The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) has reported a significant shortfall in the aid promised in 2005 when major donors committed to increase development aid by $48bn by 2010, with the lion’s share to come from the EU. In 2005 the EU agreed to a collective ODA target of 0.56% of gross national income (GNI). Six will underperform by substantial margins – France, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Greece and Italy – and Africa is likely to get only about half of the increase promised at the G8’s Gleneagles Summit in 2005.
Can Europe catch up on its shrinking aid targets and keep its commitments, and what role will the EU play in the Global Partnership for Development? What alternative forms of financing are realistic and viable? With shrinking aid budgets, how should climate change be financed? Everyone agrees we want better aid, but should there be more or less, and does it do any good?