Africa: 'Africa deserves as much attention as the tsunami'

Writing about the world's response to the Boxing Day tsunami disaster, Kevin Watkins, director of the UNDP Human Development Report, states that while relief operations in Asia are of importance "it is no less of an imperative to break the grip of abject poverty and avoidable suffering in Africa and elsewhere." Watkins concludes: "We must build on the groundswell of compassion unleashed by the tsunami to end the injustice and indifference at the heart of Africa's crisis. We have the opportunity. Later this month, the UN Millennium Project will set out an agenda for mobilising the resources needed to halve extreme poverty, reduce child deaths and educate children. Britain can push the G8 to act on aid and unfair trade. Public opinion must get behind Africa."