Oxfam urges G8 to live up to aid pledges

TOYAKO: The British charity Oxfam on Monday accused world powers of backtracking on pledges to double aid for Africa by 2010, describing their progress as "desperately slow.""They're gradually stepping away from the promises they've made," Oxfam activist Max Lawson said."We can't let them step away from their promises," he said, adding: "For rich countries this is peanuts. For African countries this is life or death."Leaders including US President George W. Bush gathered in this secluded spa resort in northern Japan for a three-day session, with eight African leaders joining the first day to take up the plight of the continent.Oxfam urged the G8 nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- to live up to their earlier promises.At the moment Canada was working to water down aid pledges while France and Italy wanted to "step away from their promises," said Lawson.The G8 promised at the Gleneagles summit in 2005 in Scotland to boost aid to Africa by a further 25 billion dollars by 2010.So far the G8 has boosted development assistance to Africa by only three billion dollars, said Oxfam's Asia and Europe director Oliver Buston."It's fair to say the progress so far has been desperately slow," he said.While Germany was stepping up aid to Africa and Britain and the US were making some progress, France slashed its aid to Africa in 2007, he noted."At a time when Germany, the UK and the US are really making an effort to increase their aid, you can't have France free-riding on their efforts."Oxfam urged Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda -- who pledged ahead of the G8 summit to double Japan's aid to Africa in five years -- to show stronger leadership as current G8 host."We hope that Japan will come up with more in the next couple of days," particularly in health and agriculture, Buston said.