G8 Africa Under the Italian Presidency in 2009
The Italian G8 Presidency will provide an opportunity to renew the G8 Summit's focus on Africa, and in particular to reaffirm in concrete terms the political will to explore relations with the countries on the continent in greater depth, and to cooperate closely with the pan-African institutions on peacekeeping, on consolidating democratic institutions on the continent, and on promoting economic and social development.
This historic dialogue between Africa and the leading industrially advanced democracies first got under way precisely under Italy's G8 Presidency at the Summit in Genoa in 2001.
G8 Africa's Goals for 2009
At such a crucial time, as the world faces the challenges of the financial, food and energy crisis, the Italian presidency intends to place relations between the G8 and Africa on a new strategic track that demands new and more effective ways for all the countries to cooperate.
The Office of the Prime Minister's Africa Personal Representative has identified and defined three main activities for implementation ahead of the July Summit:
1. Concrete proposals need to be devised and built into the agenda for the G8 leaders' talks with their African counterparts at the Summit in L'Aquila. Following broad consultations with the African partners, four points on Italy's action programme for G8 Africa have been identified and approved:
- allaying the impact of the financial crisis on Africa's real economies; pursuing the struggle against climate change;
- focusing in particular on safeguarding the forests of the Congo Basin (the world's second most important green lung after the Amazon Forest) and their biodiversity;
- consolidating peace and security in Africa, focusing in particular on piracy in the Horn of Africa, on trafficking in drugs and arms, on illegal fishing and on illegal capital in Western Africa;
- developing e-government by imparting a fresh boost to administrative systems and political processes, focusing in particular on census-taking and population-recording systems.
2. A concise report needs to be drafted discussing the implementation status of the collective pledges that the G8 has made to Africa. This report, initially called for at the G8 Summit in Hokkaido, will also aim both to highlight the pledges already implemented and to point up those that have yet to be enacted..
3. A proposal needs to be prepared for the reform of the Africa Partnership Forum and of the role played by the G8 Heads of State and Government leaders' Africa personal representatives.
The Italian Prime Minister's Africa personal representative is promoting a round of meetings in an attempt to ensure that a positive result is achieved.
