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africanews

The African Union chairperson, Bingu wa Mutharika, has called on African countries to be accountable and transparent with donor funding when he took centre stage at the just ended G20 Summit in Toronto, Canada.

Mutharika, who was invited on the behest of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper said African leaders must learn to live up to donors' expectations on aid.

"We have to be accountable and use donor resources for their intended purpose. Only then can we realize meaningful development and build a better working relationship," he said.

Canada's CBC News said the leaders themselves agreed: "Serious challenges remain," in the closing statement released as Harper spoke Sunday.

A communiqie released by the G8 at the end of its summit also recognized that: "While growth is returning, the recovery is uneven and fragile, unemployment in many countries remains at unacceptable levels, and the social impact of the crisis is still widely felt."

On development, the communique sourced from CBS indicated that support for development, based on mutual responsibility, and a strong partnership with developing countries, particularly in Africa, remains a cornerstone of the G8's approach.

“We will pursue our comprehensive approach to development aiming at sustainable outcomes. We reaffirm our commitments, including on ODA and enhancing aid effectiveness. We call on developing country governments to meet their primary responsibilities for social and economic development and good governance, in the interests of their citizens.

"Since the most vulnerable states have made the least progress towards the MDGs, we will place special emphasis on helping them build the foundations for peace, security and sustainable development," it read in part.

Its sister summit, the G20's communique, also acknowledged the problems faced by many countries - particularly those in Africa. It also recognized that not all countries are at the same levels of development.

The G20 also renewed its commitments and reflected on its steps.

"We have endorsed the important voice reforms agreed by shareholders at the World Bank, which will increase the voting power of developing and transition countries by 4.59% since 2008," it read.

Today, adds the agreement, we build on our earlier commitment to open, transparent and merit-based selection processes for the heads and senior leadership of all the IFIs. We will strengthen the selection processes in the lead up to the Seoul Summit in the context of broader reform.

However, the G8 on Saturday said the global economic crisis threatened to undermine the 2015 global targets for reducing extreme poverty worldwide, and avoided to make new bold promises.

The world's richest group of eight fell US$18 billion short of a US$50 billion pledge to double aid to poor countries by 2010.

Only US$5 billion has been committed to an initiative to readuce deaths among mothers and babies - a growing concern in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.