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Will the G8 listen to Africa?

The baton returned to the UK on the last leg to Manchester.

The Queen's Jubilee Cyclists returned home as others were taking to the road. On 5th June own Jubilee cyclists set off on their 21 day cycle ride to the Canada G8. Also on the move was "the oddest couple in globalisation", as debt campaigner and rock star Bono and US treasury secretary Paul O'Neill spent 11 days together touring Africa, drawing media attention to the continent ahead of the G8 summit in Canada.

And Africa does, suddenly, seem to be top of the agenda at the G8 summit, and the exciting part is that it's been put there by Africans themselves. NEPAD, Africa's new partnership for development, is an African initiative for African economic development, spearheaded by a coalition of African leaders. In sophisticated economic terms NEPAD presents a strategy which requires the developed world to co-operate seriously on the aid, debt relief, trade and investment issues which affect the growth of the continent's ravaged economies. Africa's commitment is to take seriously and to tackle issues such as good governance and corruption.

An African owned and inspired initiative on the international negotiating table could be a welcome and workable alternative to the IMF's failing and Western centred Structural Adjustment Programmes. The sad boorach, (mess) that we find in Malawi where the IMF has inspired the selling off of much needed food reserves, and where the proceeds of the sales seem to have been mysteriously disappeared by government agencies, is a good example of not only the ineffectiveness, but the hazards, of IMF policies coupled with corruption. It is also a prime example of the complex situations NEPAD would have to cope with.

What the Jubilee cyclists, Bono and O'Neill have in common is that they continue to say that debt issues are important, that all sorts of people care about debt and that the issue won't go away. That's what debt campaigning is about and that's why here at home, anyone with a pen and a post card can make a difference as they remind MPs and MSPs that debt relief matters. Write to Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Claire Short and ask our government to take NEPAD seriously at the negotiating table.

James Hamill's excellent article on NEPAD presents a more in depth assessment than can be presented here. It can be found in the archives of the highly recommended www.guardianunlimited.co.uk.