Sliding in just before the holidays, the OECD-DAC released its final update to the 2010 data on official development assistance (ODA) flows. The DAC — or, Development Assistance Committee — is a grouping of the world’s wealthiest donor countries. It tracks donor spending on development finance and helps coordinate development policy globally to improve spending practices.
The adjusted numbers released in December 2011 reflect final spending by countries in 2010, updating the preliminary figures released in April, and what ONE used in the 2011 DATA Report monitoring the G7’s commitments to Africa. As such, we can look at these numbers as the final report for how the G7 countries met their 2005 Gleneagles commitments to increase development assistance to Africa.
Based on the preliminary figures, ONE’s DATA Report found that the G7 delivered 61 percent of the Gleneagles commitments for sub-Saharan Africa. The final figures show that in fact the G7 delivered 60 percent of their total promises. The difference was mostly due to Japan, Italy, the UK and the US all delivering lower amounts of ODA than they originally reported in April. However, despite the revised figures, there were no changes in whether or not a country met its Gleneagles commitments. Net of bilateral debt relief, the G7 delivered a total of $28.5 billion of ODA to sub-Saharan Africa in 2010.
Here’s a quick snapshot of how each of the G7 members fared.
- Canada: In 2010, Canadian global ODA was at its highest level since 2000, and Canada met 215 percent of its Gleneagles promises (up from 197 percent estimated in the 2011 DATA Report). In total, Canada exceeded its modest pledge by $455 million.
- France: France actually delivered $204.7 million more than originally estimated in 2010, but overall still only met 53 percent of its commitments to Africa.
- Germany: German ODA to sub-Saharan Africa rose between 2005 and 2008, but remained mostly flat across 2008, 2009 and 2010. Germany only met 25 percent of its commitments, with a shortfall of $3.2 billion against its Gleneagles pledge.
- Italy: Italy’s ODA to sub-Saharan Africa was $115 million below the preliminary estimates. Italy was the only G7 country to give less to sub-Saharan Africa in 2010 than it did in 2004, meaning that it made negative progress on its Gleneagles commitments, delivering a total of -5 percent in 2010.
- Japan: Japan met 107 percent of its modest pledge to Africa, after final 2010 figures came in US$198 million below the preliminary April figures.
- United Kingdom: The UK sharply increased ODA to sub-Saharan Africa since 2004, but still just missed its Gleneagles target by $466 million. The final figures indicate that the UK’s ODA to SSA was $36.8 million less than preliminary estimates, and overall the UK delivered 84 percent of its highly ambitious commitments in 2010.
- United States: Final figures for the US show that it delivered $185 million less than April estimates, but still met 116 percent of its total promises to sub-Saharan Africa.
Although the Gleneagles promises have now passed their due date, some countries (like those in the EU) have commitments to increasing development assistance that extend until 2015. For those countries we will continue to monitor how they deliver on their promises. And for countries that no longer have future targets, we will be pushing for greater commitments to help Africa achieve the millennium development goals by 2015.
