Conclusions and recommendations
1. It
is important that the Commission for Africa adds value, playing
to its strengths and supporting rather than undermining NEPAD.
(Paragraph 12)
2. The Commission
for Africa's report must include a comprehensive checklist showing
what commitments the G8—collectively and individually—has
made to Africa, across a range of issues including aid, trade,
debt, agricultural subsidies, arms exports, access to essential
medicines, and money laundering, and showing also what progress
has been made to date in implementing those commitments. (Paragraph
13)
3. We urge the Commission
for Africa to press for action on global governance, to ensure
that Africa has a louder voice in international organisations
such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund. (Paragraph 14)
4. Given the fundamental
role that the private sector must play in Africa's development,
we were surprised that African businessmen and women were not
better represented on the Commission. … We trust that the
voice of business—particularly African business—will
be sufficiently prominent. (Paragraph 16)
5. The Commission
for Africa, in its focus on partnership and the responsibilities
of the developed world, must not shy away from addressing the
issue of governance in developing countries. (Paragraph 18)
6. If governance in
Africa is to be democratic, providing a supportive environment
for locally-owned development strategies, rather than simply "good"
by the standards of the International Financial Institutions,
then the Commission for Africa must ensure that parliaments are
not marginalised. Shortcuts to effective governance do not exist.
If developed countries want to see sustainable and effective governance
in Africa they must, whilst encouraging moves towards good governance,
ensure that they do not undermine emerging systems of local accountability.
(Paragraph 21)
7. By committing themselves
to policy coherence for development, and establishing an administrative
process for resolving rather than tolerating policy incoherence
where it exists, governments can become more effective and cost-effective,
and—by encouraging debate about competing priorities—more
accountable too. (Paragraph 28)
8. Initiatives on
policy coherence for development such as those underway at the
OECD and at the Global Development Network, can play an important
role in helping countries to develop best practice in this area.
Governments with a real commitment to development, and to policy
coherence for development, should support such initiatives. The
Commission for Africa should encourage G8 governments to do so.
(Paragraph 34)
9. The reports by
the UK and the European Union on their contribution to meeting
the MDGs must pay sufficient attention to MDG8, and be sufficiently
detailed, so as to enable stakeholders and parliaments to hold
individual governments, as well as the EU as a whole, to account.
(Paragraph 43)
10. Countries' own
MDG8 reports are an important first step towards more systematic
and independent analysis. The Commission for Africa should encourage
the G8 to produce such reports, as a move towards building a real
partnership for development, based on two-way accountability between
the developed and developing world. The UK and EU need to show
leadership on this issue, demonstrating to other members of the
G8, and to the United Nations, that they are happy to be held
to account for promises made about MDG8. (Paragraph 44)
11. Governments could
learn a great deal from the OECD's work on institutional mechanisms
to enhance policy coherence for development. The Commission for
Africa should encourage the UK and other G8 governments to consider
whether and how they might adopt practices employed by other countries,
as presented in the OECD's work on policy coherence for development.
(Paragraph 45)
12. Coherence in support
of misguided policies, or in support of policies around which
there is no consensus, is counter-productive. Policy coherence
must not become a way of depriving developing countries of their
policy space, their right to formulate laws and regulations suited
to their own contexts and needs, based on their analysis of the
evidence. This risk can best be avoided by ensuring that developing
countries have an equal role in shaping the agenda, and ensuring
that policy-design is driven by evidence, rather than by ideology.
(Paragraph 51)
13. The Commission
for Africa should encourage the G8 to design mechanisms of mutual
accountability, so that not only do developing countries have
to show that they are making good use of the aid they receive,
but so that the developed world also has to show that it is working
hard to ensure that its development objectives and policies are
not undermined by policies relating to other issues. (Paragraph
52)
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