Today is day one of the three-day G8 Summit that’s being held in Tokayo, Japan, and while there is a lot to cover over these three days the first day has been tightly focused on aid for Africa.

The 2005 G8 summit in Scotland said it would double aid to Africa by 2010 and this worked out at $25bn a year, it has been reported that less than a quarter of this amount has been forthcoming.

Today Mbeki and the presidents of Tanzania, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Algeria and the chairperson of the African Union Commission will be meeting the leaders of the G8 countries. This includes Canada, Italy, Russia, Germany, France, Japan, UK and US.

The African leaders are going to face tough questions about why they have been so soft with President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe dispute.

The African countries will want the full $25bn a year in aid, but it should be fair that if they need help, they also listen to what the G8 have to say and take action.

This includes not letting President Robert Mugabe lead Zimbabwe like he has and they should be making sure the election was held fair, they have been very soft and lets hope the G8 kicks some presidents into gear today.

Activists have accused some G8 countries of skimping on aid to Africa, this is particularly Japan, Italy, France and Canada. It will be interesting today to see what’s said on this very topic.