The G7’s ODA Tally

The G8 Gleneagles Summit (2005) was an extraordinary moment for Africa. The world’s largest economies came together, looked at Africa in a concerted way and made ambitious commitments to double their aid to Sub-Saharan Africa by 2010. This was not business as usual! These commitments gave Africa, civil society, advocacy groups, and governments around the world -not least G7 governments (Russia made no commitments, hence G7) – a reference point to measure the fulfilment of aid promises –until 2010.

Ahead of next week’s 2011 G8 Summit hosted in France, the 2011 DATA Report published its analysis about the latest ODA figures.  So how did the G7 fare against their promises? Overall, historic increases to aid were registered, and the G7 delivered 61% ($11.2bn) of what they pledged in 2005. However, like everything, the devil is in the details.

The 2005 commitments varied in nature:  from ambitious to moderate, from quantitative targets to relative. In the same fashion, accomplishments also went from superb to modest and even abysmal. According to the ONE’s Report, ambitious commitments were made by France, Germany, Italy and the UK; moderate commitments were made by US; and Canada, and Japan made modest commitments.  Three countries, Canada, Japan and the US, delivered more than what they had promised (by 197%, 126% and 121% respectively). The UK delivered 86% of what it had pledged. France delivered 45%, Germany 23% and Italy delivered -2% meaning that instead of increasing its aid, Italy gave$78m less in 2010 than in 2004. Contrary to what most would assume, the G7’s $7bn shortfall is a result of European countries failing to meet their promises (France, Germany, Italy, and to a lesser extent the UK).

These figures raise a number of interesting and important questions. For instance, given their collective track-record, is the G7 credible? Have the G7 accountability mechanisms worked? What will become of the pending commitments to SSA? Will there be meaningful future commitments to SSA made next week in France? Will Africa feature as prominently again as it did in 2005 in the G8? The list goes on...

But no one is asking these questions as the real-time geo-political and economic events – including the situation in Libya, DSK’s arrest and Obama and the Middle East take most of the spotlight these days. In spite of this, most would argue (and agree) that promises should be met.

Regardless of the unquestionably pressing issues the G8 has set on its agenda, there is a simple, moral and compelling case for the group to re-double efforts to meet their promises, such as the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (of $22bn promised).Time will tell how the G7 will fare on its Gleneagles commitments and if there will ever be another moment like it for Africa. Could it be next week?