On May 10, 2013, the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, released its annual progress report. This year's report highlights the critical choices African policy makers have to make regarding investment in the immense natural resources on the continent. In many African countries, natural resource revenue is increasing the economic gap between the wealth and the poor and the economic growth from these revenues have not translated into improvements in health and education throughout Africa. The Africa Progress Panel believes that better management of these investments will yield much improvement in the lives of African people, but there are major challenges to overcome. Most notably, international tax and evasion and corruption represent tough obstacles to transparency and accountability. The report emphasizes the importance of the G8, the United Kingdom and other governments, and OECD countries in making tax and transparency a priority in the upcoming year. Annan reiterated that tax avoidance has proven to be a major impediment to development throughout the continent. "Tax avoidance and evasion are gloval issues that affect us all. The impact for G8 governments is a loss of revenue. But in Africa, it has direct impact on the lives of mothers and children. Throughout the world, millions of citizens now need their leaders to step up to the mark and Lead. Fortunately, momentum for change appears to be accelerating," he said.
