The DATA Report 2008: Revised Development Assistance Estimates

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) issued its final 2007 Official Development Assistance (ODA) figures on December 5, 2008. These new figures replace the preliminary figures released in April 2008 upon which ONE's 2008 DATA Report was based. ONE uses the OECD data to track the extent to which donors are on or off track in delivering upon their Gleneagles commitment to increase aid to Africa. Of the collective $26.2 billion promised in ODA increases to Africa by 2010 from the DAC donors, $21.8 billion was committed by the G8.

The final figures reveal that in total, donors provided $83.05 billion in development assistance in 2007 of which $27.5 billion (33.1%) was directed to sub-Saharan Africa. The preliminary data released in April revealed a collective increase of $837 million for sub-Saharan Africa from G8 donors between 2006 and 2007. When totaled with previous annual increases, this resulted in a total G8 increase in ODA for sub-Saharan Africa of $3.04 billion since 2004 meaning that the G8 had thus delivered 13.7% of the total increase committed. The finalized data reveal that the 2006-2007 increase was slightly higher at $1.04 billion and thus the three year cumulative total increase was $3.16 billion. This total represents 14.5% of the total increase committed, slightly better than preliminary estimates showed, but still far off track to deliver the full amount by 2010.

The net change between the preliminary and final figures of $200 million is largely comprised of a reduction in the final figures for Japan and the UK tempered by higher final figures for France and the US. The 2008 DATA Report, using the preliminary data available at the time it was written, reported that Japan had met its rather weak commitment to double bilateral ODA by 2007. However, Japan's 2007 final figures for ODA to Africa were $495 million less than preliminary estimates. Final figures for the UK declined $70 million from preliminary figures. Despite this, the UK has still delivered a higher percentage of its commitment than has any other G7 donor (except Japan whose commitment was just on bilateral ODA) and ONE's pipeline projections continue to predict that the UK will meet its commitment to Africa.

Final figures for France showed ODA to Africa was in fact $441 million more than the preliminary figures reported with substantial increases in both bilateral and multilateral assistance. The 2008 DATA Report reported that France had delivered 6.7% of its Gleneagles commitment. The new figures raise that significantly to 15.6%, but still leaves France far off track to reach its commitment in full by 2010. The United States' ODA increased to Africa by $120 million more than preliminary numbers showed, bringing the overall increase between 2006 and 2007 to $556 million.

The other G8 donors (Canada, Germany, and Italy) posted changes in ODA to Africa of less than $100 million between preliminary and final figures. Assuming the timeline remains similar to past years, the DAC will release preliminary figures for 2008 ODA in late March or early April. ONE will publish its 2009 DATA Report in June 2009 to report on progress towards the G8 commitments using this preliminary information.

METHODOLOGY NOTE: All figures mentioned in this briefing are in 2004 US dollars net of bilateral debt relief. They are derived using data from the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). The 2008 DATA Report including a full description of the methodology used to calculate these figures and spreadsheets showing the calculations are posted at www.one.org/report.

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