The Commission for Africa Report

The Commission for Africa Report acknowledges that Africa is still in a debt crisis which is wrecking health services, education systems and environments.

The Report recognises that the process put in place to resolve this crisis - the "Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative" - is far too slow and narrow, with only four countries having achieved so-called "sustainable" debt levels by meeting its overly demanding criteria.

Tony Blair has described the report as being "unflinching" in its criticism of both African and Western élites in causing the crisis, and it is fair to say that the tone of the Report does reflect the growing public awareness in the West that our dealings with Africa are the cause of devastating poverty. But these fine sentiments are totally undermined by the Report's silence on four crucial issues.

1.The Report recognises that the excessively liberal economic conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for debt relief have too often blocked progress on debt and development issues. It recommends that, in future, the only condition for debt relief should be that a country has a good strategy for using the money released for development, growth and poverty reduction. But the IMF will still have the final say in whether a country's proposed strategy does indeed count as "good", and the IMF is still in the grip of a right-wing economic ideology which is increasingly believed to be the real cause of global poverty. The Report was a powerful opportunity to challenge this: instead it remained silent.

2.The report calls for cancellation of the massive debts owed to the IMF, but does not mention the most obvious way of doing this - namely, through a carefully controlled sale of its gold stocks. The US has an effective veto on IMF decisions and is unlikely to support gold sales. Gordon Brown could have used the Report to put pressure on the US - but again the report is silent and the chance was missed.

3.Instead, the report concentrates on Gordon Brown's proposals for an International Finance Facility (IFF), which is supposed to double aid flows in the short term by borrowing from financial markets. There is a growing consensus that the IFF will at best raise aid budgets by 20%, and will ultimately - since the money has to be paid back with interest - result in their overall reduction. The only argument in favour of the IFF is that the economic growth it stimulates in the short term would raise more revenues than would be lost to future aid budgets, but the Treasury has given no concrete figures to back this up. This silence suggests that the idea is unworkable - and moreover the US has flatly rejected the idea.

4.The report recognises the role of corruption both in Africa and in the Western countries who export there, and calls for tougher laws to require banks to report suspected money laundering and appropriation of aid funds. But it is precisely this unflinching recognition of Western dishonesty which undermines the report - for the role of criminal behaviour in causing poverty is negligible compared to the devastation caused by the entirely legal operation of the global financial system. When the rules of the legal system are stacked against the world's poor, to concentrate on those who have broken those rules is seriously misleading.

No one should doubt that Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are sincere in their concern to help Africa. But when so much of the blame for Africa's problems can be laid at the West's door, they must realise that they cannot please everyone.

To read the full report click here to go to the Commission website.