Washington, DC — "There is between promise and reality in this summit a distance which cannot be bridged," explains Stephen Lewis, the United Nations Special Advisor on Aids, characterizing the world leaders Africa Action Plan as "disappointing", "pathetic" and "abysmal."
The recommendations in the G-8 Africa Action for dealing with the issues of HIV/AIDS are particularly disappointing, says Lewis. "The leaders of the world's richest nations were able to find $20 billion to assure the dismantling of nuclear warheads in Russia, an objective which everyone agrees with, but they couldn't find even a fraction of that to save 2,300,000 lives that are being lost every single year in Sub-Saharan Africa alone."
Throughout an interview with AllAfrica's Jim Cason shortly after the G-8 Summit in Kananaskis ended, the former Canadian Ambassador did not mince his words. Excerpts:
What is your reaction to the G-8 Africa Action Plan issued on Thursday?
Overall the G-8 summit was profoundly disappointing.
Obviously a case can be made and will be argued by both the African leaders and the G-8 leaders because they have to put the best face possible on what was done, that the G-8 acceptance of Nepad in principle and the G-8 issuance of their own Africa Action Plan in response, signals, as the Secretary General said, a possible new departure for Africa.
But, none of these summits mean anything unless they are undergirded by dollars. Otherwise down the road there is a sense of betrayal. What was so disappointing about this summit was the absence of resources for the priorities which the African leaders themselves identified.
So we are left with the old unsatisfactory, hapless pattern of individual countries deciding when and if they are going to make contributions to Africa's needs. The suggestion of $6 billion, pretending that it is new, is in fact an illusion. The $6 billion is warmed over money, previously announced in Monterey and on other occasions.
The Canadian Prime Minister wanted a guarantee that half of the future foreign aid would go to Africa. He could not get that guarantee, primarily because the United States refused to give it.
If one assumes that of the $64 billion which Africa rightly asked for in Nepad, $25 to $35 billion of that should come from outside, then the $6 billion figure is pathetic. Abysmal. And that is not even guaranteed.
There is between promise and reality in this summit a distance which cannot be bridged. And therefore those of us who want desperately to see movement, are necessarily feeling fairly wretched this morning.
What about your particular focus on gaining more money for the United Nations Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria?
Although it was included by reference in the overall document, not a penny was provided and that I think is quite a setback. I would have thought that they might have said to the Secretary General on the front of HIV/AIDS, Mr. Secretary General, we will guarantee several billion dollars a year hereafter. It may not be everything you want but we are going to crack open this impasse. Instead just silence.
By the way, how much money have you raised for the Global Fund? Where are you in terms of your pledges?
The genuine figure which should be looked at is that we need $10 billion a year for AIDS and the global fund has received $2.1 billion over three years. Which is roughly 7 percent of the total. So we are 93 percent short and not a penny was offered at the summit.
In response to HIV/AIDs generally, quite apart from the global fund, the initiatives are relatively miniscule compared to the millions of people who are dying unnecessarily.
The leaders of the world's richest nations were able to find $20 billion to assure the dismantling of nuclear warheads in Russia, and objective which everyone agrees with, but they couldn't find even a fraction of that to save 2,300,000 lives that are being lost every single year in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.
In the Nepad document, in paragraph 125, it said explicitly that we will never achieve the development unless we deal with the pandemic. In the G-8 Africa Action Plan there is a similarly worded statement, it said virtually the same thing. They say it explicitly themselves, the G-8 leaders, and then they offer not a penny to do it.
So on balance do you believe that this summit was a step forward?
These summits can actually be dangerous. One invests so much hope and expectation. This summit could have been such a turning point for Africa, it could have been realistically a tremendous new departure. And if down the road as seems likely, the resources are not there to deal with the questions raised, then the whole summit process is discredited again. That's why I use the word dangerous. There is just a certain level of fecklessness, it is not even irresponsibility, it is just fecklessness. That these summits raise expectations, and then deliver so little.
I'm cautious about that because the African leaders themselves say they are satisfied. But I have to say from my narrow perspective, I'm not yet persuaded.
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If you are disappointed, and the constituencies that you work with are probably disappointed, what is the next step? Barcelona, World Social Summit? But they are all summits?
What one learns from these fights over a lifetime is that you just grit your teeth and never give up. We are certainly being complicit in an astonishing moral abdication and that much is unforgivable. The NGOs will be even stronger now, the voices of the United Nations will be even stronger now.
I don't feel unprotected in saying what I do because I don't feel like I am saying it out of the boundary. The Secretary General yesterday was very cautious in the way he said, if the G-8 countries really respond, then this summit may come to be seen as a turning point. When you use language as qualified as "may come to be seen as," then obviously there are some reservations. You are saying to the G-8 countries, we have got to see whether or not you will honor the principles of the document.
So I just think you keep on fighting. The next moment in Barcelona. Barcelona is a mobilization point, a rallying point for huge numbers of people.
