Aid promised to Africa:

Rich nations fail to act

US: The world’s seven industrialized nations have fallen short on their promises to double aid to Africa by 2010, according to a report on Tuesday by ONE Campaign against poverty.

ONE Campaign, supported by U2 singer Bono and rocker Bob Geldof, has provided an annual scorecard of the Group of Seven nations’ progress in meeting pledges they made at the 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.

The G7 leaders’ summit promised to increase aid by up to $50 billion from $25 billion, write off the debts of 18 of the world’s poorest countries, and cut trade subsidies and tariffs under the Doha round of global trade negotiations.

A final verdict on the Gleneagles targets may only be forthcoming next year, but ONE Campaign said it had enough data to show that the G7 — Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Canada, Italy and Japan — fell short of its promises.

The report said Italy was “an utter failure” as a G7 member, saying it had retreated on its promises by cutting aid from 2004 levels, which brought down the G7 average.

ONE declared Britain “the indisputable overall leader” in meeting the Gleneagles commitments and said the United States, Canada and Japan delivered on, and surpassed, modest targets.

France and Germany both set ambitious targets but are on course to deliver on only a quarter of them.

The report called for a new era of development to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, in which more than 150 heads of state signed on to eight goals that include halving poverty by 2015. The report said G7 members are on track to provide a combined $13.7 billion of the $22.6 billion in aid they promised at the G7 summit. These figures are based on a projected $3.8 billion in aid from G7 in 2010, according to budget calculations and discussions with G7 governments, the report said.

It said the G7 had fulfilled its promise to cancel the debts of the poorest countries but failed on its trade commitments as momentum to complete the Doha round dissipated. Washington, Tuesday, Reuters