G8 fail to make top ten nations helping poor

Published on Thursday 22 October 2009 22:15

NONE of the countries who signed a deal at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005 to increase their aid budgets have been ranked in the Top Ten of rich nations most committed to helping the world's poor.

In an analysis of the development records of the world's 22 wealthiest countries, the highest G8 nation was Canada, in 11th place. Britain was ranked 12th.

The rich nations most committed to helping the world's one billion poorest were all outside the G8, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Holland.

The survey comes four years after the G8 summit in Gleneagles when Tony Blair secured a deal to boost aid for developing countries by $50 billion.

But at the last G8 summit in Italy, officials admitted that there was "little chance" that the headline figure was going to be met, although Britain is on course to meet its share. Both Italy and France are known to be falling behind. In Italy's case, campaigners say that the Berlusconi government has barely paid 3 per cent of the money it pledged in 2005.

The Commitment to Development Index, by the Washington-based Centre for Global Development, studied the contributions of the wealthiest nations in the world, looking at not only aid, but also policies on trade, investment and the environment.

The report also found that Britain's contributions had barely changed since 2003. But the UK was praised for its work on investing in poorer nations. It was ranked above average in its work on trade, investment and on the environment.

A spokeswoman for the Department for International Development insisted yesterday that the UK would meet its Gleneagles obligations.