After the concerts, Africa still suffers

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Despite the high-profile push for African aid that dominated July's Live 8 rock concerts and the Group of Eight summit of wealthy nations in Scotland, the world's poorest continent remains mired in debt.

The question -- said Salih Booker, executive director of Africa Action, a Washington-based advocacy group -- is: "Who owes whom?"

Mr. Booker is at one end of a sharp debate over how to deal with a massive debt load that cripples Africa's ability to liberate itself from extreme poverty, illiteracy and the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

"Our repeated calls to cancel Africa's debt fell on deaf ears, although we are asking for justice, not charity," Mr. Booker said.

The issue got rare high-level attention at the G-8 summit, when leaders of key industrial nations promised to write off $40 billion amid a global set of rock concerts seeking to eliminate Africa's debt entirely.

But the Bush administration warned that the plan to cancel $40 billion of debt owed by poor countries could come unglued if attempts are made to significantly change it.

The debate is likely to figure prominently at the annual meetings Sept. 24 and 25 of the 184-nation World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The G-8 agreement would initially cancel debt repayments that 18 poor countries owe to the two international lenders. At the end of last year, the world's poorest countries owed a combined $144 billion to multilateral lenders, such as the World Bank and IMF, to other countries and to private banks.

Corruption festers

Governance is the problem, not debt, said Roger Bate, a resident fellow with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).