The big bad Bush, doing more good work and getting no credit:
Bush pledges $1.2 bln to fight malaria in Africa
By Steve Holland 1 hour, 25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President Bush, under pressure to provide more help to Africa ahead of a G8 summit next week, pledged on Thursday to provide $1.2 billion through 2008 to help combat malaria in sub-Saharan Africa as part of what he called an eventual doubling of U.S. aid.
With Africa a top agenda item for Group of Eight leaders meeting on July 6 to 8 in Gleneagles, Scotland, Bush defended his record and pledged to do more by fighting malaria, which claims an estimated 1.2 million people a year worldwide, 95 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition, the White House announced $400 million for an African education initiative over four years to help improve basic education for millions of African children, and $55 million to support efforts in four African nations to combat sexual violence and abuse against women.
All told, U.S. aid to Africa has been on the increase and national security adviser
Stephen Hadley said the new assistance, if approved by the U.S. Congress, would amount to a doubling of aid to $8.6 billion from $4.3 billion by 2010.
"The United States has tripled overseas development aid to Africa during my presidency," Bush said in a speech to a think tank group at an art gallery. "And we're making a strong commitment for the future."
Bush is under pressure to increase aid for Africa after he turned down a proposal by British Prime Minister
Tony Blair to give the continent as much as $50 billion a year by making long-term aid commitments that would allow poor countries to raise money on global capital markets.
Blair, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the G8 grouping of wealthy countries this year, is still pushing for other nations to join in his plan after declaring 2005 a make-or-break year for plans to lift Africa out of poverty.
MALARIA ASSISTANCE
Bush said the United States will take action next year in Tanzania, Uganda and Angola to provide malaria assistance.
"America will bring this anti-malaria effort to at least four more highly endemic African countries in 2007 and at least five more in 2008. In the next five years with the approval of Congress we'll spend more than $1.2 billion on this campaign," Bush said.
California Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos (news, bio, voting record), ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, welcomed the announcement but said "it comes with no commitment to use new funding resources in the first year, so it will take money from existing health programs" for Africa.
"This is typical of the administration's rhetoric on African aid," he said. "This administration is playing a shell game with all assistance to Africa except its high-profile efforts on
HIV/
AIDS."
Chad Dobson, U.S. policy director for the anti-poverty organization Oxfam, said Bush's pledge will mean an extra $900 million a year for Africa and this is a welcome first step.
"However it is widely calculated that $25 billion is needed annually for Africa so we hope the announcement today is just the beginning of a much bigger U.S. commitment to fighting poverty," he said.
Bush repeated that the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region amounts to a "genocide" and said the United States, through a
NATO mission, will airlift more than 1,000 Rwandan troops as part of an African force to help protect the innocent in Sudan.
He called "preposterous" a claim by some critics that the United States was easing off Sudan because it has been helpful in counter-terrorism cooperation.
In a round-table interview with a handful of international reporters, Bush criticized Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and hinted South Africa could do more -- "nations in the neighborhood must be strong" -- to pressure Mugabe to stop political violence and intimidation in his country.
"I'm disappointed in Mugabe. Zimbabwe was a bread basket, provided a lot of food on a continent that often needs food. and it's just a country being wrecked. and the world needs to speak very clearly about the decisions he has made and the consequence of the decisions he has made," Bush said. (Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria)
Bush pledges $1.2 bln to fight malaria in Africa
By Steve Holland 1 hour, 25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President Bush, under pressure to provide more help to Africa ahead of a G8 summit next week, pledged on Thursday to provide $1.2 billion through 2008 to help combat malaria in sub-Saharan Africa as part of what he called an eventual doubling of U.S. aid.
With Africa a top agenda item for Group of Eight leaders meeting on July 6 to 8 in Gleneagles, Scotland, Bush defended his record and pledged to do more by fighting malaria, which claims an estimated 1.2 million people a year worldwide, 95 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition, the White House announced $400 million for an African education initiative over four years to help improve basic education for millions of African children, and $55 million to support efforts in four African nations to combat sexual violence and abuse against women.
All told, U.S. aid to Africa has been on the increase and national security adviser
Stephen Hadley said the new assistance, if approved by the U.S. Congress, would amount to a doubling of aid to $8.6 billion from $4.3 billion by 2010.
"The United States has tripled overseas development aid to Africa during my presidency," Bush said in a speech to a think tank group at an art gallery. "And we're making a strong commitment for the future."
Bush is under pressure to increase aid for Africa after he turned down a proposal by British Prime Minister
Tony Blair to give the continent as much as $50 billion a year by making long-term aid commitments that would allow poor countries to raise money on global capital markets.
Blair, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the G8 grouping of wealthy countries this year, is still pushing for other nations to join in his plan after declaring 2005 a make-or-break year for plans to lift Africa out of poverty.
MALARIA ASSISTANCE
Bush said the United States will take action next year in Tanzania, Uganda and Angola to provide malaria assistance.
"America will bring this anti-malaria effort to at least four more highly endemic African countries in 2007 and at least five more in 2008. In the next five years with the approval of Congress we'll spend more than $1.2 billion on this campaign," Bush said.
California Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos (news, bio, voting record), ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, welcomed the announcement but said "it comes with no commitment to use new funding resources in the first year, so it will take money from existing health programs" for Africa.
"This is typical of the administration's rhetoric on African aid," he said. "This administration is playing a shell game with all assistance to Africa except its high-profile efforts on
HIV/
AIDS."
Chad Dobson, U.S. policy director for the anti-poverty organization Oxfam, said Bush's pledge will mean an extra $900 million a year for Africa and this is a welcome first step.
"However it is widely calculated that $25 billion is needed annually for Africa so we hope the announcement today is just the beginning of a much bigger U.S. commitment to fighting poverty," he said.
Bush repeated that the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region amounts to a "genocide" and said the United States, through a
NATO mission, will airlift more than 1,000 Rwandan troops as part of an African force to help protect the innocent in Sudan.
He called "preposterous" a claim by some critics that the United States was easing off Sudan because it has been helpful in counter-terrorism cooperation.
In a round-table interview with a handful of international reporters, Bush criticized Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and hinted South Africa could do more -- "nations in the neighborhood must be strong" -- to pressure Mugabe to stop political violence and intimidation in his country.
"I'm disappointed in Mugabe. Zimbabwe was a bread basket, provided a lot of food on a continent that often needs food. and it's just a country being wrecked. and the world needs to speak very clearly about the decisions he has made and the consequence of the decisions he has made," Bush said. (Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria)
