Little new seen in plan to aid Africa

Naysayers say the G8's proposal is full of loop holes

By David Schepp BBC News Online North America business reporter in Calgary

As news of the latest Africa aid package put together by leaders from the world's richest nations filtered into media headquarters in downtown Calgary, it was hard to discern what was new.

The Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations, gathered for their annual meeting in the western Canadian resort town of Kananaskis, proposed helping 40 countries on the African continent out of their dire straights with promises of more assistance.

But the aid comes with strict calls for the African nations to eradicate corruption, improve human rights and honour the rule of law.

The G8 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US - have pledged up to $12bn (£7.9bn) a year in aid by 2006.

In exchange for such reforms, rich nations agreed to renew investment and supply aid to battle HIV/Aids, fight poverty and provide basic education.

Nearly news

For aid agencies, the promises of the developed world, as delivered by the host of the this year's meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, had déjà vu written all over them.

To them, the scheme sounds conspicuously similar to pledges of support made in Monterrey earlier this year and in Doha last November.

Activists in Ottawa mooned the media

"The G8 response to Nepad [New Partnership for Africa's Development] puts new labels on old policies and repackages previous commitments," said a spokesman for Catholic Release Services in a statement.

Nonetheless, for the hundreds of journalists toiling away inside the Telus Convention Centre in centre city Calgary - 60 miles away from Kananaskis - it was at least news.

To the moon

The staleness of the announcement of aid to Africa paralleled the relative docility of activists during the course of the two-day summit.

The lack of action - on either the part of activists protesting the gathering of the G8, or the leaders themselves - has made for a largely unremarkable event.

Despite previous violent protests last year in Quebec City and Genoa, Italy, where one protester died, this year's G8 gathering in Alberta has been without incident - not so much as an arrest.

In fact, demonstrations were more fervent 2,100 miles east in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, where protesters at least had the decency to moon the press.

With the two-day event already wrapping up, the chances of any breaking news seems remote at best.

And while leaders from world's richest countries seemingly failed to uncover new ground, activists at least had the audacity to bare all.