[Title] Africa (G8 Gleneagles Summit)

A historic opportunity

1. This is a moment of opportunity for Africa. Its leaders have embraced a new vision for the continent's future which recognises their leading role in addressing the continent's challenges and realising its opportunities.

2. There are now just ten years in which to take the action needed for all developing countries to meet the Goals agreed at the Millennium Summit in 2000. We should continue the G8 focus on Africa, which is the only continent not on track to meet any of the Goals of the Millennium Declaration by 2015.

3. Important progress has been made. In the past five years, more than two thirds of sub-Saharan African countries have had democratic elections. Inflation is a fifth of levels a decade ago. Growth in sixteen African countries averaged over 4% in the past decade, higher than in any major developed country. 24 African countries have now signed up to have their progress reviewed by their peers. And the promotion of good governance, peace and security and economic development is at the heart of the African Union (AU) and its programme, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

4. The G8 has focussed on issues of importance to Africa at every Summit since the late 1990s (see Annex I).

Building on Progress: A Renewed Commitment to Africa

5. Further progress in Africa depends above all on its own leaders and its own people. We welcome their commitment to take responsibility for developing their continent, and to promote good governance and take action against corruption in their countries. We want to help them ensure that reforms in Africa gain momentum: today we renew our own commitment to support countries and people making such efforts.

6. We have therefore agreed a set of further measures designed to help Africa build the successful future all of us want to see, many of which will be applicable to other poor countries. These actions must be undertaken in a co-ordinated and coherent manner. Better governance, stability and peace are necessary for the private sector to grow and create jobs; a growing private sector creates more revenue for investment in health and education; increased numbers of healthy, well-skilled people will improve capacity for governance. These mutually-reinforcing actions should accelerate the selfsustaining growth of Africa and end aid dependency in the long term.

7. Our commitments today build on Africa's own efforts, set out in the AU and NEPAD strategies and programme; and on the G8's past and present commitments. Progress on the Africa Action Plan, agreed at Kananaskis, has been reviewed by our Africa Personal Representatives. We have also noted the conclusions of the recent report of the Commission for Africa. Other countries are willing to share their experience of successful economic development, including in Asia, and we recognise that South-South cooperation can make a significant contribution. In some areas we intend to strengthen our support for what is already working; in others a reinforced effort is required.

Peace and Stability

8. Peace is the first condition of successful development. We support Africa's efforts to build a peaceful and stable Africa. We will help Africa's fragile states to emerge successfully from crisis and conflict. We support African initiatives to prevent, mediate and resolve conflicts and consolidate peace, in the spirit of the UN Charter. And we back the African Union and the other African institutions which must continue to develop their capacity for promoting lasting peace and stability on the continent. In this regard, we are progressing with our Sea Island commitment to train and, where appropriate equip, some 75,000 troops by 2010 to take part in peace support operations worldwide, with a sustained focus on Africa. We commend and will continue to support the African Union's mission in Sudan (Darfur), just as we are contributing to UNMIS's operation in southern Sudan.

9. We will enhance our support for the development of Africa's capacity to resolve conflicts and keep the peace, consistent with our national laws, by:

(a) Providing co-ordinated technical assistance to the African Standby Force and helping to establish planning elements at the African Union HQ and its regional brigades.

(b) Supporting the AU in developing its ability to deploy unarmed military observer missions, civilian policing operations and gendarmerie/carabinieri-like forces as part of stabilisation and peace support operations.

(c) Providing support, including flexible funding, for African peace support operations including transport, logistics and financial management capacity.

(d) Countering terrorism in Africa, including through co-operation with the AU Anti-Terrorism Centre in Algiers.

(e) Supporting efforts from regional and international organisations to reinforce African capacity to promote peace and stability.

10. We will also help Africa prevent conflict and ensure that previous conflicts do not re-emerge, by:

(a) Working in partnership with the AU and sub-regional organisations, including by providing resources to develop their planned Continental Early Warning System and implement the AU Panel of the Wise to address and mediate conflicts before they erupt into violence.

(b) Enhancing the capabilities of the AU and African sub-organisations, building on the existing G8 Action Plan for Expanding Global Capability for Peace Support Operations, as well as commitments from the Evian and Kananaskis Summits. To support this, we will work to promote within our respective governments mechanisms for more effective and flexible crisis response and promote faster, more comprehensive and coordinated partner responses engaging ourselves, the UN, key regional organisations and other partners.

(c) Maximising the contribution of local and multinational companies to peace and stability including through working with the UN Global Compact and developing OECD guidance for companies working in zones of weak governance.

(d) Working to implement UN sanctions regimes more effectively by improved co-ordination of existing monitoring mechanisms and more efficient use of independent expertise.

(e) Acting effectively in the UN and in other fora to combat the role played by 'conflict resources' such as oil, diamonds and timber, and other scarce natural resources, in starting and fuelling conflicts.

(f) Improving the effectiveness of transfer controls over small arms and light weapons, including at inter alia the review conference of the UN Programme of Action on small arms and light weapons in 2006, and taking effective action in Africa to collect and destroy illicit small arms. Development of international standards in arms transfers, including a common understanding of governments' responsibilities, would be an important step towards tackling the undesirable proliferation of conventional arms. We agree on the need for further work to build a consensus for action to tackle the undesirable proliferation of conventional arms.

(g) Working in support of the UN Secretary General's proposed new Peace Building Commission.

11. We will give greater attention and resources to reconstruction and reconciliation in post-conflict countries by:

(a) Providing rapid and flexible multilateral and bilateral debt relief for postconflict countries, where appropriate.

(b) Allocating grant financing for reconstruction needs, including the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) into civilian society of former combatants.

12. We will work urgently with other partners to improve the timeliness, predictability, effectiveness and availability of humanitarian assistance by:

(a) Helping to fund sufficiently the urgent needs of millions of Africans caught up in the humanitarian emergencies identified by the UN in Africa, especially in the so-called 'forgotten humanitarian crises', so that coordinated emergency funding is available in time to save lives at risk.

(b) Working with the UN to improve the tracking, reporting, and co-ordination of the resources provided for humanitarian emergencies.

(c) Supporting the UNSG's work to strengthen the international humanitarian response system. The G8 members are working with the Secretary General to improve the speed of response, efficiency, responsibility, accountability and transparency of humanitarian assistance operations on the ground, while respecting the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence of humanitarian assistance.

(d) Working with the African Union to promote the increased engagement of African Governments to ensure that there is safe and unimpeded access to the population for humanitarian personnel, and to support, address and resolve humanitarian crises.

Promoting Good and Responsive Governance

13. We welcome African institutions' engagement in promoting and enhancing effective governance, including NEPAD's strong statements in support of democracy and human rights. Well-governed states are critical to peace and security; economic growth and prosperity; ensuring respect for human rights and promotion of gender equality and the delivery of essential services to the citizens of Africa. We will support African countries' efforts to make their governments more transparent, capable and responsive to the will of their people; improve governance at the regional level and across the continent; and strengthen the African institutions that are essential to this.

14. In response to this African commitment, we will:

(a) Help strengthen the AU and NEPAD, including through:

- support, including flexible funding, for the African Union and other pan-African institutions such as the Pan-African Parliament;

- support to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), while respecting African ownership, such as through contributions to the APRM Secretariat Trust Fund;

- appropriate and co-ordinated support to African countries in the implementation of their good governance national strategies, including their country action plans for implementation of APRM recommendations.

(b) Support greater transparency in public financial management, including revenues, budgets and expenditure, licences, procurement and public concessions, including through increased support to capacity building in those African countries that are taking credible action against corruption and increasing transparency and accountability.

(c) Support African partners in signing and ratifying the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption and provide support towards the implementation of the AU Convention.

(d) As part of our work to combat corruption and promote transparency, increase support to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and countries implementing EITI, including through financial and technical measures. We call on African resource-rich countries to implement EITI or similar principles of transparency and on the World Bank, IMF and regional development banks to support them. We support the development of appropriate criteria for validating EITI implementation. Transparency should be extended to other sectors, as the G8 is doing in pilot projects.

(e) Call on African countries to implement the African Charter on Human and People's Rights and its protocols in order to encourage respect for the rights of ethnic minorities, women and children.

(f) Work vigorously for early ratification of the UN Convention Against Corruption and start discussions on mechanisms to ensure its effective implementation. Work to establish effective mechanisms, consistent with the provisions of UNCAC and previous G8 commitments, within our own administrations for the recovery of assets, including those stolen through corruption, taking into account final disposal of confiscated property where appropriate, and to return assets to their legitimate owners. We encourage all countries to promulgate rules to deny entry and safe haven, when appropriate, to officials and individuals found guilty of public corruption, those who corrupt them, and their assets.

(g) To further protect the international financial system from illicit corruption proceeds, we encourage all countries to require enhanced due diligence for financial transactions involving politically exposed persons. In addition, we urge all countries to comply with UN Security Council resolution 1532 to identify and freeze the assets of designated persons.

(h) Reduce bribery by the private sector by rigorously enforcing laws against the bribery of foreign public officials, including prosecuting those engaged in bribery; strengthening anti-bribery requirements for those applying for export credits and credit guarantees, and continuing our support for peer review, in line with the OECD Convention; encouraging companies to adopt anti-bribery compliance programmes and report solicitations of bribery; and by committing to co-operate with African governments to ensure the prosecution of those engaged in bribery and bribe solicitation.

(i) Take concrete steps to protect financial markets from criminal abuse, including bribery and corruption, by pressing all financial centres to obtain and implement the highest international standards of transparency and exchange of information. We will continue to support Financial Stability Forums ongoing work to promote and review progress on the implementation of international standards, particularly the new process concerning offshore financial centres that was agreed in March 2005, and the OECD's high standards in favour of transparency and exchange of information in all tax matters.

Investing in People

15. Life expectancy is increasing in every continent except Africa, where it has been falling for the last 20 years. We will continue to support African strategies to improve health, education and food security.

16. To unlock the vast human potential of Africa, we will work with Africa to create an environment where its most capable citizens, including teachers and healthcare workers, see a long-term future on the continent. We will work with committed national governments to assist in creating that environment.

17. The core aims for education and health are stated in the UN Millennium Declaration. We support our African partners' commitment to ensure that by 2015 all children have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality, and have access to basic health care (free wherever countries choose to provide this) to reduce mortality among those most at risk from dying from preventable causes, particularly women and children; and so that the spread of HIV, malaria and other killer diseases is halted and reversed and people have access to safe water and sanitation.

18. We will work to achieve these aims by:

(a) Working with African governments, respecting their ownership, to invest more in better education, extra teachers and new schools. This is made more crucial by the number of teachers dying from AIDS. As part of this effort, we will work to support the Education for All agenda in Africa, including continuing our support for the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) and our efforts to help FTI-endorsed countries to develop sustainable capacity and identify the resources necessary to pursue their sustainable educational strategies. Our aim is that every FTI-elected country will develop the capacity and have the resources necessary to implement their sustainable education strategies.

(b) Helping develop skilled professionals for Africa's private and public sectors, through supporting networks of excellence between African's and other countries' institutions of higher education and centres of excellence in science and technology institutions. In this respect, we look forward to the outcome of the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society taking place in November in Tunis.

(c) Investing in improved health systems in partnership with African governments, by helping Africa train and retain doctors, nurses and community health workers. We will ensure our actions strengthen health systems at national and local level and across all sectors since this is vital for long-term improvements in overall health, and we will encourage donors to help build health capacity.

(d) With the aim of an AIDS-free generation in Africa, significantly reducing HIV infections and working with WHO, UNAIDS and other international bodies to develop and implement a package for HIV prevention, treatment and care, with the aim of as close as possible to universal access to treatment for all those who need it by 2010. Limited health systems capacity is a major constraint to achieving this and we will work with our partners in Africa to address this, including supporting the establishment of reliable and accountable supply chain management and reporting systems. We will also work with them to ensure that all children left orphaned or vulnerable by AIDS or other pandemics are given proper support. We will work to meet the financing needs for HIV/AIDS, including through the replenishment this year of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; and actively working with local stakeholders to implement the '3 Ones' principles in all countries.

(e) Building on the valuable G8 Global HIV/AIDS vaccine enterprise, increasing direct investment and taking forward work on market incentives, as a complement to basic research, through such mechanisms as Public Private Partnerships and Advance Purchase Commitments to encourage the development of vaccines, microbicides and drugs for AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other neglected diseases. We note continuing work to explore establishing an International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology centre in Africa to help research into vaccines for the diseases that are afflicting the continent.

(f) Supporting the Polio Eradication Initiative for the post eradication period in 2006-8 through continuing or increasing our own contributions toward the $829 million target and mobilising the support of others. We are pleased that the funding gap for 2005 has been met.

(g) Working with African countries to scale up action against malaria to reach 85% of the vulnerable populations with the key interventions that will save 600,000 children's lives a year by 2015 and reduce the drag on African economies from this preventable and treatable disease. By contributing to the additional $1.5bn a year needed annually to help ensure access to antimalaria insecticide-treated mosquito nets, adequate and sustainable supplies of Combination Therapies including Artemisin, presumptive treatment for pregnant women and babies, household residual spraying and the capacity in African health services to effectively use them, we can reduce the burden of malaria as a major killer of children in sub-Saharan Africa.

(h) Helping to meet the needs identified by the Stop TB Partnership. We also support the call for a high-level conference of Health Ministers for TB in 2006.

(i) Implementing the G8 water action plan agreed at Evian, in partnership with the AfDB initiative on rural water and sanitation, including through increasing aid in this sector; maintaining political momentum and commitment on the water issue; and reinforcing co-ordination and monitoring mechanisms.

(j) Reconfirming our Sea Island commitment to help countries that are willing to make a political commitment to develop comprehensive food security and famine prevention programmes.

Promoting Growth

19. Private enterprise is a prime engine of growth and development. Enhancing governance and the rule of law will attract more and broader private investment, including FDI, which is the basic condition for inclusive growth. African countries need to build a much stronger investment climate: we will continue to help them do so, including through the promotion of a stable, efficient and harmonised legal business framework (noting the work of the OHADA business legal unification process and the improvement of the investment climate through the OECD/NEPAD Investment Initiative) and increased access to finance including strong support for the development of micro-finance in Africa. Partnership between the public and private sectors is crucial.

20. Investment is needed in sustainable agriculture, which is the most important economic sector for most Africans. African governments have made a commitment to invest 10% of their budgets in agriculture. We will strengthen our support for their commitment.

21. An ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Round is the best way to make trade work for Africa and increase African countries' integration into the global economy. The Hong Kong Ministerial in December will be a critical step towards a successful outcome of the DDA in 2006. Our separate statement on the DDA gives more details of the potential benefits. The World Bank estimates that completing these negotiations could lift 140 million people out of poverty.

22. We agree:

(a) To increase our help to developing countries to build the physical, human and institutional capacity to trade, including trade facilitation measures. We are committed to granting additional support for trade capacity building to assist LDCs, particularly in Africa, to take advantage of the new opportunities to trade which will result from a positive conclusion of the DDA. We call on the IFIs to submit proposals to the annual meetings for additional assistance to countries to develop their capacity to trade and ease adjustment in their economies;

(b) To provide resources and training to help African producers meet current and new health and safety standards for food exports and other products. We will encourage our national standard setting and regulatory bodies to work with African exporters and national authorities, and we will support African nations in playing their full part in the relevant international standard setting bodies, in order to facilitate African export to our markets.

(c) To support African efforts to increase South-South trade and regional integration, to improve specialisation and create more jobs and prosperity;

(d) To improve the utilisation of our preference schemes by ensuring that rules (particularly rules of origin) are transparent and simple to follow and do not inadvertently preclude eligible developing countries from taking advantage of those schemes. We support the efforts underway by the World Bank and others to address concerns regarding trade preference erosion. We further agree to report back on progress to future presidencies.

23. Infrastructure and supply-side weaknesses often prevent the poorest countries from exploiting their trading opportunities and need to be addressed. To boost growth, attract new investment and contribute to building Africa's capacity to trade we will:

(a) Continue our work to build an international infrastructure consortium involving the AU, NEPAD, World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB), recognised by NEPAD as the lead infrastructure agency, to facilitate infrastructure investment, including in cross-border infrastructure, in Africa. This should achieve more effective and larger-scale infrastructure activity to back Africa's priorities, and to identify and overcome project development, financing, and business environment constraints, recognising the comparative advantages of different donors and the private sector.

(b) Support investment, enterprise development and innovation, for example through support to the AU/NEPAD Investment Climate Facility, the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance with the AfDB, and other appropriate institutions, to invest in SMEs and microfinance, and through actions by the relevant International Financial Institutions and African governments to increase access to financial services through increased partnerships between commercial banks and micro-finance institutions, including through support for diversification of financial services available to the poor and effective use of remittances.

(c) Support a comprehensive set of actions to raise agricultural productivity, strengthen urban-rural linkages and empower the poor, based on national initiatives and in cooperation with the AU/NEPAD Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and other African initiatives.

(d) Encourage best practice in responsible investment through African private sector networks, including support to the UN Global Compact.

(e) Welcome the growing market for fair-trade goods and their positive effect in supporting livelihoods and increasing public awareness of the positive role of trade in development.

(f) Support youth employment in Africa for both men and women, including vocational education and training relevant to market demands.

Financing for Development

24. Successful development requires sustained and consistent progress across the range of areas we have identified: strengthened peace and security, better governance, improved healthcare and education, enhanced growth, access to markets, and capacity to trade. Implementation will require access to additional resources for Africa and other developing countries. Some of this can and should come from developing countries' domestic resources, FDI and other private flows and increased trade. This will increase as developing country economies grow. The primary responsibility for this lies with developing countries themselves. Additional resources will also come from remittances and donations from private individuals in developed countries, and we welcome our citizens' generous response to appeals for the Tsunami, Sudan and other emergencies. Some of this financing can come from environmental initiatives. Support for peace and security is also relevant to building the foundation for development. We invite the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD to pursue its work on the way different flows to developing countries are taken into account.

25. A substantial increase in official development assistance, in addition to other resources, is required in order to achieve the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration (the Millennium Goals) by 2015, as we agreed at Monterrey in 2002. Fulfilling this commitment is needed in order to consolidate and build on recent progress in Africa, to stimulate the growth that will increase other resources and to enable African and other poor countries over time to reduce their aid dependency.

26. G8 countries and other donors have made substantial commitments to increase aid, through a variety of means, including traditional development assistance, debt relief and innovative financing mechanisms. Our commitments are set out in Annex II.

27. The commitments of the G8 and other donors will lead to an increase in official development assistance to Africa of $25 billion a year by 2010, more than doubling aid to Africa compared to 2004.

28. As we confront the development challenges in Africa, we recognise there is a global development challenge facing the world as a whole. On the basis of donor commitments and other relevant factors, the OECD estimates that official development assistance from the G8 and other donors to all developing countries will now increase by around $50 billion a year by 2010, compared to 2004.

29. The G8 has agreed a proposal to cancel 100% of outstanding debts of eligible Heavily Indebted Poor Countries to the IMF, IDA and African Development Fund, and to provide additional resources to ensure that the financing capacity of the IFIs is not reduced, as set out in the statement of 11 June. We welcome the agreement in principle by the Paris Club aimed at achieving a sustainable exit for Nigeria from its debt problems.

30. These substantial extra resources will be focused on countries where they will make a difference, to accelerate progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Goals, and help us to achieve the objectives set out in this statement. We will focus aid on low income countries, which are committed to growth and poverty reduction, to democratic, accountable and transparent government, and to sound public financial management, although aid is also important to respond to humanitarian crises and countries affected by or at risk of conflict.

31. It is up to developing countries themselves and their governments to take the lead on development. They need to decide, plan and sequence their economic policies to fit with their own development strategies, for which they should be accountable to all their people.

32. We need to support sound development strategies with better aid, to ensure it is used most effectively. We will implement and be monitored on all commitments we made in the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness, including enhancing efforts to untie aid; disbursing aid in a timely and predictable fashion, through partner country systems where possible; increasing harmonisation and donor co-ordination, including through more programme-based approaches.

Partnership and mutual accountability: Gleneagles and beyond

33. We need an effective mechanism to take forward our high-level strategic dialogue with Africa, focussing on the results of our joint efforts. We acknowledge the productive role played by the Africa Personal Representatives and the Africa Partnership Forum. We agree that the APF should be strengthened. We recommend that the APF meet twice yearly at an appropriately high level, reviewing progress by all the partners involved in this joint undertaking not only by the G8 but also by Africans and other development partners. We encourage the APF to develop a process for monitoring, reporting and reviewing progress against milestones and benchmarks and to enable corrective action to be taken. There should be sufficient support for the APF to enable effective follow up, including by the G8, on implementation between meetings, working with AU/NEPAD, OECD/DAC, ECA and other organisations.

Conclusion: from Gleneagles to New York and Hong Kong

34. Through our agreement today and the previous G8 commitments we will continue to support the efforts of African countries to build lasting peace and prosperity. Many of the proposed measures have a wider applicability to the developing world as a whole and are consistent with the vision set out in the UN Secretary General's proposals. We call on other world leaders and institutions to work together to achieve a successful UN Summit in September that will take forward this agenda, building on the impetus that we have created today.

35. We also call on other world leaders to join us in ensuring a successful WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong in December, leading to the conclusion in 2006 of the Doha Development Round with an agreement to a trade package that has the potential to help lift millions out of poverty. It is in all our interests that we succeed.

Annex I

The G8 and international response

- Birmingham in 1998 agreed that there was a need to enhance the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative, launched at the Lyon summit in 1996, to provide more relief to more poor countries.

- Cologne in 1999 launched the enhanced HIPC initiative. This has helped to increase social expenditure in 27, mostly African, countries by around $4bn per year.

- Okinawa in 2000 was the first G8 Summit to invite African leaders to outreach dialogue. It also began the process that led to the establishment of the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria in Genoa in 2001.

- At Genoa, in 2001, the G8 recognised the need to respond to NEPAD through the Genoa Plan for Action and appointed Africa Personal Representatives to recommend specific actions.

- At Kananaskis in 2002, the G8 launched the Africa Action Plan inaugurating the new partnership between the G8 and Africa. We said then that this would help to ensure that no country committed to poverty reduction, good governance and economic reform would be denied the chance to achieve the Millennium Goals through lack of finance.

- At Evian in 2003, the G8 announced specific measures to take these forward, a Water action plan and a new G8/Africa plan to enhance African capabilities to undertake peace support operations; and created the Africa Partnership Forum for dialogue between Africans and development partners beyond the G8.

- At Sea Island in 2004, the G8 agreed further measures to tackle HIV and polio, to enhance the role of the private sector in development, to promote transparency and fight corruption, to take additional steps to enhance productivity and to expand global peace support operations capabilities.

- And in addition to this, each G8 government has made its own specific commitments in support of Africa. We have collectively doubled our aid to Africa since 2001.

Annex II

Financing commitments (as submitted by individual G8 members)

- The EU has pledged to reach 0.7 per cent ODA/GNI by 2015 with a new interim collective target of 0.56 per cent ODA/GNI by 2010. The EU will nearly double its ODA between 2004 and 2010 from €34.5 billion to €67 billion. At least 50% of this increase should go to sub-Saharan Africa.

- Germany (supported by innovative instruments) has undertaken to reach 0.51 per cent ODA/GNI in 2010 and 0.7 per cent ODA/GNI in 2015.

- Italy has undertaken to reach 0.51 per cent ODA/GNI in 2010 and 0.7% ODA/GNI in 2015

- France has announced a timetable to reach 0.5 per cent ODA/GNI in 2007, of which 2/3 for Africa, - representing at least a doubling of ODA since 2000 - and 0.7 per cent ODA/GNI in 2012.

- The UK has announced a timetable to reach 0.7 per cent ODA/GNI by 2013 and will double its bilateral spending in Africa between 2003/04 and 2007/08.

- A group of the countries above firmly believe that innovative financing mechanisms can help deliver and bring forward the financing needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. They will continue to consider the International Financing Facility (IFF), a pilot IFF for Immunisation and a solidarity contribution on plane tickets to finance development projects, in particular in the health sector, and to finance the IFF. A working group will consider the implementation of these mechanisms.

- The US proposes to double aid to Sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2010. It has launched the Millennium Challenge Account, with the aim of providing up to $5 billion a year, the $15 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, an initiative to address Humanitarian Emergencies in Africa of more than $2 billion in 2005, and a new $1.2 billion malaria initiative. The US will continue to work to prevent and mitigate conflict, including through the 5-year, $660 million Global Peace Operations Initiative.

- Japan intends to increase its ODA volume by $10 billion in aggregate over the next five years. Japan has committed to double its ODA to Africa over the next three years and launched the $5 billion 'Health and Development Initiative' over the next five years. For the 'Enhanced Private Sector Assistance (EPSA) for Africa' facility, Japan will provide more than $1 billion over 5 years in partnership with the AfDB.

- Canada will double its international assistance from 2001 to 2010, with assistance to Africa doubling from 2003/4 to 2008/9. As well, the 2005 Budget provided an additional C$342 million to fight diseases that mainly afflict Africa. The C$200 million Canada Investment Fund for Africa, will provide public-private risk capital for private investments and Canada will provide C$190 million to support the AU's efforts in Darfur, as well as C$90 million for humanitarian needs.

- Russia has cancelled and committed to cancel $11.3 billion worth of debts owed by African countries, including $2.2 billion of debt relief to the HIPC Initiative. On top of this, Russia is considering writing off the entire stock of HIPC countries' debts on non-ODA loans. This will add $750m to those countries debt relief.