African leaders asked the Group of Eight rich nations for $20 billion to finance new projects arising from a new African initiative to promote good governance and reform, according to a statement issued on Monday.
The statement, issued after an African summit held in Nigeria on Sunday, also reiterated calls for more aid and debt relief for the world's poorest continent in advance of the G8 summit to be held next month in Scotland.
The new $20 billion fund, to be managed by the multilateral African Development Bank, should be set up by the end of the year and would be used to finance projects in agriculture, health, water, sanitation and education, the statement said.
The money is in addition to a $40 billion debt relief deal agreed by the G8 rich nations at a meeting in London earlier this month.
Leaders of the world's poorest continent are trying to take advantage of a groundswell of goodwill towards Africa ahead of the G8 summit, and want to showcase their own efforts to curb corruption and poverty and improve respect for human rights.
The leaders of Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and South Africa were present at the Abuja summit, and the statement was issued in the name of other African countries that are part of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a home-grown rescue plan for the continent.
The new fund would be used for investment in problem areas identified by a new programme known as "peer review", under which 23 African countries are due to examine each others' performance in terms of democracy, human rights and economic development. They then develop targeted rescue plans with long-term monitoring.
"The fund would finance infrastructure projects and other priority programmes ... arising out of the African Peer Review Mechanism process," the statement said.
The first two countries in the scheme, Rwanda and Ghana, unveiled their reviews at the Abuja summit on Sunday, and four more countries are set to start the process before the end of this year.
"This is the most credible litmus test of African commitment to improving governance," said Abdoulie Janneh, Africa director of the United Nations Development Programme.
The Abuja summit called on the G8 and international community to commit to increased long-term funding for African Union peacekeeping.
It also called for development assistance to be doubled in three years and further increases to be scheduled to ensure Africa meets ambitious goals in health, education, poverty reduction within 10 years.
"While acknowledging progress recently made with the cancellation of debt for 14 African countries, the forum called for steps to be taken to include all African countries," the statement said.
To demonstrate that the continent is developing home-grown investment initiatives, the Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala proposed using about $1 billion from government pension funds to finance major infrastructure projects.
This could also be done through the African Development Bank. The funds would be taken from a total $130 billion in government pension funds from 14 different African states.
"The forum resolved that the issue would be presented at the next G8 summit in Gleneagles" to demonstrate African leadership in devising economic solutions for the continent, the statement said.
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