AFRICA ASKED the world's wealthiest nations to honour commitments on aid made three years ago, on the first day of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Japan.
The plea came against a background of soaring global prices for fuel and food, and the looming threat of millions of people falling into deeper poverty across the African continent.
Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania are among 22 countries invited to "outreach" sessions at the G8 conference in the resort area of Lake Toya in northern Japan, making it the largest gathering in the summit's 34-year history.
African leaders reportedly accused the G8 nations during yesterday's sessions of cutting back on development aid in response to domestic economic problems, and called for closer monitoring of promises made under the media spotlight.
Activists are particularly critical of what they see as the G8's failure to honour a promise of $50 billion (€31.8 billion) in extra aid made at the Gleneagles summit in 2003 - half of it to Africa - by 2010. Most believe that on current trends the G8 will fall at least $30 billion short of that figure.
Italy, France and Russia have been singled out, but Japanese aid has also plunged since 2001. Japan - the world's second richest economy - fell two notches to fifth place among foreign aid donors last year, according to the OECD.
But accusations of stinginess by the world's richest countries were rejected by Tokyo. "I don't understand the criticism," said Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama. "The G8 leaders are very aware of the commitments they have made to African leaders."
Pressure on the G8 to tackle the mounting global problems is intense. Food riots have broken out in more than 30 countries this year over the soaring cost of basic needs.
Japan reaffirmed yesterday it would double its total development aid to Africa and work toward doubling private investment to the continent by 2012. But Irishwoman Ciara O'Sullivan, a campaigner here for The Global Call to Action Against Poverty, said such promises should be treated cautiously.
"The World Bank, the G8 and other big institutions will try to spin today in such a way that there are gestures made toward increased aid. But we are absolutely sure that any money will be taken from existing commitments."
Poverty activists say that Japan's draft communique has dropped any reference to the 2010 timeline of the Gleneagles document, which some fear could signal back-pedalling on that commitment.
In a press conference with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, tried to alleviate those fears. "Certainly countries need to deliver on their promises," he said
Mr Ban said the world faced three "interconnected crises" - food, climate and development problems in countries like Africa. "We tend to think of climate change as something that will happen in the future. It is not and we must take action now."