DATA Backs UN Emergency Summit on MDGs
01.25.08
The Africa advocacy group DATA welcomes the call to action launched in Davos today ahead of an emergency UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals in New York in September.
“The fight against extreme poverty is not optional in tough times – and it is a fight we can win" said DATA’s Executive Director Jamie Drummond.
"Millions more kids are in school because of increasingly effective help from the G8 to African and other developing countries. Two million people are on life-saving AIDS treatment.
Why then are the G8 collectively breaking their promise to increase funding for development?
“Any equivocation is unacceptable. The word ‘emergency’ is overused, but not in this case, because initial investments are working, because the world economy will be stronger if the bottom billion rise, because the world will be more secure if we help them, and because we need their help in the long run in the fight against climate change. The case is too compelling for complacency."
The MDGs are a measurable yardstick of progress that cuts through the posturing and rhetoric: halving extreme poverty by 2015, giving every child the chance to go to school and halving the number of deaths of children under the age of 5 from preventable diseases.
But half way to 2015, the MDGS are far from being met – particularly in Africa – in part because rich countries are not keeping their collective promises to back effective investments in development.
“The G8 must publish a timetable for action – with clear objectives and costings – to which members can be held to account,” said Drummond.
Japan, as G8 hosts in 2008, has said Africa will be a key theme of this year’s summit in Hokkaido in July. The government will also host the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in May. While Japan is keeping the promises it made at Gleneagles in 2005 to increase aid to Africa, the commitments were relatively low in overall budget terms.
Critical to keeping the MDG promises are the major European economies – Germany, France, Italy and the UK.
The UK is broadly on track to keep its promises and the German government has increased its development budget by 750 million euros in 2008, with Africa and the fight against global poverty high on the public agenda during its G8 year. Maintaining increases for effective aid programs in the coming years is necessary to stay on track.
The Italian government has recently allocated a significant proportion of windfall tax revenue (the tesoretto) from 2007 to its aid budget, but this is a one-off increase and it is not clear whether these increases will continue.
“Prime Minister Prodi’s government made serious efforts in extremely difficult political circumstances to turn around Italy’s record on assistance to the world’s poorest countries. This is important progress but much more will be needed from Italy as we head to its G8 year,” said Drummond.
Without substantial annual budget increases, Italy will not reach its commitment to increase development assistance to 0.5% of GNI by 2010 and 0.7% by 2015, in line with EU targets.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who recently met Bono and DATA representatives at the Elysée, has said he will soon release a plan to get French aid back on track. There has been no increase in the French aid budget in 2007, and there are currently no indications that it will increase in 2008.
Available for interview in Davos:
Jamie Drummond, Executive Director, DATA
Oliver Buston, European Director, DATA
Media contact:
Katy Cronin DATA Media Manager +44 7788 710 789
