Good day to you!

I think this is a great opportunity to include our concerns and push policy recomendations on the agenda of the commision. I would also like to thank Cameron Neil, CEO International Young Professionals Foundation, for appointing me to take lead on this and I must say I feel honored.

I am happy to help in putting our thoughts on this initiative in the fashion of hopes,
concerns, comments, questions. Basically as Cameron already put it ... what we think are the keys to development in our continent, country and community.

Eventually, the IYPF would like to run something in the June newsletter that uses the piece below + your responses to it ... and also work to put together a letter from you as African YPs to the Commission via the IYPF.

I think this will also serve as a spring board to being invited by the commision to help shape the direction of discussions on the same. Meanwhile, Cameron has asked me to work on a paper that will launch us into discussions and eventually the letter to the commision. This is by no means conclusive but just to get us off the ground. I will make it available soon and will be talking to you all soon!

To read and know more about me please visit my website at http://www.takingitglobal.org/community/profile.html?memberid=3434

Hoping to hear from you all!

Cheers!

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International Commission On Africa To Meet For First Time
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Africa's future, its economy and the health and education of its people will be the focus of a new international commission meeting

Tuesday for the first time, Dow Jones reports. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who launched the Commission for Africa
in February to help heal "the scar of the conscience of the world," will chair the talks at his 10 Downing St. office.

The commission will report next spring and present its findings to the G8 summit of leading industrial nations in July 2005. Members of the commission include Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, South Africa's Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, K.Y. Amoako, executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, former US Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker and Britain's Treasury chief Gordon Brown.

The Guardian (UK) writes that the commission, described as a follow-up to the Brandt report, will take a fresh look at Africa policy to produce an action plan for more rapid growth. Former World Bank chief economist Nick Stern is expected to be named as the commission's policy chief today. The themes of their report will be decided today and are expected to include conflict resolution and peace-keeping,economy and governance. The economic section of the report will concentrate on three areas: growth opportunities, the role of the private sector and finance.

The [UK] Treasury insists it will be working with African economists rather than dictating to them. The role of the private sector, a source said, would not be about selling
off a country's resources to multinationals but about increasing small, local businesses. An assessment will be made of each country's financial requirement and of how to raise investment.

The report will also discuss how much countries can borrow and the use of aid in support of trade. One of the mechanisms under discussion will be the international financing facility, which allows rich countries to borrow against their aid flows.

The Times (UK) comments in an editorial initiatives are certainly not lacking. The United Nations, aid agencies, the European Union and scores of non-governmental organizations all have special programs for Africa. The difficulty has been in money, implementation and global long-term commitment. For this reason, Tony Blair’s Downing Street summit on Africa this afternoon is doubly welcome.

Not only will it assess the implementation of the many promises made to Africa by Britain and other Western nations – as well as Africa’s promises in return of better government; it will also attempt to refocus the attention of richer nations, especially during the British presidency of the Group of Eight next year, on the needs of this poorest continent. Blair’s occasional millenarian pronouncements on Africa have been derided as Utopian and he would be wise not to promise too much. But Labour has put money where its mouth is. Aid to Africa, which will reach £1 billion next year, is triple the figure for 1997.

The focus on the neediest and on those most committed to clean governments has increased the effectiveness of British aid. And the attempt to move away from a dependency culture to a “partnership”, based on more equal trading relations, has underpinned the efforts of British business to exploit Africa’s opportunities.

The Globe and Mail (Canada) meanwhile writes former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien tried a similar approach [as Blair's Commission] two years ago, culminating in the summit in Kananaskis. There, the G8 signed on to a unique action plan to alleviate African poverty through aid, debt relief, trade liberalization, direct investment, and co-operation with African leaders to foster good governance and prevent armed conflict.

Africa had never before figured so prominently at a G8 meeting. But even then, critics complained that the commitments were vague, lacked resources and were written in ambiguous wording. Canadian officials say the goals will be different this time. In addition to the traditional focuses of how to direct aid money, increase donations and manage debt, the commission will also concentrate on unleashing the private sector in Africa, one senior official said. That plays into Martin's agenda, insiders say, and will be pursued vigorously by Goodale. The Prime Minister co-authored a report earlier this year under the auspices of the United Nations Development Program that called for heavier involvement of companies from rich countries in the entrepreneurial activities of poor countries.

A separate World Bank paper calls for development through the changing of small-business regulations in poor countries to make it easier for cottage industries to join the formal economy, access loans and prosper. These documents are part of a new approach to development thinking that can bring the disparate members of the G8 together, the senior official said.