ONE is gearing up for this week’s G8 Summit in Italy. While we are encouraged that development issues and Africa will once again be discussed at this year’s summit, we are concerned that the G8 has only one year to meet its historical Gleneagles 2005 commitments and are seriously behind. The G8 have so far only delivered one third of the aid they promised to Africa (See ONE’s 2009 DATA report for more details). In particular, Italy, the host of this year’s G8, has only delivered three percent of its promises over the past four years. With such dismal record on its promises to Africa, one might ask: does Italy have the credibility to lead the G8?

ONE is urging the G8 leaders, Italy in particular, to step up to the promises it made four years ago. ONE will be calling on all G8 nations to produce clear plans and time tables for how they will make up the shortfalls with serious down payments to get back on track.

2010 will be a turning point for Africa. ONE also hopes that the G8 will discuss plans for post-Gleneagles commitments and agree to establish a strategy for 2010-2015 to drive forward progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals in partnership with African governments, civil society and the private sector at next year’s summit in Canada.

-Mikiko Imai