The Commission for Africa (CFA) has set itself the task of providing policies to accelerate progress towards a strong and prosperous Africa. It has also promised that Africans themselves will be largely involved in framing them. Africans, however, have heard all this before. Sir Bob Geldof, who sits on the Commission and was instrumental in its convening, has promised that it will not be just ‘another talking shop’ but how will it produce action? How will it carry the G8 countries with it in such matters as debt cancellation, aid and trade when it has no mandate from those countries? At a recent round of consultations, African CSOs and aid organizations working in Africa have been asking some hard questions of CFA representatives.