Nurshaikhova Alma -PhD candidate at the Department of International Relations, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty)

Key words: Group of Eight, G8, development, Official Development Aid, Paris Declaration, managing aid, Central Asia

The article analyses the G8 commitments in the field of development assistance and Africa made at G8 Summits in Gleneagles, Heiligendamm and Hokkaido/Toyako. It explores the evolution of the commitments at global level, points out to the shift of the focus of aid debates from “quantity” to “quality”, and examines the role of G8 summits in deepening the agenda on aid reform.

The article assesses the progress of G8 countries in compliance with their commitments on aid at the global level and offers explanations of a slow progress at a national level on the basis of Central Asian countries’ experience. Based on the results of a series of semi-structured interviews implemented for the region, the author provides conclusions on the state and existing problems of the adherence to three out of five basic aid effectiveness principles as outlined in Paris Declaration – ownership, alignment and mutual accountability.