More money for microcredit and health

For the first time, representatives from emerging economies and African organisations took part in the meeting of G8 representatives responsible for development policy in Berlin in late March. This kind of dialogue shall continue in future. German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, who hosted the event, said: “We are not an exclusive club.” Furthermore, the G8 is focusing on tripartite cooperation between industrialised, emerging and developing countries, for example between Germany, Mexico and Guatemala.

Moreover, the G8 want to promote regional cooperation and integration, with the goal of reducing poverty and boosting growth in Africa. To this end, infrastructure must be improved across national borders, and personnel needs to become better qualified. The industrialised nations want to provide more money for microcredit in future, for small and medium-sized African entrepreneurs – and women, in particular – to gain access to loans and investment capital. It is still unclear as to precisely how this will be organised, but Wieczorek-Zeul is adamant that no new agencies be created. The African Development Bank and the World Bank are suitable institutions to manage any additional funds for microcredit (see D+C/E+Z 4/2007, p. 138).

On the subject of health, the G8 members agree that additional new funds must be allocated to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. However, no exact figures were put forward in Berlin. Hilary Benn, Britain’s secretary for international development, criticised the fact that many medicines remain prohibitively expensive for patients in poor countries. Developing and middle income countries deserve support in making the most of all the opportunities presented by TRIPS, the international agreement on the protection of intellectual property rights. The case of Thailand shows how important this is. The government there recently issued a compulsory licence enabling the generic and therefore cost-effective production of an important HIV/AIDS drug which is currently too expensive (see comment on page 218).

The G8 representatives also agree that developing countries must use more of the revenue they make from commodity exports for fighting poverty. They are calling upon the countries concerned to accede to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which British Prime Minister Tony Blair brought into being in 2002. Disclosing the governments’ financial flows in the commodity sector should help to reduce corruption. 26 countries worldwide are currently taking part in the initiative.

Petra Meyer