ONE report examines G8 follow through on development assistance to Africa

The G8 nations have "delivered only 61 percent of the increased aid they promised to sub-Saharan Africa by 2010 in their 2005 summit" in Gleneagles, Scotland, an annual report by ONE shows, Reuters reports (5/16). "At the Gleneagles summit, rich nations said that by 2010 they would increase development assistance by $50bn, with an extra $25bn going to sub-Saharan Africa," the Guardian reports (Elliot, 5/16).

"ONE criticized France, Germany and Italy for failing to meet targets set ... It commended Britain for progress on an ambitious target and said the United States, Japan and Canada had surpassed their relatively modest targets. ... The report noted that emerging economies such as Brazil, India, China and Russia have been steadily increasing their aid, trade and investment with African countries," according to Reuters (5/16).

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that a leaked G8 draft document prepared for this month's meeting and obtained by the newspaper claims G8 countries "have increased annual aid by almost $49bn between 2004 and 2010, just $1bn a year short of the target set in the 2005 Gleneagles summit." However, the draft conflicts with recent information from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stating that development aid in 2010 fell $19 billion short of the Gleneagles targets, according to the newspaper, which says the accounting difference is attributable to the G8 failing "to take inflation into account, making cash increases in aid appear more generous, purely because prices have risen between 2004 and 2010" (Giles/Thompson, 5/16).