THE UK'S PROGRESS 2004–10

The UK has continued to provide global leadership on development issues during the past five years, most notably by maintaining its commitments to increase development assistance despite recent budgetary challenges. Between 2004 and 2010, the UK increased its development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa by $2.55 billion (£1.65 billion) – representing a more than doubling of development assistance to the region from 2004 levels, delivering a total of $5.06 billion (£3.28 billion) in 2010 and meeting 86% of its target increases. 39% of the UK's global development assistance increases between 2004 and 2010 were directed to sub-Saharan Africa.

In addition to providing leadership on commitments to increase development assistance, especially in areas such as education and fighting malaria, during the past five years the UK has also championed policies to improve aid effectiveness, relieve unsustainable debt burdens in developing countries and address the impact of climate change on developing countries.

LOOKING AHEAD: 2010–15

In 2011, the UK reaffirmed its commitment to deliver its development assistance promises, a praiseworthy decision in light of the current economic climate. The new coalition government's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) projects that UK development assistance will remain at current levels until 2013, when there will be a projected increase of £2.90 billion ($4.48 billion) in a single year to reach 0.7% of GNI. If this is delivered as promised in the CSR, the UK will become the first G8 country to meet this historic pledge. Within this increase, the UK has clarified that 59% of bilateral resources will be directed to sub-Saharan Africa between 2011/12 and 2014/15.

The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) has also unveiled plans to improve its development programmes over the coming years. Following reviews of its bilateral, multilateral and humanitarian spending, in March 2011 DFID announced a series of reforms aimed at maximising the transparency and effectiveness of its development assistance. This included setting clear, measurable targets to ensure that UK investments are making an impact in the world's poorest countries. As part of these reforms, the UK announced that it would direct more assistance (up to 30%) towards conflict and fragile states. It will also tighten the focus of its development programmes by reducing the number of countries that receive UK bilateral aid from 43 to 27 (18 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa).

In terms of thematic areas, the UK has identified health, education, malnutrition, wealth creation and climate change as priorities in the years ahead. Within these areas, the government has set specific targets to ensure that UK investments will lead to results by 2015. These targets include schooling for 11 million children; saving the lives of 50,000 women who die in pregnancy and childbirth; preventing the deaths of 250,000 newborn babies; vaccinating more than 60 million children under the age of five; preventing 10 million more children from going hungry; and providing 4 million people with enough food for a year through greater agricultural support.

Clarity on how the UK intends to meet these targets is needed from both DFID's new country plans (to be published later this year) and the multilateral programmes that receive UK support. In 2011, ONE will be working to ensure that DFID's objectives are implemented by encouraging the UK to invest in highly effective multilateral mechanisms (such as GAVI, the Global Fund, the World Bank's International Development Agency and the African Development Bank), as well as transparent and accountable bilateral programmes.

The UK's focus on health and results is welcome, but it is worth noting that it did not make a new contribution at the Global Fund's third replenishment conference in October 2010. ONE will continue to encourage the UK to provide funding to this critical, results-driven global health mechanism. ONE will also be encouraging the UK to increase its focus on global agriculture in 2011. Specifically, ONE hopes the UK will deliver and build on its 2009 L'Aquila commitment (in line with the promises from the recently published Aid Reviews) and contribute its fair share (£50 million) to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme.

In 2011, the UK can demonstrate its commitment to providing long-term and predictable aid through legislation to make its 0.7% ODA/GNI commitment legally binding. This step, along with the new Aid Transparency Guarantee and Independent Commission for Aid Impact, are vital in the run-up to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan.

The UK played a key role in the creation of mechanisms such as the IFFIm and the AMC; this historic leadership, combined with its consistent commitment to development assistance, puts it in a unique position to support new ideas for raising innovative finance and to ensure that these are additional to current development assistance promises.