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No-one can fail to have been moved by the recent pictures from Darfur, Sudan. Hundreds upon thousands of people driven from their homes, by terrible violence and fear. Tales of unspeakable atrocities are filling column inches, and night by night, our television screens bear witness to the unfolding humanitarian tragedy.

What we are seeing in Sudan, is an illustration of what happens when we fail to tackle the threats of our rapidly shrinking planet. The global nature of these threats – such as peace and security, HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation are well known. Many of the worst effects of those threats are felt on one continent, Africa.

That is why, as the UK begins to prepare for the UK’s Presidency of both the G8 and the European Union in 2005, we are putting Africa at the centre of international attention. To help make sure that the G8 and the EU agree on the right actions for the continent, Tony Blair has launched a Commission for Africa. The Commission is made up of 17 senior figures, most from Africa, and from diverse backgrounds of government, business, civil society and UN institutions, and it will take a fresh look at the challenges facing the continent.

The Commission aims to ensure this debate on Africa is taken up across the continent itself and in all G8 countries, and its findings will be presented to the G8 Summit in Scotland in July 2005.

Some people ask why we need a Commission when we already know what needs to be done. It is worth remembering some of the facts.

Half of the 688 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme poverty. Africa has 10% of the world's population but 70% of those people are living with HIV/AIDS. Three million Africans are infected with the virus each year, most of them women. The pandemic is just one example of how Africa is left behind in the world.

The desperate statistics, for example on poverty and HIV/AIDS, should not obscure the fact that there has been some progress in Africa upon which we can build. In the last few years the number of conflicts on the continent has fallen significantly. Nineteen Sub-Saharan countries have growth of more than 5%, democracy is spreading and 23 countries have qualified for debt forgiveness.

We are also moving to a real sense of partnership with Africa. In 2000, the international community expressed its commitment to global development through the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. African leadership through the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is helping to create the conditions for achievement of those goals. The G8 Action Plan for Africa, adopted in 2001, supports that effort.

But when the UN reviews the first five-year targets of the Millennium Development Goals next year, it will find that Africa is falling behind. The 2005 target for universal primary education will not be met in Africa until 2029, the target to halve poverty was meant for 2015 but is not on track to be met until at least 2115.

That is where the Commission comes in. It aims to support the best of what is already happening in Africa, like the work of NEPAD. It will push for full implementation of existing international commitments. But it also aims to go one step further, to challenge assumptions in order to find out what needs to be done to help lift Africa out of its extreme poverty.

We do not expect the Commission’s debate to be easy. Consider the terms for international trade, particularly for agricultural products. Last year for example the EU made progress in reforming the Common Agricultural Policy to make it more sustainable. But we have not yet translated that into a deal which delivers for Africa trading opportunities in accordance with our commitments under the World Trade Organisation’s Doha agreement.

The Commission for Africa’s debate has already started. In July, one of the Commissioners, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, addressed the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on what the Commission could do to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty. Another Commissioner, Bob Geldof, hosted a debate in London to consider what should be done for Africa in the developed world. He wants to bring that debate to other G8 countries later inthe year. I will also be talking to my colleagues in the G8 in the coming months to see how they can contribute.

2005 offers a real opportunity. As well as the UK's determination to see action through its chairing of the G8 and the EU, 2005 also marks the 20 th anniversary of the Live Aid concerts through which Bob Geldof showed how much can be achieved for Africa when there is real public and political engagement.

2005 will be too late for many of the people of Darfur; that is why the UK and other countries are giving help now. Our challenge must be to make sure that we are not late again for Africa as a whole.

The Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP is UK Secretary of State for International Development

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