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 Home > News & Policies > July 2008

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 8, 2008

Fact Sheet: Development and Africa

     Fact sheet G8 Summit 2008

"At recent Summits, G-8 countries have made pledges to help developing nations address challenges, from health care to education, to corruption. Now we need to show the world that the G-8 can be accountable for its promises and deliver results."

President George W. Bush, July 2, 2008

Leaders of the Group of 8 Industrialized Nations Discussed Development in Africa at the G-8 Summit in Hokkaido Toyako, Japan. President Bush reiterated his call for G-8 accountability, and G-8 nations have released reports on health and anticorruption to demonstrate progress toward fulfilling past G-8 commitments. When updated, these reports will provide a vital tool for analyzing G-8 accountability for future Summits. The United States will continue to partner with African leaders, providing support to them as they develop solutions to fight diseases, increase educational opportunities, support growing democracies, facilitate private sector growth, increase foreign investment, and address the problem of rising prices of food around the world. Additionally, G-8 leaders committed to realistic, measurable commitments on health worker training, neglected tropical diseases, and long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets.

The G-8 pledged to fulfill over the next five years its commitment to provide at least $60 billion to fight infectious diseases and released an accountability report and charts to demonstrate how G-8 members are meeting past commitments.

At last year's G-8 Summit in Heiligendamm, the United States challenged G-8 partners to match the assistance the United States provides through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI).

  • President Bush is working with Congress to reauthorize PEPFAR. The five-year, $30 billion proposal builds on the initial commitment to provide treatment to 2.5 million people, prevent 12 million new infections, and provide care for 12 million people, including 5 million orphans and vulnerable children.
  • The G-8 agreed to match the President's proposal, so that together our nations will provide treatment to 5 million people, prevent 24 million new infections, and provide care for 24 million people, including 10 million orphans and vulnerable children.
  • PEPFAR has provided $18.8 billion since 2003 and supported treatment for nearly 1.7 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to funding bilateral programs, the United States through PEPFAR has provided more than $2.5 billion to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
  • The President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), which was announced in 2005, has committed to provide $1.2 billion over five years to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 high-burden African countries. In 2007, the second year of implementation, it is estimated that more than 25 million people have benefitted from PMI interventions.
  • In Heiligendamm, the G-8 agreed to match the PMI targets, so that together we will work to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in the 30 highest malaria prevalence countries in Africa.
  • Malaria is a preventable, treatable disease that kills approximately one million people every year. More than 80 percent of malaria deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa.

G-8 leaders discussed new health initiatives to train health workers, to fight neglected tropical diseases, and to provide 100 million bed nets.

G-8 Leaders announced they will work toward increasing health workforce coverage toward the World Health Organization (WHO) threshold of 2.3 health workers per 1,000 people, initially in partnership with the countries where they are currently engaged and that are experiencing a critical shortage of health workers.

  • One obstacle to achieving health care goals in Africa is the lack of trained health care workers. By partnering with African countries in developing a strong health workforce, we will be better able to fight diseases, support stronger health systems, and save more lives.
  • President Bush and Prime Minister Brown announced their intention in April to work together and with other partners to increase the number of health workers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, and Zambia. Through PEPFAR, the United States will invest at least $1.2 billion over five years in these four countries for health workforce development.

The G-8 joined the United States in the initiative to combat neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) announced by President Bush during his trip to Africa in February. Specifically, Leaders committed to work to support the control or elimination of neglected tropical diseases, so that the G-8 may be able to reach at least 75 percent of the people affected by certain major NTDs in the most affected countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. With sustained action for 3-5 years, this will enable a very significant reduction of the current burden.

  • Approximately one billion people, mostly in the developing world, suffer from one or more NTDs; seven of these diseases can be controlled or eliminated through mass drug administration.
  • The United States will provide a total of $350 million over five years to target seven major neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and provide treatment for more than 300 million people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

As part of fulfilling past commitments on malaria, leaders agreed to continue to expand access to long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, with a goal of providing 100 million nets by 2010 through bilateral and multilateral assistance, in partnership with other stakeholders.

The United States is on track to meet its goal of doubling assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa.

  • At the Gleneagles G-8 Summit in 2005, President Bush announced that the United States would double assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2010 to $8.7 billion. The President's FY 2009 budget request, combined with past budgets and program implementation, will ensure that this goal is met.

The G-8 committed to work toward the goal of doubling production of key food staples in African countries meeting Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) criteria in five to ten years in a sustainable manner, with particular emphasis on fostering smallholder agriculture and inclusive rural growth.

  • In May 2008, President Bush announced his request to Congress for an additional $770 million in funding for food aid and agriculture development programs, bringing to nearly $1 billion the total additional USG funds announced since mid-April to address rising food prices.
  • With other food security assistance programs already in place, the United States is projected to spend at least $5 billion to fight global hunger over the two-year period of FY 2008-FY 2009. The United States is the largest provider of food aid in the world and provided approximately 50 percent of world food aid during 2001-2006.
  • The United States is pursuing an integrated, three-pronged strategy to combat the food price crisis through short- and long-term actions that:
    1. Target countries made vulnerable by rising food prices;
    2. Provide assistance to countries capable of rapidly increasing staple food production; and
    3. Support trade liberalization and increasing the use of advanced agricultural technologies.
  • The United States is coordinating these efforts with the international community, including the UN, G-8, World Bank, and other stakeholders.

The G-8 agreed that support for good governance, including anticorruption measures, is essential to private sector-led economic growth and achieving the goals of the Millennium Declaration.

  • Democracy is growing on the continent of Africa; in the past four years alone, there have been more than 50 democratic elections in Africa.
  • The United States, through the Millennium Challenge Account, is offering financial support to developing nations that have shown a commitment to fight corruption, govern justly, open their economies, and invest in the health and education of their people.
  • MCA has signed compacts with nine African countries totaling nearly $3.8 billion.
  • In FY 2006, U.S. support for anti-corruption activities included $8 million in bilateral and regional programs. In addition, approximately $80 million in anti-corruption funding is being provided through the Millennium Challenge Corporation's threshold country programs in five countries: Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
  • At U.S. urging, the G-8 has produced an accountability report on anticorruption and agreed to update it annually.

The G-8 Leaders remain committed to Education For All and support the efforts of the Fast Track Initiative for universal primary education.

  • The Africa Education Initiative (AEI), launched by President Bush in 2001, has committed to provide $600 million over eight years to increase access to quality basic education. By 2010, AEI will have distributed more than 15 million text books, trained nearly one million teachers, and provided 550,000 scholarships for young women.
  • The President's Expanded Education for the World's Poorest Children Initiative committed an additional $525 million over five years and will provide over four million children with access to quality basic education in six target countries, four of which -- Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, and Mali – are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

G-8 Leaders are focused on maintaining open trade and investment policies.

  • The African Financial Sector Initiative (AFSI) is providing technical assistance and mobilizing capital to help African nations strengthen their financial markets
  • The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is expected to mobilize nearly $2 billion in privately-managed investment funds to invest in Africa and help develop the continent's capital markets.
  • Currently, OPIC is supporting 14 investment funds in Africa, including those mentioned above, representing $1 billion in commitments to leverage as much as $4 billion of new investment in the region.
  • The Treasury Department's Office of Technical Assistance is supporting the development of domestic debt markets in Africa through the provision of up to ten resident advisors over the FY 2008-2010 period.
  • The United States provided $505 million in trade-related assistance in FY 2007, a 26 percent increase over FY 2006 and a 150 percent increase over FY 2005.
  • Currently, 41 of 48 sub-Saharan African countries are eligible for benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Total two-way trade between the United States and eligible sub-Saharan African economies increased from $28 billion in 2001 to $82 billion in 2007.
  • Thanks in part to AGOA, more than 98 percent of U.S. imports from AGOA-eligible countries receive duty-free treatment.
  • The Africa Global Competitiveness Initiative (AGCI) was launched in 2006 to provide $200 million over five years to support increased trade and investment in Africa.

Peace and security in Africa are fundamental to its sustainable development. Therefore, the United States is committed to partner with African Leaders to support their efforts to end conflicts, strengthen democracy, and support peace.

  • Since FY 2005, the United States has directly trained more than 40,000 African peacekeepers in 21 countries. Approximately 80 percent of these U.S. trained peacekeepers have been deployed in AU and UN missions, both inside and outside of Africa.

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