As a religious leader in my country, the most populous in Africa, I have come to understand the strong relationship between social and economic welfare and the establishment of equality and fairness in relationships. I have seen peace eroded by insecurity, social injustice, economic inequality, political and religious radicalism. A hungry man they say is an angry man. So attention must be focused on building economic welfare that promotes economic and social justice and ensures peace.

It has been argued that Africa has in the last couple of years achieved some success in the fight against poverty. But with the recent world economic meltdown from which the continent is not immune, these successes seem set to be eroded unless some drastic measures are taken by African governments. In the case of my country, Nigeria, previous policies aimed at poverty alleviation seem to have had limited success due to poor implementation and limited partnerships. But there is a policy that holds the key to success in the fight against poverty and that is microfinance. Poverty is defined as the state of being poor i.e. the inability to earn income necessary to be able to afford the basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter.

Microfinance offers an incredible tool for helping the poor work their way to a life of sustainability, opportunity and ultimately economic self empowerment. Nigerian men and women are known throughout history to be industrious but the modern economy has made access to finance (no matter how little) extremely necessary for self reliance.

Self reliance is an important factor in the consideration of the relationship between poverty and peace. The absence of violence, hostility or aggression provides the basis for healthy peaceful inter personal relationships. In the context of social and economic welfare, this necessitates the establishment of equality and fairness in relationships.

The relationship between Africa and Italy and the rest of Europe can be a fruitful and fair one. Our cultures have much in common. Whether Muslim or Christian, Nigerian or Italian, we can abide by the same values, the same love for our families, the same strong sense of community. What we look for from Europe is a fair partnership based on mutual respect and a commitment to tackling poverty.

Nigeria and the rest of Africa can only achieve this if we work with partners who are interested in promoting our self reliance and not just giving handouts. No donor can lift the continent out of poverty with handouts, no matter how well intentioned it is. Africa has to climb out of poverty itself. The G8 can give support and help us build the enabling environment for interventions like micro finance to flourish. Give a man a fish and he will eat for one day but give him a net and he will eat forever.

Why do you have to hear it from an actor? I have a profound dislike of activism. I do not enjoy hearing dispatches from the crisis zone delivered by actors and rock stars. I get no joy from fund raising events, op-eds, posters, t-shirts, speeches, slogans, petitions and rock concerts. I’m tired of it. And I’m tired of the crisis.

If your profession somehow gives you a public voice, you quickly find that you have a new relationship with those who don’t have one. Your voice quickly becomes a cherished commodity. Not for its merits but for its sheer volume. You may have nothing to say, but those who do, the wise, the desperate and the better informed are all clamouring to make use of your easily earned media connection.

Imagine passing the scene of a car accident. Someone is dying. There is a doctor on the scene but he doesn’t have his equipment and he doesn’t have a phone. He asks if he can use your phone. Do you say “Sorry, not my job. Sorry I have no credibility …” or do you stop thinking and just do it? That is frequently the position of the guilt-ridden celebrity.

We are not in a position to choose whether or not we have a relationship with our own society or with world’s poorest people. We can choose the nature of those relationships, but, either way, they’re there. We’re business partners. If we choose to ignore them we are simply choosing to make that relationship a negligent and destructive one.

As voters and consumers we are directly complicit in the misery of the millions we do business with. If we let our governments and businesses think we are indifferent to their cynicism they will go on practicing it on license from us and every cup of coffee we drink and every piece of cotton we wear will continue to be an act of cruelty.

We are involved with Africa whether we like it or not. I drink African coffee, I drive a car containing African copper, my wedding ring is made of African gold. Of course I’m aware of famine, drought, poverty and corruption, but I also see the statesmanship of Mandela, Joaquim Chissano and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf… the works of Achebe, Okri, Soyinka, Saro Wiwa … the music of Fela Kuti, Cheik Lo, Asa and Angelique Kidjo.

My own children will inherit all this together with the children of that continent. Within 15 years they’ll be trading with each other or fighting with each other, exchanging diplomacy or whatever other relationship we might have set in motion. They will also share the triple crisis of a global economic slump, high food prices and climate change, all of which will be addressed (or not) by this years G8 in Italy.

I no longer choose whether or not to have a relationship with Italy. My wife and children are Italian. I am completely in love with the country for better or worse. I was decorated by the Italian Ambassador as an exhortation to promote Italy’s image abroad. It’s easy when it comes to food, people, language, architecture, art, fashion and history. Easy when I hear that 72% of Italians want to see Italy’s aid budget kept high. But never have I felt more urgency to prevent the ultimate figuraccia than now.

Mr Berlusconi is this year’s president of the G8. If he neglects the millions of children who are dying on his doorstep, and abandons all honour by failing to deliver the promise of aid he made in front of the world’s press in 2005, any attempt to rescue Italy’s image from this will be almost impossible.

It’s tempting to look for ways back to a reassuring silence. To try to return to a belief that one person can’t really make a difference … that actors should shut up. But you can’t unknow what you know. Once you’ve seen what a well placed or well-timed word can do, there’s no going back.

I had dinner with Bob Geldof a couple weeks ago. I explained that I felt I had to be judicious about when and when not to speak out, that I had to hold fire and keep under the radar so as not to blow all credibility. He said, “F— that you’ve got to just go!” If everyone did that we could finally do away with long-winded actors.

They say once you go to Africa, you will always want to go back. I know they also say that about Paris and Berlin. I keep saying it about Rome and Naples. And of course I always go back there because Roma and Napoli are in my blood and eternally part of me.

Africa is not part of me and yet has always been a magic place, so far away, so different, so exciting. And frightening – I never thought I would ever have a chance to go to Africa. But I did go there and yes, it was a life changing experience for me.

The world promises to help Africa and Africa waits. Every day wasted can be the end of a life. Every hour is the final breath. Each moment more lights go out. The longer they wait, the more will perish. Poverty is not blameful. It does not make people bad or less important. It is cruel way of life. And yet poor people have given the world the greatest riches of art, culture, passion and leadership.

The life of one child could change the world. And to promise to help that child and not do anything is worse than refusing to help.

I was born poor. I understand the desperate need for food, not knowing where the next meal will come from. I understand terror and fear of war and the punishment of war. I thought I would understand Africa. It broke my heart. I held a small child in my arms as I once held my own child – after so many years of praying and hoping and believing that my dreams would come true. I am blessed with children and grandchildren. I am blessed with love and care and family. I can never stop thinking of so many like me, mothers, sisters, daughters, who have lost their love and family through the horrors of war, famine, disease and empty promises.

I am not alone here. Europe is full of us who have memory of that pain. The world is full of those like ourselves who survived that pain. The reality today is the pain is still here and we must support those now need us.

Africa will always give as numbers, percentages, statistics and comparisons, the poor, sick, hungry, the dying, the abused, the frightened, the forgotten and the old. One world unites them all: they are innocent victims. One truth will always divide them: they each have a name. They belong. They are not numbers. They are people like you and I. They also deserve every chance to make their dreams come true.

I cannot solve the problems and pain of Africa. But I can do something about the people living under the bridge down the freeway of my city. They also have no food, no care or hope. If I help here and now, maybe someone will also help someone down their road. The end of all our roads is Africa. Let us practice what we promise. Charity begins at home. Compassion can heal the world. If we as people lead, the governments of the world will have to follow.

One global crisis after the other reminds us just how “global” the world has become. We realise today that it is no longer just what happens in another part of the world which can have its effects where we live. We see today how the greed of individuals and the inefficiency of regulatory control can have direct effects on the stability of our banking or economic system or political system globally.

The global word needs rules; it needs trust; it needs stability. Few will disagree with that. We tend, however, to look on this as stability for us in the wealthier world. What about stability in Africa, for African countries, for African communities, for African families? On so many occasions world leaders have recognised that stability and growth in Africa depend on reforms, but that there is also need of focussed investment in human capacity and basic human infrastructures.

Promises have been made and promises have been consistently watered down or forgotten about. The investment of solidarity which will bring stability to Africa has been quantified and measured and set out in time-bound commitments such as the Millennium Development Goals. These are promises made to the poor; but it seems that promises made to the poor are of less moral weight than the promises made to “the system”.

There are people who say to me, as a religious leader, that perhaps a little bit of recession is good “for your business”. They have gotten it wrong. They have gotten it badly wrong. Those who lived well in the years of wealth will live reasonable well in the lean years. Those who lived on the brink of poverty in the years of wealth will fall deeper into precariousness in the lean years. That is not something good for the way I understand my “my business”. Poverty is the inability of people to realise their God-given talents. Fighting poverty is about enabling people to live their talents to the full. A religious leader will talk about the “image of God in every person”; a non–believer will speak of the same reality in terms of “the equal dignity of each person”.

If we are serious about something so fundamental then we should all realise that a poverty strategy cannot be just a luxury for the days of wealth. We need rules, trust and stability. Why should they apply to some and not to Africa? Changing the goalposts of solidarity is disregard for the rules and breach of trust. This does not lead to stability; it tells Africans that we have a two tiered concept of equality and dignity.

If at the end of the current crisis those who are weakest come out less able to benefit in the future, then we will all have failed the poor. As a religious leader I do not want to be in that line of business.

It has been another extraordinary year for me not to mention my many trips to Italy for both work and pleasure. Bella Italia! I am honoured to share with you a project, which I have recently been dedicated to, and something I am deeply passionate about.

A year ago I visited Downing Street in London to meet with Sarah Brown, the prime minister’s wife. At the meeting Sarah spoke at length about The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (WRA), which she is a patron of, and their grassroots network which campaigns to stop women dying in childbirth around the world. That was the start of my work with the WRA right then and there. As Sarah spoke eloquently about her work with the charity, I was shocked at the extent of the problem, a problem I was completely unaware of at that point.

Millions of women are dying needlessly around the world. In the developing world a woman dies every minute giving birth, and almost always her baby will die too. In these places, women are often the breadwinners and leaders in the family. So, when a mother dies it affects not only her children but also her entire family, their livelihood and future.

There are solutions to this problem and they are immediately attainable. However, we must act quickly in support of this cause. By acting, we will help save half a million young women’s lives a year. It’s important for our global future; healthy families are vital to peace, stability and prosperity everywhere.

Last September I hosted with Sarah a catwalk show in aid of the WRA at London Fashion Week to raise funds and awareness of the cause. It was a great success thanks to an entire team of people including the WRA team, the celebrities who came out in support, the designers who donated, the production teams and many more. But what I really took away from last year’s event was knowing that thousands of people in the UK became aware of the work of the WRA and this critical cause.

My work continues and each day I am learning more and more. You may not know this either – because it has been a hidden scandal, of all the Millennium Development Goals agreed by the international community, reducing maternal mortality lags furthest behind. There has been no progress for 20 years. And yet I, like so many others, didn’t even know these problems existed before becoming actively involved myself.

How sad, and how unnecessary, that half a million women die every year from causes (like bleeding and high blood pressure) which we can help prevent. And for every single death, about another thirty women suffer terrible injuries, which leave them in pain and often rejected by their husbands. Providing trained health workers is critical. Professionals who know how to save women’s lives when things go wrong – when the baby gets stuck, or the mother bleeds too much or develops dangerously high blood pressure. We have the knowledge and the medicines to do this – but we have not yet committed the resources to those countries most in need.

When mothers survive they make sure their girl children go to school – so breaking the vicious cycle of early marriage, which leads to so many early maternal deaths. When mothers survive they give love and care, they put food on the table, fetch clean water, get the children vaccinated, tend the fields. If we treat a mother for HIV to prevent it being passed on to her children, she can look after her family, rather than the other way around. If we help a mother survive, she can help prevent her children being hit by malaria.

This week the G8 has an historic opportunity to end an old scandal and start a new chapter. I really hope that they do the right thing and deliver the resources and leadership to save millions of lives. This must be a priority for governments all over the world.

Poverty and climate change are the two great challenges of the 21st century. Our responses to them will define our generation, and because they are linked to each other, if we fail on one, we will fail on the other. Unmitigated climate change poses huge risks for the planet. If we carry on emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, global average temperature could eventually rise by more than five centigrade degrees, to levels not seen on Earth for more than 30 million years.

However, we understand the scale of the action that is necessary to reduce emissions and the areas on which we must focus: greater energy efficiency, more low-carbon technologies, and a halt to deforestation.

We also know which policies and economic instruments will make these ambitions happen, and we can see a path for investment and economic growth that is attractive for all parts of the world. All we need now is the political will.

The United Nations conference on climate change, due to be held in Copenhagen in December, will be the most important international meeting since the Second World War. It must result in an agreement to halt and reverse the growth in annual global emissions, leading to a reduction of at least 50 per cent by 2050.

Developed countries should lead the way by cutting their annual emissions by at least 80 per cent. The people of developing countries are least responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases, but they are the most numerous.

Of the projected global population of 9 billion in 2050, 8 billion will live in countries today considered to be part of the developing world. They should play the leading role in shaping the global plan of action against climate change, and they must eventually control their own emissions.

But no matter how successful we are in reducing emissions, we are now committed over the next few decades to some degree of further climate change due to the levels of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.

The poorest people in developing countries in Africa and across the world will be most exposed and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change that will occur. These are also the people who are least able to afford the costs of adaptation. For developing countries, adaptation is essentially development in a more hostile climate. It is for them to shape their integrated plans for development and climate change.

The developed countries should provide at least US$100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change. This sum should be in addition to current commitments to raise official development assistance to 0.7 per cent of GDP, and in the future this figure should be closer to 1 per cent.

While the two big global challenges of this century are poverty and climate change, we are also facing a crisis in the financial markets and the worst global economic downturn for 80 years which, some may argue, should be all that we focus on now.

But delaying our efforts to tackle poverty would condemn millions of people to many more years of hardship. And delaying action on climate change would mean the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere grows, making the task of dealing with the problem more costly and difficult in the future.

We cannot afford to delay. We can and must, now and simultaneously, handle the short-term financial crisis, foster sound development and economic growth in the medium term, and protect the planet from devastating climate change in the long term.

Developed countries must provide strong financial support, but they must also demonstrate that low-carbon growth is possible. It offers a productive, efficient and attractive route to overcome world poverty.

For more than a decade, much of Africa has been moving forward. Economic growth is rising, poverty is falling and democratic governance is spreading. But the global financial crisis threatens to undo this progress by reducing investment, exports and aid just as they should be expanding to build on these successes.

While international attention has been understandably focused on events in Darfur, Somalia and Zimbabwe, countries across the continent including Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique and Liberia have been quietly turning around. Economic growth rates regularly exceed five percent in many nations.

The key to this progress is stronger African leadership and more accountable governance. Today, more than 20 African countries are democracies, up from just three in the 1980s. They have competitive elections and improved human rights, and a much freer media. These efforts have been supported by increasingly effective development assistance.

Consider what has happened in my country, Liberia. After 14 years of devastating war, we faced enormous challenges. Our democratically elected government has worked with international partners and a growing number of private investors to turn things around. In the past three years, we have doubled primary school enrollment nationwide, refurbished hundreds of health facilities, begun rebuilding roads and restoring electricity. We have taken steps to root out corruption and remove unscrupulous officials. Growth has exceeded several percent per year. And, most critical, we are at peace. We are restoring our once-vibrant nation, and the crucial component — hope — has already been revived.

Without international support, we would not have made this progress and would be at much greater risk of returning to war. The global economic crisis threatens the progress in my country and elsewhere on our continent. Declining remittances from overseas workers, shrinking trade flows and investment could undermine new businesses, throw thousands out of work, and increase tensions and instability.

The crisis — which Africa did nothing to cause — demands a strong response. African nations must do their part by continuing to address corruption, eliminate red tape and reduce obstacles to private-sector growth. But just as industrialized countries need a stimulus, African economies need a boost to keep their progress on track.

The G8 nations meeting in Italy this week have a useful role to play. Among other measures, they must keep their promises to increase aid and make it more effective by reducing bureaucratic delays, speeding disbursements and better aligning programs with African priorities. Effective aid is certainly not the only answer, but it is has an increasingly vital role to play as other sources of finance dry up. It is needed to lay the foundations to help stimulate private sector growth.

For a European nation like Italy, it is a smart investment in prosperity and stability in its back yard. It would be a cruel irony if, just as Africa began to succeed, its prospects were cut short by a crisis beyond its control. Strong action by African governments and robust support from the international community can keep Africa’s recovery on track. Both should continue to do their part.

Africa has had a painful history. Even if we do not consider the evils of slavery and colonialism, independence, some 50 years ago for most African countries, coincided with the start of the Cold War. That period was devastating for the newly independent states of Africa.

While the super powers were locked in a deadly game of chess, African nations were no more than pawns – suppliers of essential raw materials and sites for military bases – but most importantly strategic ideological buffers against the advance of communism or capitalism (depending on which side you were on!).Corrupt and dictatorial regimes were propped up as dependable allies. Dictators were either “our bastards” or “their bastards”.

These policies brought disastrous consequences – we witnessed the rise of dictatorships, the culture of the “big man” and associated corruption. The end of the Cold War was probably the best thing which ever happened to Africa. At last African people were able to address their needs for state and institution building; for the democratic transformation of their societies; and above all for tackling poverty. However negative external perceptions of Africa persisted and, in many cases, continue to this day.

To take a personal example, when we decided to invest in a mobile network in Africa, all of my friends thought we were mad! Then as now, the perception of Africa as a risky investment destination prevailed. Africa seemed to lack infrastructure and a skilled workforce, disposable incomes and above all, the rule of law. This was broad-brush. It picked the failings of some corrupt regimes, and civil wars or genocide in other countries, and created a toxic mix which tarnished all 53 countries in Africa. This is like claiming that all Europeans are guilty of genocide on the evidence of what happened in the former Yugoslavia!

Yes, some African countries are failed states but let us always remember that Africa is 53 countries and most of them are peaceful and pleasant places to live and visit. In 1998 we started Celtel, an African cellular company focused on rolling out mobile networks across sub-Saharan Africa. Seven years later, by 2005, Celtel covered 14 countries and almost one third of the African population.

Mobile phone subscription rates grew prolifically in Africa and had great impact on the economic and social lives of African people. A country like the Democratic Republic of the Congo with over 50 million people had only 3,000 fixed telephone lines.

Today there are more than five million phone subscribers. Mobile phones connected Africa, enabled investment and economic activities, created jobs, improved delivery of health and education services and enriched the social lives of African people.

People who had been separated from their families by conflict were able to communicate with lost relatives, farmers were able to receive information on where to obtain the best prices for their goods, people suddenly had access to a world of new information. And we are now even seeing banking through mobile phones.

One pleasant surprise for us was to see how mobile phones supported the democratic process in Africa. The events last year in Kenya and Zimbabwe have demonstrated the power of mobile phones in connecting people and safeguarding the integrity of the election process by allowing the immediate sharing of information.

It is difficult to steal elections in the era of mobile phones. Celtel was not a charity but a successful business which rewarded the investors generously. Our investors got back an average of eight times their money. Celtel proved that Africa is open for business, and great rewards wait for those serious investors.

The World Bank reports that the return on investments in Africa was the highest in the world in the last few years. This is not to say that we have completed the journey. Africa does also still need aid. But the aid must be focused on building Africa’s infrastructure, mainly power generation, clean water, ports, and roads. That is the hardware required for Africa to grow and flourish. Aid also helps us in key areas such as health and education, or what I call the software complementing the hardware.

But the one legacy that still remains with us from those Cold War years is poor governance. To sustain and enhance our development, we must insist on better governance. Neither successful business nor successful aid is possible without it. Good governance is essential to create a modern and just society and a healthy environment for investors and wealth creation.

That is why I created our Foundation for good governance in Africa, aimed at supporting great African leadership. We focus on two main initiatives – the Ibrahim Index of African Governance which is a comprehensive tool for civil society that measures the quality of governance in every country in sub-Saharan Africa and the Ibrahim Prize which recognises and celebrates excellence in leadership in Africa.

Africa is on the pathway towards success. To reach our goals we will need investment and a strong private sector, and we will need aid. But we must always insist on the basic conditionality of good governance. Good governance is required from all, not only from African Governments but from donors and the business community as well.

We need aid commitments to be delivered. They can save lives and help poor countries. But ultimately the salvation of Africa will come from within. Good governance, the capacity, to take decisions, implement them and see them through, is the only long term sustainable solution. That is the lesson of the past few decades. The image of Africa as a war-torn continent, plagued by conflict is commonly-held, but in truth this is an unfair simplification.

Nevertheless, conflict has been and remains a pitfall for many African countries seeking to grow their way out of poverty. It not only causes immense suffering, but undermines progress and sets nations on a downward spiral from which it can be hard to escape.

Such conflict is also difficult to contain – take Somalia, where conflict creates a breeding-ground for piracy and extremism that threatens not only its neighbours, but the rest of the world. Given the moral and security imperative, in some cases it may be possible and desirable for international forces to intervene with direct military action to end conflict and restore peace. This is what the world should have done to stop the genocide in Rwanda and it is what I did as Prime Minister in sending troops to end violence in Sierra Leone. In other cases however, peace will be best brought about through other interventions.

But ending conflict is only the beginning of the story. It is essential that enormous effort is focused on helping these countries recover and develop long-lasting stability. The good news is that, difficult as it can be, such recovery is possible. I have recently returned from Rwanda, which for most people conjures up an image of genocide and violence but which under the visionary leadership of President Kagame, has been transformed. The country is stable, health and education indicators are rapidly improving and the economy is booming – GDP growth last year was an extraordinary 10%.

What the case of Rwanda shows is not only that recovery is possible, but that central to that recovery is the role of political leadership – President Kagame has shown single-minded determination and must take much of the credit for that country’s recovery.

The international community needs to be there with speed and flexibility to provide significant aid and support to rebuild infrastructure and public services, but the key factor is resolute leadership supported by effective systems of government. This was explicitly recognised by the Africa Progress Panel’s recent report in which Kofi Annan rightly concluded that: “the responsibility for Africa’s progress rests with her political leaders.”

That is why I have created the Africa Governance Initiative, an effort to work with visionary African leaders such as President Kagame of Rwanda and President Koroma of Sierra Leone to build the systems of governance and accountability that will allow them to turn their visions for prosperity into reality.

This new initiative is a way of renewing my commitment to Africa and showing that through an innovative partnership with African leaders it is possible to achieve remarkable results that will complement traditional aid efforts and unleash the potential of African leaders to drive development.

Partnerships such as these not only have enormous potential for impact, but recognise that whilst we have a duty to help African countries, especially those affected by conflict, the long-run solutions to Africa’s problems will be created and led by Africans themselves.

The financial meltdown has translated into a development crisis for Africa. This is revealing its vulnerability not only to economic contraction but also to climate change. Changing weather patterns are already affecting the lives of millions of Africans by reducing food security, facilitating the spread of diseases like malaria, and prompting mass migration. The livelihoods and lives of millions of people are at risk.

Ironically, this crisis also presents a unique opportunity for Africa. The urgency of efforts to address climate change is revealing interesting prospects on the mitigation side, particularly in the areas of renewable energy and low carbon growth.

There is a real possibility to steer countries toward a new development model that will not only benefit Africa but the world. In the meantime, adaptation to climate change is critical. For Africa this means ‘weather proofing’ development by increasing food yields, investing in climate-resilient crops and infrastructure, promoting rainwater harvesting, and expanding medical control measures in anticipation increased vector-borne diseases.

Africa needs additional resources, over and above existing ODA commitments, to adapt to climate change. Financing adaptation to climate will be a formidable challenge, particularly as it involves additional costs above traditional development assistance – when ODA budgets are under pressure. Estimates of the amounts needed by developing countries to help them adapt to these challenges vary between 50 and 100 billion USD per year.

This is why Prime Minister Brown’s proposal last week on creating a fund for climate change is so welcome.

Failing to act now will not increase costs in the future – both financial and humanitarian. We all stand to lose from a reversal of the economic and social progress made across Africa in the past decade. Burgeoning markets might disappear and investment opportunities evaporate, while the risk of political instability will increase. Every percentage fall in growth has direct social consequences whether on nutrition levels, infant mortality or school attendance. Every person pushed back into poverty is another step away from achieving the Millennium Development Goals. For all of these reasons, the continued engagement and support of all of Africa’s partners including the G8 counties is vital.

As this year’s DATA Report from the Africa advocacy group ONE underscores, many donors are honouring their aid commitments despite the economic downturn. They realize the practical value of investing in Africa’s development, as well as the moral and political imperative of keeping their promises. They acknowledge that Africa is bearing the brunt of the economic and climate crises even though it was least responsible in creating them.

Regrettably, this is not the case for all G8 countries. Italy, in particular, has fallen behind its peers at a time when it is supposed to lead by example.

We need solutions that will prevent environmental catastrophe and that are equitable for every human being. This will require bold political leadership and unprecedented solidarity between rich and poor countries. At this G8 a breakthrough on supporting agriculture, investing in green technology and strengthening health systems is still possible.

We hope that the leaders assembled in Italy this week demonstrate this kind of leadership and include Africa in their deliberations. Africa’s international partners must not look the other way at this crucial time.