Sub-Saharan Africa is an exception. That is itself an achievement. A generation ago, east and south Asia seemed mired in interminable poverty. Today, sub-Saharan Africa alone is thus blighted. We know development works. The challenge is to make it work in Africa.

It is to the credit of Tony Blair, the British prime minister, that he has made this a priority of the UK's presidency of the Group of Eight leading high-income countries. It is a burden the G8 can usefully take up. Moreover, if, as seems likely, the US refuses to contribute the needed resources, it is one the European Union can - and should - shoulder.