Alex Singleton | Journalist and political commentator

The World Development Movement, a pressure group, has attacked the contents of a leaked report to be published this week by the Commission for Africa. The Commission was set up by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Movement’s Peter Hardstaff, head of policy, said:

On aid, trade and debt, key issues where rich countries must take action, the draft Africa Commission report contains nothing new, radical or innovative. In fact, it is almost wholly a statement of existing UK Government policy.

This confirms the original fears of WDM that the Africa Commission would be a public relations exercise for the UK Government, rather than an attempt at a radical rethink of the economic relationship between rich countries and Africa.

It is a little puzzling why WDM would attack the report which, after all, keeps up pressure internationally on the issue of African poverty. Newspaper reports say that it will call for more foreign aid, an international tax on airline tickets, and 100% multi-lateral debt cancellation. The report is presumably disliked because it emphasises the issue of poor governance in sub-saharan Africa, and concludes that corruption is the most important factor holding back Africa. Though, importantly, it adds that: “Fighting corruption involves tackling those who offer bribes as well as those who take them.”