This page contains a series of useful links related to the Commission for Africa.

The Commission for Africa was set up in 2004 and consisted of politicians, activists and business people from both African and rich countries. Their purpose was to look in detail at the problems and challenges facing Africa.

A report, entitled Our Common Interest, was published in March 2005 and contained a set of recommendations which challenge both rich industrialised countries and African countries themselves to take action to address the continent's many and varied needs.

The report is available to download either as one large file or as individual chapters and sections from the Commission for Africa website. The site also has links to summary pages of the report.

A guide to what the Our Common Interest report says has been produced in conjunction with the Learning Africa site. This offers an easy-to-read version of the Commission for Africa's report and provides a useful resource for both teachers and students on the issues and recommendations highlighted by the Commission for Africa. Click here to download this version in PDF format. Please note this is a large file and may take several minutes to download (3.3MB).

To request classroom sets of this booklet please contact DFID Public Enquiry Point tel: 0845 300 4100.

A Young People's Commission for Africa website has also been established. This is the outcome of a project which linked 25 UK schools with 25 schools in Africa between January and June 2005. The teacher resources section contains fact sheets and lesson plans/ideas.

The UK is President of the G8 for 2005. The annual summit took place at Gleneagles in Scotland in July. The summit focused on the challenges of Africa and climate change. Click here to visit the G8 website and find out about the coimmuniques that came out of the G8 summit.