WHAT IS THE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE COMMITMENT?

At the Gleneagles Summit, the UK committed ‘to double its bilateral spending in Africa between [the financial years] 2003/04 and 2007/08’. It also ‘announced a timetable to reach 0.7% ODA/GNI by 2013’. The UK’s commitment was made as part of the 2005 EU commitment on development assistance, which stipulated that 50% of the increases would be directed to sub-Saharan Africa. In 2007 the UK established annual budgetary spending plans for global ODA, reaching £9.1 billion a year by 2010/11.

In order to keep this commitment, the UK would need to increase ODA to sub-Saharan Africa from £1.582 billion ($2.862 billion) in 2004 to £3.918 billion ($7.088 billion) in 2010. Measured as an absolute increase, this commitment is ambitious, and is the third highest volume commitment among the G7 after the US and France. At 0.28% of GNI, it is also the second highest commitment when measured as a percentage of projected GNI.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

The UK met its 2007/2008 commitment to double bilateral ODA to sub-Saharan Africa. The recent budget also committed to another historic increase in global ODA, putting the UK on target to be the first G8 country to meet the UN goal of spending 0.7% of national income on ODA. The pipeline for funding to sub-Saharan Africa is also strong, with the UK on track to deliver its Gleneagles promise to the region. However, despite a major increase in global ODA in 2008, ODA to sub-Saharan Africa barely increased.

The UK remains the clear leader on ODA effectiveness and education. During the current financial crisis, it has continued to lead calls within Europe for pro-development trade reform, even though the EU has failed to deliver. The UK has also played a vital role in ensuring that the G20 give focus to Africa and the poorest countries in their response to the global financial crisis.

LOOKING AHEAD

Throughout the emerging global financial crisis, the UK has continued to promote the importance of development and development assistance. All three leading political parties have issued statements on the importance of protecting development assistance flows from budgetary cuts in response to the financial crisis. The 2009/2010 budget ensures that development assistance projections from the CSR will be maintained. The UK has also demonstrated political leadership on the international platform, coordinating the G20 response and placing assistance to developing countries on the central agenda.

The UK has continued to play a leading role in advocating ODA quality. It worked alongside its European peers to strengthen the September 2008 Accra Agenda for Action, and with the Netherlands it helped to launch the International Aid Transparency Initiative.

In the remaining two years of the Gleneagles commitments, the UK must ensure that its ambitious plans for ODA to sub-Saharan Africa are fully delivered.

SEE THE ODA CHART

UK ODA to sub-Saharan Africa and 2010 target

Click to enlarge
 

IS THE UK DOING ITS PART TO MEET THE G8's SECTORAL COMMITMENTS?
 

ON TRACK
DEBT
  • Along with other G8 countries, the UK agreed to cancel 100% of qualified debts for the poorest countries, first through the HIPC and then through the MDRI process.
  • An important measure of progress on debt is the extent to which donors fulfil their commitments to compensate the IFIs for lost reflows due to lost revenue from debt servicing. The UK is on track with such commitments. It has committed to contribute $1.463 billion between 2006 and 2019 to compensate IDA for reflows lost due to MDRI. As of 30 June 2008, the UK had made an unqualified pledge of $1.174 billion - around 80% of the compensation needed through 2019. The UK has made qualified pledges of $4.381 billion through to 2044.
  • The UK has cancelled 100% of bilateral debt owed by completion point HIPC countries. This includes 100% of its post-cut-off-date commercial debt.
EDUCATION
  • By committing $298 million to primary education in sub-Saharan Africa in 2007, the UK exceeded its proportionate share to achieve UPE in the region. 48% of the UK's ODA to education in sub-Saharan Africa was spent on primary education in 2007.
  • To stay on track on its Gleneagles commitment, the UK will need to allocate a total of at least $211 million in 2008 to primary education, and scale up by around $100 million a year to reach $410 million by 2010.
  • The UK has led the way in providing a predictable flow of resources by announcing $15 billion for UPE globally between 2005 and 2015. In March 2008, it announced a partnership with France to put 16 million children into school in Africa by 2010 and to improve the quality of education. The UK pledged to support 8 million of these children and intends to spend $1 billion in support of education in Africa in 2010.
WATER AND SANITATION
  • This report interprets the G8 commitment on water and sanitation to mean that a donor should direct 5.5% of its ODA to sub-Saharan Africa to the sector. In 2007, the UK spent $289 million, or 7.1%, of its ODA to to the region on water and sanitation. Although such a measure means that the UK is on track with its commitment to the water and sanitation sector, this commitment is measured as a proportion of total ODA to sub-Saharan Africa, so the slow increases in ODA to the region in 2007 and 2008 make the commitment relatively unambitious. The UK should work with other partners to agree a more meaningful commitment to the water and sanitation sector.
  • The 7.09% of the UK's ODA to sub-Saharan Africa that was spent on water and sanitation represents a more than doubling of the 3% the country dedicated to the sector in 2006. ODA to water and sanitation in the region increased by $44 million in 2007 over 2006 levels.

OFF TRACK
AGRICULTURE
  • The UK has failed to reverse its funding decline for the sector. UK ODA for agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa decreased by approximately $50 million (a 25% decline) between 2006 and 2007 to $154.93 million. In 2007, the UK spent $117.54 million on food aid for sub-Saharan Africa. In order to meet the commitment, it will have to increase funding for 2008; however, the G8 commitment remains weak.
  • As part of the EU, the UK contributed a share of the €1 billion ($1.44 billion) for agriculture in the developing world (ONE calculates €760 million ($1.096 billion) to be additional to ODA already budgeted at the EC level). This was approved by the EU in December 2008. At least €800 million ($1.15 billion) will be disbursed in 2009.
TRADE
  • As an EU member, the UK is represented in the WTO negotiations and bilateral trade negotiations, such as the Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations, through the EU. The UK has continued to lead calls within Europe for pro-development trade reform, even though the EU has failed to deliver. Sensitivities in the agricultural sector, combined with market opening interests in the manufactured goods and services sectors, continue to impede the progress of negotiations on the pro-development agenda.
  • The EU is currently negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with African regions; these are two-way deals that require African countries to open up their markets in return for better access to EU markets. The original programme that provided special EU market access to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries expired at the end of the 2007 due to WTO compliance issues. Many civil society voices have been critical of the EU's approach to EPAs, voicing concerns about the adequacy of policy space. The fragmentation of regional blocs has also been attributed to the EU, forcing countries to negotiate as part of groupings that do not reflect existing regions in Africa. This has seriously undermined the objective of enhancing regional trade and integration - one of the prime goals of EPAs. While negotiations continue, the interim agreements that have been initialled with certain countries such as Cameroon and Ghana, or certain smaller regions such as the East African Community, allow preferential access to EU markets to continue until full agreements have been concluded. With the mandate of the present European Commission winding down before June's European elections, and with the next Commission unlikely to take office until after the Lisbon Treaty referendum in October, agreement on full EPAs still looks a long way off.
  • LDCs are granted nearly 100% duty-free/quota-free market access to products through the EU's Everything but Arms programme. However, this programme does not cover all African countries, and has been criticised for maintaining complicated rules of origin that make it difficult for poor countries to utilise.
  • In 2005, at the WTO Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, the EU pledged to increase aid for trade to all developing countries by €2 billion ($2.5 billion) per year by 2010. According to the OECD figures, the UK's aid for trade contributions to Africa were $752 million in 2007. In December 2008, the UK launched an 'Aid for Trade Strategy' and announced its intention to spend at least £400 million ($724 million) per year on aid for trade by 2010. Meanwhile, the needs for aid for trade in Africa alone are estimated to be $12-$14 billion per annum.
  • The European Commission is the world's largest subsidiser of its agricultural sector, collectively spending approximately €53.6 billion ($73.3 billion) in subsidies to support its farmers in 2007 through its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). UK farmers received €4.2 billion ($5.8 billion) from the European Commission. The UK is a net contributor to the CAP.

PROGRESS REPORT
HEALTH
  • Total health sector spending for sub-Saharan Africa in 2007 was $770.05 million, a 24.6% increase over 2006 and a $160.6 million (26.3%) increase over 2004. After the US, the UK is the second largest G7 donor of health ODA to sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 13% of all health ODA from G7 countries.
  • The UK has continued to prioritise health systems spending. Of total 2007 health spending, it spent $453.46 million (58.9%) on health systems; $243.27 million (31.6%) on infectious diseases; $52.45 million (6.8%) on basic health; and $20.87 million (2.7%) on reproductive health. For polio, the UK contributed $57.46 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 2007 and $34.70 million in 2008. In January 2009, the UK contributed $150 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
  • The UK pledged and contributed $71.6 million to the Global Fund in 2008.
  • The UK contributed $1.38 billion to IFFIm over 20 years, an equivalent of $69 million per year, and also contributed $485 million to launch the first Advance Market Commitment in 2007. It provided UNITAID with $26.5 million between November 2006 and December 2007.
  • In September 2008, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and World Bank President Robert Zoellick announced the creation of a high-level taskforce that will contribute to filling the financing gap to reach the health MDGs by mobilising additional resources and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of health financing.