Updates from the G8 Summit
Day Three (9 July)
The G8 wrapped up today without any major new statements. Today's agenda focused on the environment with a meeting of the Major Economies Meeting which included China, Brazil, Australia, India, Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, South Africa and the G8.
Last night over dinner (which included Chateau Grillet and caviar) the G8 discussed the major political issues such as Zimbabwe, nuclear proliferation and peacekeeping/peace building. The G8 issued a strong statement on Zimbabwe condemning the recent election and threatening financial sanctions if the situation is not reversed.
The Japanese Prime Minister closed the G8 with his concluding press conference and Chair's Summary which reviewed the agreements made here.
Overall, most organisations are unsatisfied with the outcome of the G8 Summit. Given the pressing food crisis for the poor the G8 needed to take drastic steps to tackle the underlying issues such as market speculation, the use of biofuels and the under investment in small agricultural producers in developing countries. Now we look to the UN High-Level Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals in New York in September. This meeting will bring together world leaders to review the progress on the MDGs and perhaps there we will see the type of leadership and action that was distinctly missing here in Japan.
The relevant papers released by the G8 are:
- G8 Leaders Statement on Global Food Security
- Development and Africa
- The World Economy
- Environment and Climate Change
- International Institutions
- G8 Leaders Statement on Zimbabwe
- G8 Leaders Statement on Counter- Terrorism
- Declaration of Leaders Meeting of Major Economies on Energy Security and Climate Change
- Political Issues
All are available at www.mofa.go.jp
To read World Vision's press release on the G8 Summit, click here.
Day Two (8 July)
G8 Communiques:
Following discussions that dominated the first day and some of the second day of the G8 Summit, the Group of Eight have just released their official communiqué on Development and Africa.
AID
The G8 reiterated that they are 'firmly committed' to fulfil their 2005 aid promises with $25 billion going to Africa by 2010. However, World Vision asked them to reveal a timetable, with yearly commitments to show how they plan to achieve the $50 billion overall target.
Although there is some language on reassessment of the current progress (with many G8 countries falling well behind), no concrete actions have been promised. Instead, the G8 has singled out the UN High-level Meeting to review the progress on Millennium Development Goals (due on 25 September in New York), as an event where countries can 'demonstrate commitment'.
HIV and AIDS
There's been a positive development confirming that international pressure and in-country lobbying paid off, with the G8 countries still committed to achieving 'universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care by 2010'.
However, children affected by HIV are barely visible in the communiqué. Bold steps to ensure universal access to paediatric treatment and services to prevent mother to child transmission outlined at the G8 in 2007 are conspicuous by their absence at this year's summit. The ten million orphans and vulnerable children, that the G8 committed to care for last year, have once again fallen off the agenda.
The strong financial pledges made in 2007 to contribute significantly to the $1.5 billion needed for the prevention of mother to child transmission by 2010, and the $1.8 billion needed for paediatric treatment have not been highlighted at all, signalling a significant climb down by G8 leaders on their commitments to children affected by HIV.
HEALTH
A hoped for development on a health action plan was down-graded at the last minute to the status of an 'expert report' rather than a G8 level commitment, although the 'Toyako Framework for Action' does include an advisory to the G8 countries to adopt the use of health matrices to show how well the countries have delivered on their health commitments to this day.
The G8 have reconfirmed their commitment to allocate $60 billion of the total aid for all infectious diseases, which includes HIV and AIDS, and to strengthen health over the next 5 years. World Vision has been asking for this to be over three years.
This money, if provided over five years, will amount to only $12 billion a year, far short of the needs of HIV and AIDS, let alone strengthening health systems. This is both insufficient and too vague to meet the 2005 commitments. UNAIDS resource estimates make it clear that the G8 needs to provide $65 billion over the three years 2008-2010 for HIV and AIDS alone.
The G8 leaders highlighted the need for 'greater focus on maternal, newborn and child health', identifying these as 'seriously off track'. This is in line with World Vision's health assessments and the need to pay special attention to MDGs four and five.
The G8 have stated that they will push for the adoption of a 'mutlisectoral approach' in health, which includes community level involvement in health provision. World Vision welcomes this approach and will continue working with the G8 countries to ensure that this it's implemented.
FOOD
World Vision welcomes the $10 billion pledged since January 2008 to tackle the food crisis – resources badly needed to help those facing increasing food prices – but the G8 stopped short of the necessary steps needed to tackle the underlying issues, namely, ending the subsidies on bio-fuels, regulating market speculation and mandating trade negotiators to make a deal on the Doha trade round that supports developing countries and small agricultural producers.
Day One (7 July)
The leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) - some of the most powerful industrialised nations – opened their annual summit today in Hokkaido, Japan. The major issues include climate change, rising food prices and Africa.
Seven African presidents, from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, met this morning with the heads of state of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States to talk about progress on the Millennium Development Goals and the aid pledges made by the G8 in 2005.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the donor countries to step up their efforts to help poorer countries achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals, which are nearing the half way point to 2015 this year.
AID
Aid featured prominently during the day. Three years ago in Gleneagles, Scotland, at the G8 Summit hosted by the UK, the G8 leaders agreed to increase aid to the developing countries to $50 billion a year, with half of it, $25 billion, going to Africa.
To keep on track with the target of $25 billion by 2010, the G8 countries must collectively provide $6.4 billion to Africa in 2007. However, the G8 are expected instead to give just $2.3 billion.
HIV and AIDS
Last week, the Financial Times leaked a draft of the G8's final communiqué, without a target date for comprehensive AIDS services for all - despite 'universal treatment, prevention and care' by 2010 being adopted at the G8 Summit in 2005. There are serious fears that the G8 is planning to quietly drop the target. World Vision has been lobbying hard for this target to be kept.
HEALTH
The G8 also discussed global efforts to strengthen health systems, and progress towards mobilizing the $60 billion (over several years) that was announced at the 2007 G8 to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. The G8 is continuing discussions over where this money might come from, and the time frame over which it will be spent. World Vision is asking for a three-year time frame.
Prior to the Summit
A worldwide "wish petition" signed by 55,000 people in the UK was handed in to no. 10 Downing Street on 4 July for the Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s consideration by World Vision, Oxfam and CAFOD. More than 5,600 petitions came from World Vision supporters in the UK.
On the same day, more than 3,000 petitions from World Vision Germany's campaigners were taken to the office of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.
More than 10,000 petitions have been signed by World Vision supporters in Canada, with the highest number coming from World Vision Japan's supporters at nearly 13,000.
The global World Vision total of 34,000 signatures was handed over to the office of the Japanese Prime Minister, Yasuo Fukuda, on 2 July ahead of the G8 Summit.
The "wish petition" petition is part of a Global Call to Action Against Poverty campaign, of which World Vision is a member, that has attracted more than half a million supporters across the globe.
Please read our detailed G8 policy report using the links below:
What is the G8?
The Group of Eight (G8) is an international forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. These eight countries represent 14% of the world population, but they account for 65% of the world's economic output.
The presidency of the group changes every year. The holder of the presidency sets the G8 annual agenda and hosts the summit for that year. Japan assumed presidency on 1 January 2008 and the summit is set to take place on 7-9 July, in Hokkaido-Toyako, Japan.
What are the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?
At the Millennium Summit in September 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders in history, the G8 countries adopted the UN Millennium Declaration. They committed their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and set out a series of time-bound targets, with a deadline of 2015 that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Achieve universal primary education
- Promote gender equality and empower women
- Reduce child mortality
- Improve maternal health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Ensure environmental sustainability
- Develop a global partnership for development
For more on the MDGs visit the UN Millennium Project website.
Why call on the G8 for change?
The annual G8 summit is attended by eight of the world's most powerful heads of government and represents an important opportunity to influence political direction on key global issues. World Vision sees the G8 summit as an opportunity to challenge the eight richest nations to change the lives of millions of children around the world, because 26,000 children, below the age of five, die every day due to preventable poverty, disease and hunger.
In 2005, to coincide with the 31st G8 summit in United Kingdom millions of people around the world joined together to encourage the G8 leaders to make poverty history. It became an unprecedented movement of passion, energy and solidarity. Never before have so many people in the world come together, fully united in a demand for an end to poverty which was impossible to ignore. This also sparked the formation of the world's largest civil society movement called the Global Call to Action Against Poverty or GCAP that continues today.
This year, World Vision is not asking the G8 for more money. Instead, we are calling for the leaders of G8 countries to be crystal clear about how and when they are going to improve children's healthcare. We are asking them to hold themselves accountable for commitments they have already made and to make sure that the committed funds are spent in the most effective way.
World leaders can make decisions that can change the lives of millions of children. The G8 itself has acknowledged that it has the power to immeasurably improve the lives of the world's poorest people. Over the past decade it has made a range of funding promises that would, if kept, save millions of lives.
Despite courageous funding promises at the 2005 G8 summit in Scotland, the G8 has fallen far behind on delivering them. It is up to those of us who are able to speak out on behalf of those living in poverty to keep reminding world leaders that we have not forgotten their pledges and that their complacency is not acceptable.
That's why we need you to be involved. The more noise we make together, the more the G8 leaders will have to listen to what we have to say.
Why child health?
There is a global epidemic that every year leaves millions dead. It reaches across country borders regardless of culture, language or gender. Despite efforts by the international community to stop it, the annual death count is so high that you can only make sense of the numbers by comparing it to country population figures.
This international killer is poor health. And in 2006, it claimed the lives of 9.7 million children under the age of five. These children died from preventable and treatable diseases. Of the world's children who survived this modern-day epidemic, 15 million lost one or both parents due to AIDS.
There are 136 countries in the world that have populations lower than 9.7 million. That many children dying every year is the equivalent of the entire population of Senegal, or Sweden, or Hong Kong or Israel. And this happens every year.
That many deaths are almost too large a number to comprehend, but each death is the death of a child, and the loss of a precious son or daughter.