G8 promises doubling of aid

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The G8 leaders issued a communiqu from their meeting in Scotland on Friday in which the pledge a doubling of aid to Africa to $50 billion per year. They also announced an aid package of $3 billion over the next few years to go to the Palestinian authority. There are conditions attached to the aid, however: leaders of the nations receiving aid must commit to democracy, good governance, and maintaining the rule of law. Among the agreements made by the leaders are expanded access to AIDS treatment in Africa, debt cancellation for the 18 poorest nations on the African continent, and work on a trade deal. Less progress was made at the Scotland meeting on an agreement on climate change. All the G8 leaders would say was that the framework of the United Nations was the appropriate forum for progress in that issue. The report from the meeting also called for liberalization of trade and promised to end farm export aid. Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo called the G8s promises on Africa a beginning that will not change the world immediately.