By Xinhua,
Kampala : As the members of the Group of Eight (G8) will gather in Japan from Monday to Wednesday for the annual summit in Japan, Ugandan Minister of Finance Ezra Suruma has reiterated here that mutual respect should be built between donor nations and recipient nations.
Leaders from the G8 industrialized countries and delegates from several African nations are expected to have a dialogue Monday morning to discuss, among other things, African development, soaring food prices and challenges posed by the climate change in northern Japan.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, Suruma said as the financial assistance is crucial to the economic development of the African continent, African countries should have more say on how to use the financial aid.
“African countries should be allowed to negotiate on where the money can be best put in order to kick start the economic growth,” the Ugandan finance minister said.
“There should be respect. They (donor nations) should listen to our best interests,” he said.
And the Africans should also be mindful of their (rich nations) interests, he said.
“Together, we can have mutual relationship that is respectful of each other,” Suruma added.
Also in a recent interview with Xinhua, Julius Kiiza, senior lecturer of political economy at Uganda’s Makerere University, urged donor nations not to impose preconditions for providing aid to Africa.
Kiiza said because of the preconditions imposed by the donor countries, the African countries are forced to implement tailored policies from the West.
He argued that the preconditions are actually inappropriate to African countries.
Kiiza said most of the aid to Africa may be seen in surface as a measure to fast track the economic growth of the African continent, but much of it is influenced by political and commercial interests of the donor countries.
“This has forced the recipient countries to implement western style of democracy, institutional reform…which may not necessarily be viable,” the lecturer said.
“If they have political preconditions, then we have to assess against the preconditions and make judgment on whether to accept it or not,” he noted.
Kiiza said the African countries are disappointed that the aid promised by the rich nations at the G8 summit in 2005 has not been delivered.
He urged the rich nations to take actions to honor the promised aid.
At the summit in 2005 in Britain, G8 nations pledged to raise annual aid levels by 50 billion U.S. dollars by 2010, 25 billion U.S. dollars of which was for Africa.
Experts have expressed concerns about the pledge, saying donor countries may fail to meet their promises, which are not legally binding.
G8 aid to Africa will fall 40 billion U.S. dollars short of the 2005 pledge under current plans, according to a report issued last month by the Africa Progress Panel, which was set up to monitor implementation of the commitments.
African leaders, together for the African Union Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh days ago, have called on the G8 to make good on its existing promises to support African development.