Earlier today, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that if the G8 does not rapidly increase its development assistance to Africa, it risks breaking its promise to double aid to the continent by 2010. Annan spoke on behalf of the Africa Progress Panel, a group of experts and prominent spokespeople brought together in 2006 by Tony Blair and the Commission for Africa to ensure that promises to the continent are kept and progress is monitored. In its annual report launched in London today, the panel found that despite progress on debt relief and significant increases in assistance by individual countries, Africa faces a $40 billion funding shortfall of the aid it was promised by the G8 in 2005. The report also makes recommendations on how G8 and African governments can address the issues of rising food prices and climate change, and outlines policies that are needed to expand African trade and boost investments in infrastructure.

The launch comes less than a month before the annual G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan. This year’s summit marks the midpoint to 2010, the target date for the delivery of the G8’s historic promise to double aid to Africa. This Wednesday, ONE is launching its own annual report on the G8’s progress towards meeting its commitments to Africa. The “DATA Report” looks at the collective G8 promise to double aid by 2010 and also examines progress the G8 has made towards fulfilling other commitments, such as providing universal access to HIV treatment, supporting universal primary education and making trade work for Africa. The DATA Report also includes in-depth analyses of how each G8 country is doing in delivering their individual promises to Africa. Stay tuned here for coverage of Wednesday’s launch in Paris and an analysis of the findings and what they mean to the fight against global poverty.

-Nora Coghlan

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 5:25 pm and is filed under U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.