Now that he has seen Africa, Paul O'Neill should act on aid

Paul O'Neill was back at work at the US Treasury yesterday after visiting some of the poorest countries in Africa in his bizarre 10-day double-act with Bono. He is said to be planning a period of reflection before presenting any recommendations to Congress.

It is to be hoped that the gap between his return and the drawing of his conclusions does not dull his impressions. He was, by all accounts, an attentive and sympathetic observer, whose ingrained tendency to favour quick, business-friendly solutions was knocked out of him by the time his 10 days were up.

Unfortunately, however, nothing that he saw – none of the malnourished babies, hopelessly overcrowded Aids hospitals or languishing clean-water projects – appears to have made him less adamant in his opposition to the one measure that would probably do most to help these impoverished countries: the forgiveness of their huge foreign debts. Through the trip he also maintained his resistance to pledging any increase in US aid.

The US is among the stingiest of aid donors (as a proportion of its GDP), and much of what it does give is earmarked for its friends. In the absence of any grand initiative, such as debt forgiveness or across-the-board increase in aid, the hope must now be that Mr O'Neill's first-hand acquaintance with countries such as Uganda and Ethiopia will encourage the US to back specific initiatives and increase its contribution that way.

The US administration is expected to outline a new initiative on development aid before the G8 summit in Canada later this month. This would be the second time the US has inched its development contribution upward – it announced a $40bn increase in March, before the UN summit on development financing in Mexico. That increase, however, was hedged about with conditions on sound governance in the recipient countries that might satisfy the aid-averse US Congress, but would also have the effect of leaving much of the money, unspent, in US banks.

Mr O'Neill has already excluded big shifts in US aid policy. But if his African adventure makes him a more convincing advocate of development aid before Congress, that would be the next best thing.