Africa A New Agenda - How Africa Can Succeed, By UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jack Straw

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has listed ten conditions, which he urged African countries to confront if they must succeed.

Delivering the 10th Annual Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture Feb 13, 2006 in Abuja entitled, 'Africa A New Agenda', Straw named the conditions to include poverty reduction and development, governance, peace and security, conflicts, terrorism, migration, crime and drug. Others are energy security, environment, Islam and China

Mr Straw traced the present predicament of most African countries to miss governance and expressed optimism that, 'If Africa pursues the right policies, tackles the right issues and gets the full support of the international community, this continent could be the success story of the 21st Century'.

He regretted that poverty in Africa is getting worse, not better and that, 'Unless growth accelerates and the fruits of growth are distributed more widely, by 2015 around 100 million more Africans than now will be living below the dollar-a-day poverty line'.

Full story This Day/AllAfrica February 15, 2006 by George Oji, Abuja.