dollars) in foreign aid that was dispensed to Africa between 1960 and 2003. Then there is the matter of corruption, perhaps best exemplified by oil-rich, dirt-poor Nigeria. Citing figures released last month by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the London Telegraph reported that during the 45 years since Britain granted Nigeria independence in 1960, a succession of despots squandered nearly $400 billion.

The United States, which has been routinely ridiculed for its supposedly stingy foreign-aid contributions, has opened its markets throughout the postwar years, providing poor nations during the past 60 years an unparalleled opportunity to develop and prosper. The other members of the G-8 should welcome African exports, including its food, and agree to dismantle agricultural subsidies.

Compared to the $25 billion increase in African aid sought by Mr. Blair, the European Union spends more than twice that amount each year on its common agricultural policy. As for the $1 billion per year that the $40 billion debt-relief initiative is projected to save poor African nations, the International Energy Agency just reported that the recent rise in oil prices will likely cost poor African nations more than $10 billion per year, most of which will be going into the pockets of OPEC.