G8 Blog

2010 is a date with fate for G8

Alexandra Lopoukhine — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:29:36 -0700

Canada in 2010 is a date with fate. When the G8 leaders meet in Muskoka next June they come face to face with a long list of commitments – on aid, on Africa, on health and education, water and sanitation, on women and children, on AIDS, on climate change and now, on support for small farmers.

There can be no half measures; no excuses. Firm commitments were made for 2010 and the eyes of the world will be upon them. If the G8 is to have any legitimacy, it must demonstrate that it is as good as its word. If it is just a venue for photo ops, then we really can’t afford it.

The commitments made at Gleneagles and in every G8 since speak to the urgent need for concerted action to invest in the public services and social capital that will allow more than a billion people to escape poverty and to make real progress toward the Millennium Development Goals.

For policy wonks and governments, these goals – most quite modest – serve as signposts along the road to development. For the vast majority of women and men, girls and boys in the global South, they represent the difference between living and dying, going to school or spending your day in the search for water, getting medical care or struggling to survive.

When you add the goal of curbing climate change – for here there has been precious little progress in setting out specific targets for action – the impact of the G8’s leadership – or lack of leadership – is universal.

The track record to date has been dismal, with the Italian summit setting a new low in dodging accountability for performance. As first eight, then 14, then 18, 20 and 28 world leaders trotted out to smile for the cameras, the time for action on Africa slipped away.

Prime Minister Harper insists the Muskoka summit will be different. The Conservative leader has made accountability a hallmark of his own administration and says he’s poised to name and shame the laggards in 2010.

He does not apologize for setting – but meeting – modest goals for Canada. He much prefers to under-promise and over-perform. And in his wrap-up news conference in l’Aquila, he admitted he has heard no credible excuse for the lack of performance by those nations that have fallen furthest behind.

For there can be no excuse that G8 countries are unable to meet their commitments to the billion women and children living in poverty. Not after they managed to mobilize trillions to bail out the banks.

So we insist that when the leaders gather in cottage country next year the accountability reports clearly demonstrate the $23 billion shortfall in aid spending has been erased and that emergency plans have been implemented to bridge the gaps.

And we call on Harper to show real leadership before the G8 – or G14 or 20 or 24 if it comes to that – by taking bold action on climate change and making a clear commitment to accelerate the growth of Canadian aid to reach the 0.7 per cent of national income target set by Lester Pearson 40 years ago this year. This will be crucial if he is to have the moral authority to lead.

The last time the G8 leaders met in Canada, they launched the Africa initiative at Kananaskis. They are long overdue to live up to that promise.

Nothing less is acceptable.

G8 gives a boost to small farmers but more is needed

Alexandra Lopoukhine — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:58:53 -0700

Just to show it's not over 'til it's over -- and underline the power of targeted advocacy -- the final communiqué on food security from the G8 leaders caught everyone by surprise by boosting the pledge for support to agriculture to US$20 billion.

We may never know if it was our critique that moved the leaders to set a more ambitious goal but our strong message to governments -- and through the media to their citizens -- can't have hurt in moving the bar.

Oxfam research shows global public investment in agricultural production fell 75 per cent from its levels in the 1970s and has hovered around US$5 billion a year for the past twenty years. So when the draft agreement for the new food security initiative pledged US$15 billion over three years, we rightly jumped on it as a reshuffling of an old aid deck.

But between Thursday's figure and Friday's announcement, the total commitment jumped to US$20 billion -- still not enough but certainly more promising.

One of the reasons they were able to boost the commitment was that they expanded the pool of contributors beyond the G8 to include countries like Spain and Brazil. But it could be too that faced with widespread criticism about the lack of new funds for agriculture -- and the generally stingy response to the global call for increased aid -- the world leaders assembled in l'Aquila felt they needed to cough-up more.

It still pales in comparison with the resources mobilized world-wide to bail out the banks, but if it's properly targeted to small farmers -- most of whom are women -- it's a start on the types of investments needed to support small scale production for local consumption.

In Canada's case, the Harper government has pledged an increase of $200 million per year for three years, effectively doubling the amount of money earmarked for agriculture. On top of the $193 million spent last year, that brings funding levels up to about $400 million a year.

But while the Canadian commitment represents additional money for agriculture, it's still being drawn from an aid pot that is growing by only 8 per cent a year. Because more money to support small farmers is urgently needed and the shift is in line with Canada's newly announced aid policies, the announcement is most welcome. It does raise the question though about what may have been cut to meet this new commitment.

Spending for food aid is separate and varies from one year to the next as needs arise. But government officials offer assurances that Canada will continue to be a big donor to the World Food Program and other humanitarian efforts.

So, on the one hand we were caught off guard when the pledge surpassed expectations. But at the same time, we know it continues to fall far short of need -- and that it likely wouldn't have happened without Oxfam's and our allies' efforts.

In the coming months we'll want to follow-up carefully to confirm how much of this money is really new and to ensure it benefits the small farmers who so urgently need support to move from surviving to thriving.

More progress urgently needed on climate change

Alexandra Lopoukhine — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:09:42 -0700

Day Two and the focus shifts from the G8 (which in the end met as a group for only several hours) to an ever larger group of world leaders -- including all the big producers of green house gases, north and south.

Climate change has received more attention in l'Aquila than at any previous summit. And with Obama in the White House, the logjam that once blocked even the most modest progress has been broken.

For the first time ever, G8 leaders, and today-representatives of the major economies (and emitters), have acknowledged climate change must be curbed before average global temperatures rise more than 2 degrees Celsius above their 1990 levels.

Make no mistake -- this is a major admission of a stark reality…but it is still not the time to pop open the champagne. We are relieved to have this hurdle behind us…but the next steps leading up to a global agreement in Copenhagen remain littered with pitfalls.

With agreement made to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 there is still no clear plan how we get from here to there -- and some of the countries that signed on to the agreement already seem to be back-pedaling -- including Canada according to reports in the Toronto Star.

It's easy to get lost in the details about targets and base years and carbon capture. And it's easy to be put off by the jockeying of the northern countries to shift the blame and burden to the global South. But at the end of the day, the cruel reality is that climate change is already wrecking havoc with the world's poor.

We see it in the sharp increase in violent weather -- hurricanes, cyclones, droughts, floods, mudslides. We see it in the increasing number of hours women and girls must spend daily in fetching water -- walking on average six kilometres, balancing 20 litres and more of water on their heads, taking precious time away from families, from working their fields, from school, from leisure and putting themselves in vulnerable positions as they walk through fields and forests in the search for fresh water. We see it in the increasing numbers of people who are forced to migrate in search of food, pasture and peace in conflicts made worse by the competition for scarce resources.

It is this cruel reality that makes the call for funding to support adaptation so compelling and so urgent. G8 leaders and others jockeying for geo-economic and geo-political advantage seem to miss this crucial point. Lives are at stake and ever more of them are teetering on the brink.

Let's keep up our efforts to reach out to those most in need and to ensure climate justice for all. Recent progress makes it clear that we are making a difference. But it's also clear that now is the time to redouble our efforts.

G8 journalists let leaders off lightly

Alexandra Lopoukhine — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:03:15 -0700

We've now seen what they've agreed to and it isn't pretty. On aid and Africa, there's nothing new. And on the economic crisis, well, let's just say the impact on the poor in the global South wasn't top of mind for G8 leaders.

Performance on aid varies greatly among G8 members but together they fall $23 billion short of the target they set in 2005. The result? At least three million lives have been lost -- women who die needlessly in childbirth; children who fall victim to preventable diseases; persons with AIDS whose lives are cut short because they could not get treatment.

When you speak to journalists about this stark reality they ask: "But where's the news? Every year we hear the same thing."

It's true the crisis in Africa didn't start yesterday, but it's also true it's increasingly bleak. The global economic crisis, made worse by climate change and rising food prices, is pushing ever larger numbers of women and men, already teetering on the brink, over the edge. But it's also true there's good news too -- clear evidence of the benefits from investments in health and education, water and sanitation, especially for women and girls.

Journalists also complain it's difficult to sift through the G8 commitments to see which are real and which are spin; what is new or additional money and what is recycling a previous unmet promise. Also true. The devil is in the details and reporters need to dig to find out if there's any substance behind the rhetoric. That's a key role for Oxfam and our team of experts and allies here in the Media Centre -- helping journalists cut through the hype.

But it's also true that if the media can find ten minutes in a newscast to rehash the details of a pop star's funeral, they should be able to find 90 seconds to report that three million people are dying needlessly while the richest countries in the world duck their commitments. And if teams of reporters can delve into the murky details of a celebrity's financial dealings, perhaps they could also make the effort to follow the story about the money upon which people's lives depend.

This year's Summit has the added the challenge of being located at the epicentre of an earthquake that devastated Abruzzo province in April this year, killing 300 and leaving 60,000 homeless. Prime Minister Berlusconi is taking full advantage of the leaders' presence to highlight the need for increased reconstruction funds -- a telegenic scene irresistible to the networks. And G8 governments are responding accordingly.

Which raises the question whether we need to arrange an opportunity for world leaders to visit first hand the homes of others desperate for investments in their future -- clinics, schools, water and sanitation systems, agricultural extension services and funds to help them adapt to climate change and stem the tide of rising temperatures.

Until we can arrange that, we continue our efforts -- along with our partners and allies -- to bring the voices and reality of people living in poverty to the attention of G8 leaders. And we'll continue to encourage, badger and hound reporters to bring a more critical eye and greater sense of urgency to their Summit coverage.

G8 logistics slow down our efforts -- but can't stop us

Roger Musselman — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:42:11 -0700

Pulling together the logistics for a G8 is no simple task. With an ever-growing number of world leaders, hundreds of journalists, and groups working to influence the outcome from around the world, the security, communications, transport and accommodation issues are almost endless.

On the eve of the Summit, the Italian hosts have done a great job on the food and facilities but such basics as internet access to the Media Centre remains a problem.

Perhaps that's not so surprising given it was only a few weeks ago that Prime Minister Berlusconi decided to shift the location from Sardinia to L'Aquila, the site of earthquakes that shook the Abruzzo region last spring. But it does complicate our efforts to influence the results and the coverage of the summit -- a key objective of Oxfam's presence here in Italy.

I've spent hours today trying to get a connection, only to wait more hours waiting for a file to open. Nothing is more frustrating for a blogger than a frozen screen, but such is our fate! Firewalls and filtering have been blamed for some of the problems. High levels of security are almost certainly partly to blame.

When I tried to access the Oxfam Canada G8 blog I received a message saying "you have tried to access a web page which is a violation of your internet usage policy. Category: Advocacy organization" When asked to explain why a journalist working in the G8 International Media Centre should be denied access to the web site of a development agency pressing G8 leaders to live up to their commitments, I was first told by an embarrassed Summit staff that it was a technical problem. When I responded that it seemed instead to be a political problem, there was a flurry of activity and within a few minutes I was assured access would no longer be blocked.

Despite the hassles, we continue to make progress, doing media interviews with Radio Canada International and several print outlets. Given most Canadian journalists will arrive tonight on the Prime Minister's Airbus, we can expect that tomorrow will be hopping.

Three G8 communiques are expected tomorrow -- on the economic crisis, aid and development, and climate change -- so we'll be busy assessing performance against commitments and dissecting new announcements.

To aid in this effort we have a crackerjack team of policy and advocacy experts from nine Oxfams, including representatives from each of the G8 members. It's a larger team than any other NGO and it reflects our view that the G8 can be a forum for positive leadership on the key issues that confront our world. Tomorrow we'll begin to see if they live up to their promise.

Stay tuned.

The fiddling was fun but the issue is deadly serious

Roger Musselman — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:39:10 -0700

As photo ops go, it doesn’t get much better. A beautiful Rome morning. The ruins of Nero’s palace on the horizon. A backdrop of leaping flames augmented by fire breathers. And the heads of the G8 countries cavorting about in togas, fiddling while Africa burns.

Oxfam’s “big heads” made their debut appearance Monday, stoking the pressure on G8 leaders to live up to their commitments on aid, on Africa, on women and children, and on hunger – and to make a strong commitment to action on climate change.

The paparazzi loved it – as Berlusconi fiddled, Obama chummed around with Harper and Brown, Sarkozy fed grapes to Merkel and the Japanese and Russian leaders toasted each other’s health. Even the tourists arriving at the Circus Maximus by the busload were thrilled to catch this special moment for their scrapbooks.

The frenzy had a Fellini-esque quality, with photographers and choreographers barking orders and counting down to one more burst of flame. Having been up most of the night putting the finishing touches to the costumes and then again at dawn to stage the tableau, Victoria Harnett from our Toronto office and a raft of keen Italian volunteers left nothing to chance in ensuring the success of the event.

Careful to ensure my head didn’t fall off, I joined in the fun of the spectacle. But at the same time I was very clear the real-life drama lived by more than a billion people provides a deadly serious backdrop to the stunt.

Decisive action is urgently needed to boost and target aid, to curb rising temperatures and to get serious about the scale of support developing countries need to adapt to climate change. Countries in the global South have been devastated by the world-wide economic meltdown, increasing pressure on health and education, water and sanitation. As a result, the numbers of women dying in childbirth, children dying of preventable diseases and girls missing out on schooling continue at obscene levels. Meanwhile the plight of small farmers – most of whom are women – grows more acute each day.

Adding to the economic crisis, climate crisis and food crisis is a crisis of leadership. A number of the G8 leaders are shaky on the home front and few appear to be arriving in Rome with a clear mission or mandate. As a result, expectations are low at a time when needs are at their highest.

Oxfam, working with our partners, allies and supporters world-wide, has been pressing G8 leaders for months to demonstrate they have the vision and the commitment to take the bold action required to avert millions of needless deaths – action of the scale of the bank bailouts.

On the eve of the summit, it all comes down to this. If leaders won’t lead in the interests of their citizens then the legitimacy of the whole political system – and the future of the planet – is in jeopardy.

In the coming days we’ll be watching – and working – to see that there is real progress made at this year’s summit and that the leaders will stop fiddling while Rome burns.

Robert Fox

Click here to see more photos from the event!