'Write off all Africa's debt'

Six African heads of state meeting in the Nigerian capital on Sunday called on next month's G8 summit in Scotland to cancel the debt of all African countries. In a statement the leaders commended the recent decision of finance ministers of the world's most industrialised nations to cancel the debt of 18, mostly African nations, as "progress" and called "for steps to be taken to include all African countries".

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose country holds the current rotating presidency of the African Union, chaired the meeting, which was also attended by presidents Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, John Kufuor of Ghana, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. Mozambique Prime Minister, Luisa Diogo, was also present at the meeting to consider a progress report on the UN Millennium Development Goals ahead of next month's G8 summit in Scotland, while Benin, Egypt and Senegal were also represented.

The Group of Eight industrialised countries earlier in June struck a landmark deal to write off immediately all multilateral debt owed by 18 countries, 14 of them in Africa, amounting to $40-billion. The debt relief decision by Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States concerns money owed to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank.

Debt relief has assumed a higher profile as the world struggles to meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals calling for the proportion of the world's population living on less than a dollar a day to be halved by 2015. It is also a vital part of a broad strategy to wipe away chronic poverty in Africa which British Prime Minister Tony Blair is making a centrepiece of the G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland on July 6 to 8. Britain is chairing the informal group of the world's richest nations this year.

In their statement the African leaders also asked for more funding for the African Union's peace and security programme and for development assistance to double over three years and to continue to rise so Africa can meet its millennium goals. They also called for the creation of a $20-billion development fund, managed by the African Development Bank — to finance projects in the areas of infrastructure, health, education, water, sanitation and agriculture — within the framework of the ambitious programme for African development known as NEPAD.

The Abuja meeting is the third such session of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a voluntary programme under which African countries are reviewed by other countries on issues such as good governance and public financial accountability.

Nigeria's Obasanjo said the meeting had considered Ghana and Rwanda. "In the case of the two countries that we considered today, we are generally satisfied with the reports," he told reporters. "The next two countries after Ghana and Rwanda are Mauritius and Kenya to be followed by Algeria and Nigeria," said Obasanjo.

In an opening address, Obasanjo had told the gathering: "No matter what Afro-pessimists and professional cynics might proclaim, this is progress, and it constitutes living proof of our determination and commitment to change the status quo for the better."

Meanwhile, African countries also agreed to measures to improve governance as part of the plan to boost aid flows from richer nations. Tony Blair has called for the doubling of aid flows to Africa in order to make progress towards meeting ambitious UN targets to cut extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. But progress on good government and corruption is seen as essential if the West is to agree to increased aid. Now some 23 African countries have agreed to a system of review to monitor their own political and economic performance.

The leaders considered the first reports under the review mechanism which have assessed good governance in Ghana and Rwanda. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said that the African Peer Review Mechanism (PRM) was "living proof of our determination and commitment to change the status quo for the better". The PRM is designed to enable African countries to monitor each other and promote better standards of governance. This is the first time the results of a peer review will be discussed.

The six presidents will watch a presentation on Ghana and Rwanda - uncontroversial choices given that both are firm favourites of the international community. The gathering will learn about corruption in Ghana's public service and hear a warning that HIV infection is growing at an alarming rate in Rwanda.

President Obasanjo, who is the current chairman of the African Union, is keen to demonstrate that the continent is willing and able to find solutions to its problems. New World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, who has just completed a visit of four African countries, including Nigeria, praised the new generation of African leaders for their commitment to tackling corruption.