Paris — The DATA Report 2008, released today by ONE, the global anti-poverty organization, shows the G8 are falling further behind on the commitment they made in 2005 to contribute an additional $22 billion in assistance to Africa by 2010. According to The DATA Report 2008, the G8 are halfway to the 2010 deadline, but so far have only delivered $3 billion, or 14 percent, of the $22 billion commitment. If the G8 continue at their current pace, they will collectively fall far short of where they pledged to be by 2010.

While the pace of delivery is deeply concerning, the good news is that the assistance that has been delivered is making a real, measurable difference on the ground in lives saved and futures brightened. Because of recent increases in development assistance:

2.1 million Africans are on life-saving AIDS medication, up from only 50,000 in 2002,

26 million children were immunized and against a group of life-threatening diseases between 2001 and 2006,

29 million African children were able to enter school for the first time as a direct result of debt relief and increased assistance between 1999 and 2005,

By 2007, 59 million bed nets had been distributed by the Global Fund alone, helping to dramatically reduce malaria rates in countries such as Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

These statistics make clear that targeted development assistance, implemented in partnership with effective African leadership, works. There are no more excuses for not delivering quickly on what the G8 promised. The DATA Report lays out a clear roadmap for how the G8 can get on track to meet their 2010 goals by scaling up measures that have been proven to work.

The DATA Report 2008 will be released today at a press conference in Paris led by Bono; Bob Geldof; Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS; TB and Malaria, singer and activist Angelique Kidjo; Arunma Oteh, Vice President, Corporate Services of the African Development Bank and French tennis star Yannick Noah.

Launching the 2008 DATA Report, Bono said:

“There’s good news and bad news … the good news is that the aid money that has been delivered is making a real and measurable difference in lives saved and kids in school. In the last few years, more than 2 million Africans have been given access to life-saving AIDS drugs, 26 million children have been immunized and 29 million kids in Africa are going to school for the first time. But as I’ve been saying, the good news makes the bad news worse … the G8’s failure to follow through on its commitments has left millions of lives in the balance and a distrust in the electorate, leading many to believe that G8 meetings are more about photo ops than a real commitment to Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité.”

Bob Geldof, advocate and DATA principal said:

“What a contemptuous joke the G8 have become. The poor of Africa were given a signed guarantee by the leaders of the world’s largest economies. This contract has two more years to run and it is now clear that most of these countries have no intention of fulfilling their pledge.
Besides furthering the misery of the poor, hungry and ill, this is also a strategic blunder of massive import to us in Europe. While China appears to fully understand and invest in the massive wealth of Africa and consequently retain a growing influence on a continent 8 miles from ours, we dither, lie and resile from undertakings only worth a pittance in the first place. The cost of our aid was small; the consequence of our failure will be great indeed.”

In the foreword to the 2008 DATA Report, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond M Tutu, now also serving as International Patron to DATA and ONE, writes:

“We want to achieve success not through a hand out, but through hard work, persistence, creativity and a true partnership with the developed world. We’re not there yet, but we have the roadmap to get there if the West keeps the commitments it made, with such fanfare, at Gleneagles and if African leaders keep their promises to their citizens too.”

According to the 2008 DATA Report, while the G8 as a whole are off track, some countries are doing better than others and, equally important, some made more substantial promises than others.

The European members of the G8 — France, Germany, Italy and the UK – made the biggest promises to Africa as a percentage of their national wealth and together are responsible for 75 percent of the $22 billion committed. While the scope of their commitments should be applauded, they are off track to meet them.

Writing in his foreword, Archbishop Tutu speaks directly to the importance of Europe keeping the commitments it has made:

“Intentions are one thing, follow through is another and I am deeply worried that France, Germany and Italy are not going to keep the promises they made to Africa in 2005, because then all of Europe will be behind.  President Sarkozy, Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Berlusconi need to hear more from their citizens on this subject if they are to make the right decisions, both for Europe and Africa,” writes Archbishop Tutu.

The 2008 DATA Report (www.one.org/report) contains extensive detail on the state of each country’s progress towards the 2010 commitment.

Highlights from each country are below:

• France’s assistance to sub-Saharan Africa decreased by $66m between 2006 and 2007 even though global ODA increased. It is still off track, despite moving its goal of allocating 0.7% of GNI to ODA from 2012 to 2015.

• Germany is off track in 2007 despite posting significant increases in development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa. Further increases are planned for 2008, but in order to reach the 2010 target these annual increases will need to grow.

• Italy, which will host the G8 in 2009, has made very ambitious commitments but the country is also hugely off track. Good progress was made in 2007 to restore previous cuts in assistance to Africa and 2008 estimates reveal solid increases, but Italy must ensure these are sustained and not one-time payments.

• Japan has fulfilled a very weak commitment to double bilateral ODA to Africa from a 2003 baseline, but in 2007 it also cut ODA to the region and global ODA has fallen for two years running. Japan’s announcement at TICAD that it would double aid to Africa, applied only to bilateral assistance, omitting multilateral assistance from its pledge. More is needed from the hosts of this year’s G8 Summit.

• The UK has increased its overall volume of ODA to Africa more than any other G8 country. Despite a recent slowdown in increases, longer term budget commitments show that the UK will come close to meeting 2010 targets.

• The USA is currently off track on its ODA commitment, but DATA estimates that it has sufficient increases in the pipeline to fulfil its commitment by 2010.

• Canada reduced ODA to sub-Saharan African in 2007.  Plans for 2008 show improvement, but not enough to be on track to keep its commitments to Africa.

Over the past three years the G8 as a collective has increased assistance to Africa by $1 billion year over year. In a new estimation by DATA of G8 budget projections, the G8 is expected to increase assistance to Africa in 2008 by $2.6 billion. This is an important improvement over previous years, but still far from what is needed. The G8 would need to increase assistance to Africa by $6.4 billion in 2008 in order to be on track to meet their 2010 commitment.

While progress to date has been underwhelming, the DATA Report makes clear that it is still possible for the G8 to keep its historic commitment to Africa. Whether or not it is kept is up to the leaders of the G8 and the citizens in whose name the promises were made. The successes that have been achieved to date should refuel efforts to meet the 2010 target

It was citizen activism that led the G8 to make the 2005 commitments to Africa in the wake of Live 8 and a global campaign aimed at making poverty history. Given the G8’s slow pace in delivering on that promise, it’s clear that citizen pressure will once again have to be applied to ensure that promise is kept. To help mobilize citizens to encourage their governments to keep their promises to Africa, DATA and ONE are launching an email petition to G8 leaders. To learn more and sign the petition, go to www.one.org .

About DATA and ONE

DATA is an advocacy organization dedicated to eradicating extreme poverty and AIDS in Africa. Founded in 2002, DATA calls on the governments of the world’s industrialized nations to keep their existing commitments to Africa and adopt new trade, aid and debt policies that will help Africans put themselves on the path to long-term prosperity and stability. DATA also calls on Africa’s leaders to strengthen democracy, accountability and transparency so that Africa’s citizens are better empowered to direct their own development.

In late 2007, DATA formally joined forces with The ONE Campaign to create a new global advocacy and campaigning organization called ONE. Dedicated to ending extreme poverty around the globe, with a special focus on Africa, ONE is backed by 2.4 million people from all walks of life.

At the core of ONE is a belief that these issues are not about charity, but about justice and equality. For the first time in human history, we have the science, the technology and the resources to end extreme poverty. With this unprecedented opportunity, comes the responsibility to act. To learn more go to www.one.org.

EDITORS NOTES

1.) At the 2005 G8 summit at Gleneagles, the G8 collectively committed to a total of $26.1 billion in increases for Africa by 2010. These commitments were commonly referenced as a $25 billion increase. Since that time, several of the G8 countries changed or “clarified” the nature of their commitment, resulting in a net decline of the collective commitment from $26.1 billion to $21.8 billion. France changed its commitment and Canada has ‘clarified’ its original commitments, resulting in lower 2010 targets for both. Several other countries’ Africa targets were linked to global ODA growth. As overall ODA growth has fallen, their Africa targets were reduced as well. Bucking the trend, Germany’s target actually increased because of better than expected economic growth. While the DATA Report commonly references the G8, it does not track contributions from Russia as it is not a major donor nation.

2.) Off track/on track: The G8 committed to an end goal in 2010 but did not specify how it would get there. In lieu of a roadmap from the G8, DATA has applied a straight line trajectory – or a track — against the commitment to show what it would take for the G8 to get to their 2010 goals with a steady year-by-year scale up. Each year, when we have the hard data on what the G8 contributed in the previous year, we redraw the trajectory to show what it will now take to get to the 2010 goal. We are seeing the G8 fall further and further behind what was needed according to the initial straight line trajectory. If they still want to meet their goals they are going to have to ramp up substantially between now and 2010.