G8 Summit: Accountability report improves on transparency but falls short on timeliness

Washington, DC (May 25, 2012) — Following the conclusion of this year’s G8 Summit, the annual Accountability Report was released Sunday, which evaluates the G8’s progress in implementing agreed-upon actions and commitments on health and food security.

This year’s Accountability Report shows significant improvement from past reports on transparency and rigor, delivering more detailed information on how G8 countries have-or haven’t-met their commitments, and it enables countries to self-evaluate the degree to which they have abided by effective aid principles. However, World Vision urges the G8 to provide a more timely release ahead of future summits. In addition, a more open reporting process involving both the public and private sectors, as well as, civil society groups would greatly strengthen the accountability and transparency mechanisms, and also the group’s overall progress in these areas.

Based on the report’s findings, World Vision seeks the following:

On the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative: With the deadline of the L’Aquila initiative approaching at the end of the year, it is disappointing to see that G8 donors as a whole have only disbursed 49% of their commitments, and the G8 Communique failed to outline an actionable plan of how and when the remaining pledges will be fulfilled.

World Vision applauds the Food Security scorecard used to report on the L’Aquila Initiative progress, but we would like to see this strengthened with input from recipient countries and partners.

“With a more inclusive and timely process on the Accountability Report, the G8 would be more accountable for implementing plans to fulfill their food security commitments by the deadline,” said Chris Derksen-Hiebert, Director of External Relations for World Vision International.

On Improving Child Nutrition: World Vision applauds that the G8 identifies the need to improve child nutrition and recognizes it as a positive investment impact, having devoted an entire section of the report to nutrition for the first time in an accountability report. However, G8 funding to date towards nutrition does not reflect this greater emphasis and falls woefully short of what is needed to fight the chronic malnutrition that kills nearly 2.6 million children each year and condemns another 170 million to the lifelong consequences of stunting.

“The G8 made it clear in this report that they believe child nutrition is the best use of aid investment dollars, but this talk is not turning into action quickly enough,” said Adam Taylor, Vice-President for Advocacy, World Vision US. “We would like to see greater funding and targeted goals for nutrition."

On Improving Health: World Vision welcomes the detailed update on progress made by G8 countries through the Muskoka Initiative to accelerate progress towards the maternal, newborn and child health Millennium Development Goals 4 & 5 by 2015. We would like to see them fulfill their commitments and report progress in a timely manner to reach its Muskoka Initiative goal of saving the lives of 1.3 million children and 64,000 women.

“While we’ve seen significant progress from some G8 countries toward maternal and child health, time is of the essence for fulfilling commitments if we’re going to reach the MDG goals by 2015 and save the lives of millions of children,” said Derksen-Hiebert.

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About World Vision:
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We serve the world's poor — regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. For more information on their efforts, visit WorldVision.org/press or follow them on Twitter at @WorldVisionNews