Global partnership for development

(CSD) Net disbursements of official development assistance (ODA) in 2008 increased 10.2 percent to $119.8 billion, the highest dollar figure ever recorded. That is equivalent to 0.30 percent of developed countries’ combined national income. Expenditures on bilateral aid programmes and projects have been on the rise in recent years and increased to 12.5 percent in real terms between 2007 and 2008.

However, total aid remains well below the UN target of 0.7 percent of gross national income. In 2008, the only countries to reach or exceed the UN target were Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. For the 15 EU member states of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), the combined net ODA rose by 8.6 percent in real terms from 2007 to 2008, reaching $70.2 billion. This represents 59 percent of all DAC ODA. As a share of gross national income, net ODA from DAC-EU members rose to 0.42 percent.

At the Gleneagles summit in 2005, G-8 members projected that their commitments would double the ODA to Africa by 2010. Preliminary data for 2008 show that, excluding debt relief, bilateral ODA to the continent as a whole rose by 10.6 percent in real terms from the previous year; the corresponding increase for sub-Saharan Africa was 10 percent. Despite this progress, donors will need to rapidly increase their aid to Africa if they are to fulfil their 2005 pledges.

Africaproduces around 7 percent of the world’s commercial energy, but consumes just 3 percent. At the same time, Africa has the world’s lowest rate of access to modern energy. About 500 million Africans do not have access to electricity and use wood for cooking and heating. At current population growth rates, more than 60 percent of sub-Saharan Africans would still be without electricity in 2020. The investment needed to meet Africa’s energy challenges is huge. According to the World Bank, ensuring 100 percent access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa alone by 2030 would require an annual investment of €8.27 billion.

The number of internet users in Sub-Saharan Africa rose from 1 user per 100 people in 2000 to only 4 per 100 people in 2007. Providing Internet connectivity and minimizing the digital divide to the developing world will help realise goals for health, education, employment and poverty reduction.

(Sources: “Addressing the energy challenges of the 21st century together. The Africa-EU Energy Partnership”, EU; “The Millennium Development Goals Report”, 2009, UN).