OECD nations gave more foreign aid in 2010 than ever before, but failed to meet G8 commitments, report says

Developed countries "gave more aid to poorer countries than ever before in 2010, despite facing big budget gaps and rising debt levels," according to data released on Wednesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Dow Jones Newswires/Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the OECD, aid provided by members of its Development Assistance Committee (DAC) "rose by 6.5% from 2009 to $128.7 billion [in 2010], more than the previous record high of 2005, a year in which aid was boosted by an unusually high level of cancellations of debts owed by African nations," the news service writes (Hannon, 4/6).

"While the 2010 figures demonstrate a commitment to the neediest countries, they also confirm that some donors are not meeting targets they set at Gleneagles and other fora," an OECD press release states (4/6). At a G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005, countries agreed to increase aid to Africa by $25 billion by 2010, "but the OECD said only $11 billion had been delivered," the Guardian reports (Elliott, 4/6). However, the U.S. "pledged to double its aid to sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2010 and surpassed this goal in 2009, a year early," the release notes (4/6). 

The OECD report found that in 2010, "the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan were the largest donors of official development assistance (ODA) in terms of volume. ... The largest increases in real terms in ODA between 2009 and 2010 were recorded by Australia, Belgium, Canada, Japan, Korea, Portugal and the United Kingdom," according to the press release (4/6). The Guardian's "Data Blog" highlights key findings from the report and includes related graphics (Provost, 4/6).