Official website of the President of Russia

Adopted by G8 leaders in Genoa on July 21, 2001

Meeting at the Genova G8 Summit, we agreed to support African efforts to resolve African problems. Peace, stability and the eradication of poverty in Africa are among the most important challenges we face in the new millennium. We welcome the New African Initiative, which is based on the principles of responsibility and ownership, with an emphasis on democracy, transparency, good governance, rule of law and human rights as fundamental factors of development. This initiative provides the basis for a new intensive partnership between Africa and the developed world.

Significant progress has been made on conflict resolution in several parts of Africa. In many places, however, conflict remains a major obstacle to economic and social development. We urge continued commitment to conflict prevention, management and resolution by the international community in partnership with African governments, the African Union and sub-regional organisation.

We continue to support the consolidation of democracy, pluralism and electoral fairness in an increasing number of African countries. We encourage similar progress towards political openness where democratic principles and the rule of law are weak. We also stress the importance of working in partnership with African governments to improve access of African products to world markets, attract foreign direct investment and promote investment in key social sectors, in particular health and education. Implementing the HIPC Initiative will release resources for such expenditure.

We have decided today to forge a new partnership to address issues crucial to African development. We are committed to promoting this objective with our African partners and in multilateral fora — in the UN, the World Bank and the IMF, and in a new Round of WTO negotiations. Our partnership will support the key themes of the New African Initiative, including:

To take this process forward, each of us will designate a high level personal representative to liase with committed African Leaders on the development of a concrete Action Plan to be approved at the G8 Summit next year under the leadership of Canada.