POVERTY: G7 goals

Bono’s international anti-poverty group ONE issued a report Tuesday showing that promises made to African countries at the 2005 Gleneagles G8 summit yielded historic increases in development assistance over the past five years.
The report, which was released at a news conference in Ottawa, predicts that, by the end of this year, the G7 countries (the G8 minus Russia) will have delivered 61 per cent of their 2005 pledge to double aid to sub-Saharan Africa.
That is short of the original goal but means that aid to Africa has increased by $13.7-billion (U.S.), the largest increase for Africa in such a span.
“In the five years since the Gleneagles Summit, the G7’s aid to Africa has increased at almost three times the rate it did in the first half of the last decade,” said David Lane, president and chief executive of ONE.
“That support has helped put more than 40 million African children into school, halved malaria deaths in a string of countries, and funded innovative projects such as using mobile phones to help African citizens hold their authorities to account. Effective aid and debt cancellation have delivered measurable, life changing results.”
Canada, which will host the G8 this year in Muskoka, Japan and the United States all set relatively modest targets in 2005 but have exceeded them, Mr. Lane said.
France and Germany set more ambitious goals but are likely to deliver approximately one quarter of them.
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