Thursday, July 7, 2005
The private sector is convinced that it can contribute to one of the G8 summit?s key aims by playing to its strengths.
As the G8 leaders? summit opens at Gleneagles in Scotland in early July, world poverty is expected to be high on the agenda. The decision to cancel all debt for 18 developing countries this month has set the ball rolling.
British prime minister Tony Blair, who heads the G8 group this year, has repeatedly said since the World Economic Forum in January that Africa will be a priority during the UK?s presidency of the G8 and the EU in the second half of the year.
In March, Blair launched a Commission for Africa report declaring, ?African poverty and stagnation is the greatest tragedy of our time?.
The report challenged the world?s industrialised nations to harness their resources to pull Africa out of economic and social deprivation.
Meeting the United Nations? Millennium Development Goal of halving world poverty by 2015 is going to be a long haul and the broader the support network, the more achievable the target.
Source: Ethical Corporation
