FOREWORD BY BOB GELDOF AND KOFI ANNAN

Almost ten years ago, African leaders and their partners in the international community entered a pact for improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people. As part of their campaign to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, they made commitments to each other and to their citizens that they would work to beat extreme poverty and promote good governance; while Western leaders responded to the demands of their citizens that aid budgets should be increased and spent wisely and effectively in support of Africa's campaign against poverty.

This year's Africa Progress Panel and DATA Reports, deliberately launched back-to-back, serve to underline this shared responsibility, both of governments everywhere to their own people, and of G8 and African leaders to each other.

ONE focuses on the degree to which commitments made by Africa's partners have been met, while the APP addresses the challenges faced by African leaders and what needs to happen if they are to be able to deliver people-centred growth. There are inspiring success stories on both sides, but these also serve to highlight formidable obstacles to progress.

In a tumultuous year, crises emanating from the dynamic economic centres of the planet have worsened the prospects of the periphery. It is ironic that, just as some of the poorest were beginning to experience the benefits of globalisation, the global integration project should falter so violently. Too many have been 'decoupled' from the benefits, but tightly linked to the costs, of globalisation. Those who have contributed least to the crises have been affected most. It is unfortunately true that when the rich become less rich the poor become even poorer.

As capital inflows dwindle and access to credit becomes more difficult, we not only have a shared responsibility to ensure that the poorest are protected from the devastating impact of the crisis, but also that this opportunity to move towards a more sustainable economic development model is seized.

It is a constant struggle to get governments to meet their stated targets. In the areas of ODA levels, accountability, transparency and democracy, it becomes even more difficult when budgets get tightened and domestic exigencies understandably come to the fore. This, however, should not be a pretext for departing from commitments: not least as the well-being of so many fellow humans is at stake. The performance of a number of G8 countries this last year has been commendable. While some have met and others are striving to meet their promises, two nations, Italy and France, endanger overall progress to the achievement of the Gleneagles targets. However, other nations are proving that, even in these harsh times, doing the right thing is politically possible and economically sensible.

At existential moments of crisis, debate about development and the role of aid is reinvigorated. This is welcome. When old systems appear to fail, it is right and useful to question why, analyse and plot new ways forward. Notions of aid and aid delivery, its usefulness or otherwise, the role of NGOs, appropriate models of economy and polities, types of effective representative governance and hitherto accepted assumptions are being reappraised; we hope this will lead to fruitful, evidence-based conclusions rather than vapid theorising.

The development establishment must challenge itself aggressively, and we hope deliver a renewed strategy, based on shared responsibility and mutual accountability, by 2010. The purpose of this brief, however, is more limited. It is to report on the ups and downs, who is and who isn't doing what they said and what are the indices going forward. And while there are many superb examples of progress and societal advancement, there are equally and unfortunately the all too predictable failures.

We can only deal with the empirical. And the evidence is that aid, used accountably by governments acting in the interests of their people and in an open manner, can make a measurable positive difference, contributing to better educated, healthy and employed men and women. Whether financial resources, including aid, achieve development results depends upon the willingness and ability of those in power to use them responsibly. Where that is lacking, whether in resource-poor countries like Somalia or resource-rich like Equatorial Guinea, MDG achievement will remain a distant prospect.

The imperative for governments to go the extra mile to keep to their commitments and promises is clear. If they don't, those least able to withstand its woes will bear the brunt of the global recession, and Africa's essential contribution to global recovery will be not be realised, to the detriment of all.

KOFI ANNAN
AFRICA PROGRESS PANEL

SIR BOB GELDOF
ONE