Halfway to 2010, only 14% of the G8’s promise to Africa has been delivered.
In 2005, the G8 made a series of commitments to Africa that included a doubling of development assistance to the continent by 2010 and a collection of specific pledges like achieving universal access to AIDS treatment, supporting universal primary education and making trade work for Africa. Today in Paris, ONE launched the DATA Report 2008 (http://one.org/report/en/index.html), which monitors G8 progress towards these goals. This year’s report shows that the G8 are falling further behind on their 2005 commitment to contribute an additional $22 billion in assistance to Africa by 2010. The G8 are halfway to the 2010 deadline, but so far have only delivered $3 billion, or 14%, of the $22 billion commitment. If the G8 continue at their current pace, they will not keep their promises to Africa.
There is also good news. As you have read in this blog many times before, the assistance that has been delivered is making a real, measurable difference on the ground, saving lives and brightening futures for millions of Africans. Because of recent increases in development assistance:
· 2.1 million Africans are on life-saving AIDS medication, up from only 50,000 in 2002.
· 26 million children were immunized and against a group of life-threatening diseases between 2001 and 2006,
· 29 million African children were able to enter school for the first time as a direct result of debt relief and increased assistance between 1999 and 2005,
· 59 million bed nets had been distributed by the Global Fund alone, helping to dramatically reduce malaria rates in countries such as Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia.
These statistics are proof that aid works and that G8 failure is unacceptable. There are no more excuses for the G8 not to deliver what it promised in 2005. The DATA Report lays out a clear roadmap for how the G8 can get on track to meet their 2010 goals by scaling-up measures that have been proven to work.
Read more about the DATA Report’s specific findings on development assistance. (more…)
ONE just wrapped up the launch of the DATA Report 2008 in Paris. What an event! We had an amazing group of panelists that included rockstars, advocates, development experts and doctors. A room full of journalists seemed to get the message loud and clear: aid is delivering remarkable results across Africa. Now we need to get this message to the G8 so they can get to work on making sure that their commitments to Africa are met by 2010.
At the Press Club near the Arc de Triomphe, ONE was joined by: Bono; Bob Geldof; Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS; TB and Malaria, singer and activist Angelique Kidjo; Arunma Oteh, Vice President, Corporate Services of the African Development Bank and French tennis star Yannick Noah.
Stay tuned here for some footage of the event and an analysis of the report’s findings.
(You can also read the summary and download the whole report here.)
-Josh Lozman
