John Mc Arthur has a great piece in the Ottawa Citizen today on the need for Canadian leadership at the G8/G20 this coming June, our chance to meet the MDGs and the successes of aid.

Some highlights on what aid has accomplished in Africa since 2000:

(1) Measles deaths have dropped by more than 90% saving over 1,000 children’s lives a day.

(2) Nearly three million more people are on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, preventing new infections, keeping parents alive and turning HIVS/AIDS into a manageable disease rather than a death sentence – just like the rich world. ARVs cost less than $100 annually now to produce generically down about $10,000 from roughly a decade ago.

(3) Roughly 200 million more bednets have been distributed preventing new potentially fatal bouts with malaria, as well as contributing to whole countries (Rwanda, Ethiopia and Eritrea) more than halving death rates from the disease.

(4) Malawi doubled its food production and has seen astounding economic growth, which gives hope for the potentially historic breakthrough on hunger at the G8 through the $20 billion in aid for food security for small holder farmers which of course could easily wind up being the equivalent of over $100 billion in food aid.

Examples of success abound, but there is still much to be done and most immediately much we can do.

Despite promising an extra $25 billion in aid for Africa in 2005 the G8 has now locked itself into a $20 billion shortfall, which as McArthur puts it, is “small change among multi-trillion-dollar rich-country bailouts, but unconscionable when measured in terms of bednets, medicines, nurses, roads, fertilizer and other life-changing interventions that will not be delivered as a result.”

Canada lived up to its commitments in aid – though it was only 68% of what we agreed to in the first place – but is now shifting aid away from Africa.

What’s the point?

How do you answer a child’s question: “Why did my mother die?’’

What to say to a mother who asks : “Why did my child die?”

The answer to both is brutal: “Because we haven’t done what could be done.”