G8 aid pledges ‘unlikely to be met’
The eight richest countries are unlikely to meet their commitment to increase aid to developing countries by $50 billion by 2010, Oxfam has warned.
In a new report, the aid charity says the practice of double-counting, where rich countries count debt cancellation in their aid budgets, continues and is hiding the real level of aid.
Last year, development assistance from the G8 increased by 37 per cent, or $21 billion, but 80 per cent of this went on cancelling the debts of Iraq and Nigeria, Oxfam says.
Once this was discounted, aid budgets increased by just nine per cent in 2005 – making it highly unlikely the G8 would meet last year’s target of £50 billion extra by 2010.
In January, chancellor Gordon Brown admitted that the meeting of the G8 Gleneagles last summer, which was accompanied by mass protests across the world, had failed to make poverty history in the way he had hoped.
Today’s report finds that while the debt cancellation agreed last year is helping deliver essential health and education services, developed countries must step up their efforts if they are to make genuine inroads in tackling global poverty.
Britain’s aid budget rose by seven per cent last year once debt cancellation money was deducted, the report says, but the contributions by France and Germany actually fell.
And while the US increased its aid budget by 14 per cent, it remains one of the lowest donors, contributing just 0.19 per cent of its gross national income, compared to 0.33 per cent in the UK and 0.38 per cent in France.
Oxfam warns this is far from the 0.7 per cent promised at the United Nations 30 years ago, and says too much of the aid budget – an estimated 40 per cent – is spent on expansive consultants flown in from donor countries.
“G8 governments must not continue to double count debt cancellation as part of their aid budget. True aid figures continue to be obscured because official figures still count debt cancellation deals as new foreign aid,” said charity director Barbara Stocking.
The Oxfam report praises the UK government for taking a lead in global education – in April, Mr Brown pledged £8.6 billion over ten years to ensure free schooling for all children in the poorest countries by 2015.
But Ms Stocking added: “The UK government must use its influence to ensure that G8 countries deliver both debt cancellation and increased aid if they are to make poverty history.”
However, international development secretary Hilary Benn insisted: “The government has set a clear timetable to meet the 0.7 per cent ODA/GNI target by 2013 and is fully on track with its plans to achieve this.”
He said Britain’s spending on aid was 0.48 per cent this year, up from 0.36 per cent last year, while spending in Africa in particular has trebled since 1997, with close to £1.26 billion expected to be spent in 2007-08.
Government officials also pointed out that figures for overseas aid had always included debt relief, noting that this relief allowed developing countries to divert money into tackling poverty.
