Africa needs more financial aid like an alcoholic needs a stiff whisky. Instead of Tony Blair, the prime minister, and his Group of Eight colleagues providing more cash in Gleneagles, here are 10 ways to help Africa help itself that will cost little or nothing.

1. Encourage ideas. The high cost of books in Africa is a tax on ideas. Yet we live in a knowledge-driven world. So our first suggestion is: encourage publishers in rich countries to allow African publishers to print a limited run of their books. Provided the authors forgo royalties and publishers co-operate, locally printed versions can be on sale at a fifth of the foreign price. It does not erode the market for the overseas edition - rather this will create a new readership.