Germany: is more aid for Africa just a dream?

The G8 summit opens today in Heiligendamm with much concern over the amount of money that rich countries are actually going to lay out for development aid.

On June 5th the Germans set a good example by announcing an increase in overseas aid to 750 million euros a year for four years starting in 2008 and by urging other G8 countries to rise to the challenge. However this increase still doesn't meet the promises Berlin made during the G8 in 2005 at Gleneagles, which said that aid levels would be raised to 0.51% of Gross National Income by 2010. Using figures from the OECD Oxfam has calculated that the German government would need to put aside approximately 1.5 billion euro each year between now and 2010 to meet this target, twice as much as what was announced.

Oxfam welcomed Chancellor Merkel's proposal to raise money through taxes on the carbon market and said that the money raised should be used to help poor countries adapt to climate change. However, the agency insisted that these funds should be additional to existing aid pledges, and not be counted as part of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA).

In 2005 the G8 countries promised to increase overall annual aid levels by $50 billion by 2010, and said that half – $25 billion – is destined for Africa. According to civil society, however, current trends show that the G8 are likely to miss the target by $30 billion – the main culprits being Italy, where aid is decreasing, France, where aid is stagnant, and Germany, whose increase in aid is far from enough to meet the promises made in Gleneagles.

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