At least that was the goal when we created the website to showcase ONE’s latest DATA Report, our annual assessment of G8 commitments to sub-Saharan Africa made at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit. This year’s print report, available on our website, presented an opportunity and challenge for a “show me, don’t tell me” opportunity to make this data “getable” on first glance and interactive.

So, along with our partners at Stamen Design, we came up with a few cool, new tools that allow you to pull, click, and sort through some of this year’s data. Visit the report website and click on “DATA” in the navigation. From there, you can walk through a few different sets of data that shows how much each country gives in development assistance each year and how much of it goes to sub-Saharan Africa. We even through in additional data how much each country gives in assistance to sub-Saharan Africa per capita (an interesting change in size between countries there).

Each page starts with 2010 giving levels; you can watch the “bubbles” expand for each donor country as you load the page. From there, each data page has pull feature that shows giving over the past 10 years; you can watch the country bubbles change over the years, showing the history of their aid assistance. You can also click on the years at the top of data tables below the bubbles to sort giving levels by year — think of it as sorting an Excel file right there in your browser. On the right side of each table, you can mouse-over each country’s sparkline — a line that graphs each country’s giving over the past ten years — to see where their commitment peaked.

This year’s report forecasted the shortfall in commitments that were noted at last week’s G8 Summit in Paris. And we think the data shown on our website tells the story that despite historic increases in funding over the past decade, some countries fell short in meeting their commitments to sub-Saharan Africa by 2010. So visit our DATA Report 2011 website and play with the data. We hope it will help build your knowledge of what these countries give as part of their efforts keep their Gleneagles promises. It’s “show me, don’t tell me” time.

Following the tradition started last year at the G8 in Canada, this year’s French presidency prepared an accountability report together with the other G8 countries, which outlines the state of delivery and results of the G8’s commitments on fighting extreme poverty.

Let’s start with the positives: it is commendable that the G8 continues with preparing such reports. Great promises are one thing, but keeping them and proving to have kept them is equally important. This is exactly what ONE has been saying for years (and showing the example for) with the DATA report.

It is also good to draw attention to the commitments on food security and maternal health, the focus of this year’s report. The report has the merit of establishing a baseline for the different commitments, reporting back on disbursements already made and giving a time line for outstanding disbursements. So far, so good. But…

There is a massive “but”. The G8 have found an artful way to embellish their performance. The report puts the spotlight on figures in today’s prices and tracks progress against them. It is a major issue, because current prices cannot be compared properly across years. This is why the OECD recommends using constant prices, prices that take into account changes in exchange rates and inflation from year to year and give an honest picture of the real efforts that were made. To put it simply $1 in 2010 doesn’t buy as much as $1 in 2005.

The result of tracking progress in current prices? Forgetting inflation suddenly makes the G8 look much better than it really is. Gleneagles’ targets are missed, but only by a “little” $1.27 billion. Great success. Pat on the back. Except that taking inflation into account shows a very different picture. The G8 shortfall is in fact $19 billion!

Careful readers will notice that the report also mentions the $19 billion shortfall. Very careful readers, in fact. The figure is dropped in passing, immersed in a sea of data and tables all in current prices. Predictably, it is a blessing for countries that haven’t performed well and can conveniently quote the report to avoid facing their failure. Take Germany. The Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development issued a press release yesterday, which selectively quotes the report to give itself a pass, when Germany’s under performance is in reality costing $4 billion to the developing world.

As ONE’s Executive Director, Jamie Drummond, said yesterday:

“We cannot allow countries who are breaking promises to the world’s poor to hide behind misleading figures. When the G8 leaders gather in France next week they must acknowledge that accountability is more than just a PR exercise.”

This year’s G8 meeting on Africa (with the African Union and founding members of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development – NEPAD) will also examine the first accountability report prepared by the African side. We can only hope that Africa will have the courage to look shortfalls in the eyes.

Key points from the report are:

• Collectively the G7 delivered 61% of the increased aid they promised in 2005 to sub-Saharan Africa by 2010.
• The increases were largely a result of the UK making commendable progress towards its very ambitious target, and the US, Japan and Canada surpassing their relatively modest targets.
• Yet again Italy’s performance is condemnable, falling far short of its promises to the world’s poorest people.
• France and Germany have also failed to meet their ambitious targets.
• The failure of the G8 to keep their promises deprived the world’s poorest people of $7bn in financing for effective and life-changing programmes in 2010 alone.
• Despite the overall shortfall, there have been historic increases in aid to sub-Saharan Africa since 2000, and especially since 2005 and the promises of the Gleneagles G8 Summit which was a response to the global Make Poverty History campaign.
• Much of this smart aid went towards programmes that are delivering real results in sub-Saharan Africa. Together with African efforts, aid has helped to avert the deaths of 750,000 children from malaria; allowed 46.5 million children to enrol in school for the first time; provided 4 million Africans with anti-AIDS drugs; and helped boost agricultural productivity by 50% in 17 African countries.
• Emerging economies such as Brazil, India, China and Russia have been steadily increasing their aid to sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, along with increased trade and investment with African countries. However, because most of these new donors do not report their development assistance data to the DAC, the DATA Report does not compare them with traditional donors.

Launching the report Jamie Drummond, Executive Director of ONE, said:

“Unfortunately it comes as no surprise that Prime Minister Berlusconi has yet again abjectly failed to deliver on his promises – and we continue to call for Italy to be at least temporarily removed from the G8 for this reason. But it’s worrying that President Sarkozy and France are so far behind in a year when so much is expected of them as hosts of the G8 and G20, and at a time when African development, peace and democracy is at the top of the global agenda. It is also hugely disappointing that Germany – which has weathered the economic storm so well – has performed so badly on its development promises. These three nations must urgently get back on track by setting out clear timetables to meet the promises they made to give 0.7% of their national incomes as overseas aid by 2015. At the same time, non-European G8 countries like the US, Canada and Japan should set new, ambitious commitments for aid to sub-Saharan Africa.”

However, it is clear that even if G8 donors meet all their existing and future promises on aid, much more money needs to be invested in developing countries if we are to reach the Millennium Development Goals and pull millions of people out of poverty.

That is why the DATA Report outlines 6 options for the G8 and G20 to generate innovative financing for development. These range from financial sector levies to African diaspora bonds, and could each help to raise billions of dollars to help fund smart aid programmes.

In this time of global austerity, the DATA Report also looks at how donors have performed against targets to improve the effectiveness of aid to ensure that their investments have the biggest possible impact, although a thorough analysis of progress was not possible due to a lack of available data. However the report did note that some donors, notably the UK, US and Canada, are increasingly emphasizing results by setting clear targets for the outcomes they intend to achieve with their aid. When countries meet for the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in South Korea later this year they should set clear standards for monitoring these results. They should also renew their efforts to improve aid and budget transparency and meet their commitments from previous aid effectiveness forums in Paris and Accra.

Check out the report, including interactive datasets, at one.org/data

You can tune into the livestream below to watch today’s DC panel discuss the report’s results.

Live streaming video by Ustream

The panel includes ONE President and CEO David Lane, ONE Board Member and former White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, and Senior Professional Staff Member on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Pearl-Alice Marsh — and is co-hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the University of Miami Center for International Media.

ONE’s Lauren Clanin is at the event and will be sending back recap posts soon. You can read a ton more about the DATA Report here.

We all love a bit of fun, but there’s a serious point to the game – since promising to increase aid to Africa in 2005 PM Berlusconi has actually cut it. spanking new DATA report puts him firmly at the bottom of the class.

On a brighter note, some G8 countries have actually made real strides despite the tough times, and these investments have helped to give over 40 million children in Africa an education and halved malaria deaths in a number of countries.

So, enjoy the game (my top score is 8720) and please pass on to let people know that we don’t just believe in promises but delivery too.

Video below, in 5 parts:

Background
The idea for the DATA Report began in 2005. When we reacted to the unveiling of the historic Gleneagles communiqué, ONE knew that the commitments it included would have a tremendous impact on Africa’s development efforts— but only if they were delivered. The importance of accountability rang clear, even back then, and so every year since Gleneagles we take a day to reflect on the progress made and what has been delivered.

This year’s report follows that same approach, but it takes on special significance because it’s 2010 ¬- the deadline the G8 gave themselves to deliver the Gleneagles commitments to ‘help Africa build the successful future all of us want to see.’ In addition to tracking the commitments and offering a final verdict on progress to date (based on available data and projections of 2010 figures), the 2010 DATA Report draws on the lessons learned over the past five years to offer recommendations for the years ahead, especially the final five years to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The report also evaluates some of the new realities facing Africa, including new stakeholders, new challenges like climate change and the critical importance of African governments’ commitments to their own development efforts.

The Findings
The 2010 DATA Report evaluates the G8’s collective progress on the main commitments and also reviews each country’s progress towards its individual promises.

On Development Assistance:
The DATA Report finds that the G8 will deliver 61% of their promised increases in development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2004-2010, the G8 have delivered an historic increase of $13.7 billion, the largest on record from the G7 to sub-Saharan Africa over a six-year time period.

Within the 61%, donor performance varies – the UK is on track to deliver an ambitious commitment (though it is not yet clear how close they will come to the target), while the US, Canada and Japan are on track to meet or surpass relatively modest commitments. France and Germany both set ambitious targets and are on course to deliver about a quarter of them by 2010, while Italy is in a category of its own as the only G7 country to have cut development assistance from 2004 levels. By the end of 2010, Italy will be responsible for an estimated one-third of the G8’s shortfall.

On debt, trade and aid effectiveness:
Despite the historic cancellation of 100% of debt for African countries, the global economic crunch and new lending mean that many countries could be facing a new debt crisis in the coming years. While the commitments on trade and investment were vague and weak, the G7 donors have delivered very little to advance them. Further, while some countries have at least developed country action plans, overall progress has been slow.

On health, education, agriculture and water and sanitation:
Where commitments have been delivered and matched with investments from African governments, impressive results have been achieved: 3 million people with HIV now have access to antiretrovirals in Africa, 42 million children were enrolled in school between 1999 and 2007 and the Global Fund has delivered 104 million bed nets to protect against malaria.

In general, the most progress has been made on certain health commitments but not on building sustainable systems to address basic health in Africa; progress has been impressive getting children into school but more of a focus is needed in improving quality and completion rates; the most ambitious commitments on agriculture are too recent to monitor but funding trends have turned around in recent years while donors may have delivered on the letter of the commitment to water and sanitation, the very vague commitment means that there is little improvement on the ground to show for it.

Looking ahead:
In addition to looking back at progress made, this year’s DATA Report also looks beyond 2010 to what is needed accelerate Africa’s progress towards the 2015 deadline for the MDGs, with an eye to the UN High-Level Summit in September. A new strategy should both take stock of lessons learned since Gleneagles (such as the need for stronger accountability and incorporating new partners) as well as target progress in governance, equitable and sustainable economic growth and further increases in smart, effective development aid that is tailored to achieve results.

Key excerpts below, full piece here

Poverty must go. Without removing it, we will not have a stable world. The global financial architecture collapsed and now must be rebuilt. One of the reasons this was a failure of the system rather than simply within it was because 50% of the planet, those who live on less than $2 per day, were excluded from it. You cannot live on less than $2 a day. What is more, by excluding them from the world economy, we excluded their creativity, their dynamism, their intellect, their ideas and their productivity. We did great damage to ourselves in doing so.

We mustn’t make the same mistake again as we rebuild a newer world economy. We must include the peripheral peoples in the marginal economies, we must include Africa and Africans if only so that they can buy our stuff and we can buy theirs. And then, as happens anywhere else, the aid question disappears.

We are not there yet. So, for now, aid stabilizes the poor of this world at a base level. It manages sometimes to get to some people so that they get to stay alive with a little bit of food, so they get to stay alive with a little bit of medicine, and so they get a little bit of education. Then with a coherent state they can begin to get going. And to help with that, we look primarily to the G7 — the world’s richest economies, the countries of plenty.

-Chris Scott

Check it out:

You can read more from CNN here.

-Chris Scott

Here’s a 6 minute highlight reel of all of the speakers.

[Panelists: Bill Gates, co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bob Geldof anti-poverty activist and ONE adviser, Dr. Francoise Ndayishimiye, Senior Gender Adviser, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, Arunma Oteh, Vice President for Corporate Services, African Development Bank, Archbishop Desmund Tutu, ONE's International Patron and Jamie Drummond, ONE's Executive Director]

And below, a video of the whole event.