G8 leaders urged to honour aid commitments

from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Non-government organisations have attacked G8 leaders for failing to deliver on aid commitments.

In 2005, following a string of benefit concerts around the world, Group of Eight leaders agreed at Gleneagles, Scotland to raise their aid budgets by $US50 billion by 2010.

So far only $7 billion, 14 per cent, of that extra aid has been delivered.

Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International, is in Japan to lobby the group to make good on group members' commitments.

Mr Hobbs told ABC radio's The World Today NGOs were still waiting to see a communique on development and on Africa, which was being worked on overnight.

"We understand that it is still not agreed and obviously what concerns Oxfam and a lot of the other development organisations is the attempt to water-down the commitments made at Gleneagles and reconfirmed in subsequent meetings," he said.

"And now because we are facing this crisis in the global economy, the food crisis and the fuel crisis, suddenly that number becomes expendable."

He says the aid commitments amount to $US30 billion over a number of years, which he says is a "pretty modest number" given the European Central Bank and the US managed to find $US1 trillion in six months to pay for the credit crisis.

While Britain, the US and Germany are on track to meet the pledge, Mr Hobbs says domestic pressures have prompted France, Canada and Italy to hold out.

"What we would say is domestic budgets and domestic concerns should not prevent international leadership, and when you look at the crisis facing the world at the moment, the food crisis, the fuel crisis, the only place that there is the muscle to really make a difference is in the G8," he said.

"Now if we don't get leadership in the G8 we are in real trouble, so this summit really has to come up with some pretty substantial proposals if we are not going to see things get very significantly worse - particularly for poor countries."

Fresh money

Mr Hobbs says a lot of third-world debt has been written off, but new money is needed for health, education and long-term development to lift countries out of poverty.

"And one of the problems is that when the G8 countries count their development assistance, they include debt forgiveness which of course is not fresh money," he said.

"But with the food crisis, I mean the estimates are around about $US14.5 billion necessary to really get food production back in order in developing countries.

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