The khaki election

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THE INSIDE VIEW

The Africa Progress Panel report, designed to hold rich and poor countries to pledges made at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005, was launched in London on 16 June. Although he later singled out Zimbabwe for opprobrium, former United Nations Secretary General and Panel member Kofi Annan avoided naming most of the African countries whose governments are breaking their promises of reform. And he failed to name the rich countries who are breaking their promises to double aid to poor countries by 2010. The Panel’s reticence seems misplaced if countries are to keep their promises. There are other questions about its work. Africa’s GDP growth has averaged more than 5% a year over the past decade, thanks mainly to better policies and commodity demand from China and India. As many African states reduce their dependence on development aid (see our analysis of East Africa), the Progress Panel might find resonance in Africa if it focused more on the iniquities of the international trading system and capital flight. Earlier this month at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town, a succession of African Trade Ministers rounded on European officials for stalling on trade and tariff reforms and the ending of rich country subsidies. European and United States’ efforts on aid and trade were again compared unfavourably to their Asian counterparts.