G-8 is short by 10 billion dollars from pledges

A self-produced report shows that the G-8 has given 10 billion dollars less than the amount it has pledged to poor nations since 2005. This year's chair of the G-8, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to use this weeks G-8 conference to bring some accountability to the group.

From the Montreal Gazette, writer Juliet O'Neil tells us what is in the report.

The report said the Group of Eight countries account for about 70 per cent of official development assistance, suggesting the G8 share of the $10-billion shortfall from 2005 summit pledges in Gleneagles, Scotland, is about $7 billion.

The report prompted Oxfam, World Vision and other non-government agencies to call for the establishment of a clear plan to get back on track at the G8 summit Prime Minister Stephen Harper hosts in Huntsville, Ont., next weekend.

The G8 countries are Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.

The report by G8 officials was designed to showcase “accountability” — a theme Harper has singled out to define the June 25-26 summit.

But other than the official aid shortfall, the nearly 90 pages did not contain much clear information on how close or how far the G8 countries are, as a group, from delivering on more than 50 development-related pledges and plans from past summits that it examined.

The report was partly an exercise in finding standard measures, language and currency to try to track G8 member progress.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/countries+have+fallen+short+commitments+report/3181349/story.html#ixzz0rWD9yr9l