Broken promises sound off-note between G8 and Africa

By Katrina Manson

FREETOWN (Reuters) - When African leaders meet their rich G8 counterparts next week the inevitable smiles will mask bitter disappointment over broken promises on both sides.

G8 nations are falling short of grand pledges they made at a summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005 to double aid to Africa by 2010. Western leaders are increasingly frustrated by Africa's lack of progress in tackling crises such as Darfur and Zimbabwe.

"I want to hold the G8 countries to their promise. When you sign a contract, you absolutely must stick to it," said Angelique Kidjo, a singer from Benin who has joined Irish rock stars Bono and Bob Geldof in campaigning against world poverty.

G8 aid to Africa will fall $40 billion short of the Gleneagles pledge under current plans, according to a report last month by an Africa Progress Panel, which was set up to monitor implementation of the 2005 commitments.

But surging oil and food prices, an economic downturn in major G8 economies and tensions over world trade talks may push Africa down the agenda this time around.

Hoping to keep the spotlight on Africa, former Boomtown Rats singer Geldof criticized the "low level of expectation" coming from the world's wealthiest countries about fighting poverty.

"I cannot stand the idea that a food crisis born out of high energy prices and increasing global prosperity is starving the super-poor in Africa," Geldof said in a statement announcing he would go to the G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan.

"None of this is helped by bad trade and subsidy policies," Geldof added in the statement, released by anti-poverty campaign groups ONE and DATA. He urged Japan to take the lead to deliver solutions for Africa's poor from the world's richest states.

"It's about time their actions lived up to their perhaps misplaced stature," Geldof said.

Geldof visited Sierra Leone last month to see for himself the impact of aid and private sector investment in the country ranked bottom of the most recent U.N. Human Development Index.

"Something more has to be done here so that people are fed," Geldof said, describing Sierra Leone, part of what was once West Africa's 'Rice Coast' as "so green it makes Ireland look beige".

Geldof's prediction Africa would be "a giant economic power by 2040" might be a stretch, but there are reasons for optimism.

Japan, for example, has already met its Gleneagles pledges.

THREAT TO POVERTY REDUCTION GOALS

Sierra Leone will save $36 million this year thanks to debt relief, partly via a G8 scheme, and is using it to restore mains power which collapsed during a devastating 1991-2002 civil war.