Yesterday Bob Geldof, advisor to ONE, appeared on the Canadian Television News segment “Power Play” to discuss Canada’s progress in meeting the 2005 Gleneagles Summit commitments and its role in hosting the upcoming G8 Summit. He had some very kind words for the Canadian peoples’ strong commitments (and strong follow-through) in ending extreme poverty.

You can check out the clip here:

The G20 has a lot to do tomorrow in Pittsburgh. But, I hope they take a moment to look north. Next June, some, maybe all of the members of the G20 will be about 300 miles north in Huntsville, Ontario for the next G8 Summit.

Development advocates have watched cautiously as the political center of global discussions has moved between the G8, the G20 and the United Nations. Which of these is the best forum to move the development agenda forward? No one has a definite answer on that; certainly all are important. But, no development advocate should doubt the importance of Canada’s G8. Canada’s G8 Summit in 2002 in Kananaskis really launched the G8’s focus on Africa that eventually led to the Gleneagles set of commitments that have since framed the discussion on development assistance to Africa. It is at Canada’s Summit when these commitments come due. How Prime Minister Harper and the Canadian government approaches that will be the subject of much of ONE’s work for the next 9 months.

Lots more to come on this topic, but for now check out this article from Tuesday’s Global and Mail discussing Canada’s G8.

-Josh Lozman

Over the weekend, ABC News online featured a great segment about the G8 Summit in Italy. ONE’s advocacy around this and past G8 Summits features prominently.

Check it out!

-Chris Scott

Well, the G8 Summit is now over for another year. It went by in a blur of activity but what came out of it?

Here in brief are the headlines from the communiqués (more will be coming soon):

• Agriculture: A chaotic day was made more complicated by the happy surprise of an additional $5bn for agriculture added in the last throes of negotiations so the final read out included $20bn for ‘sustainable agriculture’ in the ‘l’Aquila Food Security Initiative’ (AFSI). The communiqué states that this agriculture funding will be additional to food aid, there are also some very positive new commitments to increase the effectiveness of this support for agriculture.
• New money: It’s unclear at present who will give what, and how much will be new money. We do know that the US has doubled their aid to take their contribution from $2bn to $4bn. Italy will pay a disappointing $450m over 3 years and like all the other countries, we need to find out if this is additional (the forthcoming budget will determine overall aid and therefore clarify that) Berlusconi also pledged to pay his 2009 payment of $130m to the Global Fund by the end of the year and $30m extra to fill the Global Fund gap. However, none of this comes near to filling their €411m aid cut
• Climate change: The Pittsburgh G20 will also address climate change carbon financing
• Trade: Trade Ministers will meet ‘as soon as possible’ and feed back in time for Pittsburgh: there’s a commitment to complete Doha in 2010
• Accountability: The G8 published an accountability framework to set out when they have and have not fulfilled their promises. This was a good initiative but we hope that the matrix will be more useful and user-friendly when the next one is published at the next G8
• Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Before the next G8 Summit in Huntsville, the G8 needs to show how they will meet the MDGs and this will hopefully mean a 2010-2015 framework to build on next year in Canada

Although we’ve followed the G8 as a whole, we’ve been keeping our eye on 2 leaders in particular – Obama and Berlusconi. We praised Obama for pushing the agriculture initiative and for being one of the only leaders to clearly pledge serious levels of new funding. We hope he will drive forward this initiative at the Pittsburgh G20 summit.

For Berlusconi, here’s what we called for: Reversal of his aid cut, adding another $500m for agriculture immediately, Italy’s 2009 contribution to the Global Fund and a recovery plan for how Italy will meet the Gleneagles commitments he promised in 2005.

Here’s what we got: a commitment to $450m over 3 years for the l’Aquila Food Security Initiative, a commitment to $130m Global Fund payment and $30m additional funding to fill the Global Fund gap, and vague promises for a ‘piano di rientro’ to get Italy back on track towards its Gleneagles commitments (0.33% by 2010 and 0.51% by 2010). That might not sound too bad but it remains unclear how much of that, other than the Global Fund money, will be actually be new money. We will have to do some work around budget law to track to see if Berlusconi follows up on these modest promises.

Anyway, that it’s for now but just wanted to update you on the key headlines from the Summit. And now it’s a case of looking forward towards the next G20 in Pittsburgh this September where we hope to see follow up on the issues raised here. There’s also next year’s G8 Summit in Canada which at the moment looks set to focus on accountability.

-Eloise Todd

Now that the G8 Summit in Italy has officially wrapped up, a number of NGO’s have publicly issued their reactions, including a number of our partners. We’ve compiled a short list, and we’ll update as more come in.

Bread for the World: Welcomes G8 Hunger Initiative

Washington, DC, July 10, 2009 — Bread for the World welcomes the statement issued today by G8 member nations at their meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, on reducing world hunger by increasing agricultural support and development in the world’s poorest countries.

According to Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, the agreement by G8 leaders to contribute $20 billion over three years to a new initiative to combat global hunger is a sign of hope for tens of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people.

CARE: Agriculture Assistance Package a Tremendous Step in Tackling Global Hunger

ATLANTA (July 10, 2009) – The Obama administration’s announcement of $20 billion in agricultural assistance for poor farmers is a tremendous start to helping families and countries feed themselves, according to CARE experts. Of critical importance to the success of the program is making sure that assistance reaches the poorest of the poor, often women and girls.

“CARE’s work in the field demonstrates the need to ensure that assistance reaches those most vulnerable to chronic hunger, the poorest of the poor. This initiative sets us on the path to do that,” said Dr. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE USA. “We look forward to working with all parties to make this commitment a reality.”

Catholic Relief Services: CRS Applauds Pres. Obama’s Announcement of $20 Billion G-8 Commitment to Food Security

July 10, 2009, Baltimore, MD —Catholic Relief Services, one of the nation’s largest private international humanitarian agencies and a leader in providing U.S. food and agricultural assistance, applauds President Barack Obama’s announcement that G-8 nations have committed $20 billion to help millions of the world’s poor farmers to grow more food.

This commitment, including $3.5 billion to be pledged by the U.S., is a good start to funding a comprehensive food security plan along the lines of the Roadmap to End Global Hunger, a strategy proposed by Catholic Relief Services and a coalition of other humanitarian groups to Congress and the Administration. In addition to agriculture, investments are needed in nutrition, disaster risk reduction, social safety nets and improved, more flexible emergency response.

InterAction: G8 and Other Leaders Agree that Global Food Security Critical to Development

L’Aquila, Italy, July 2009 — “We commend the G8, G5, and other countries, as well as international institutions for their Joint Statement on Global Food Security, its commitment to the world’s poorest, and agreeing to mobilize $20 billion over three years for food security. To be realized these commitments must be pursued as part of a comprehensive strategy in order to help the world’s poor. The success of this global food strategy rests on the ability of the G-8 to be accountable to its promises,” said Samuel A. Worthington President and CEO of InterAction, an alliance of 183 U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGOs). “The bold decision of President Obama, the G8, and other leaders to significantly increase aid to agriculture and to partner with vulnerable countries is critical to addressing the food crisis and alleviating the disastrous impact of the global financial crisis.”

(more…)

Yesterday, ONE’s own Eloise Todd got a chance to ask Prime Minister Berlusconi a question- in Italian- during a press conference at the G8 Summit in Italy. It was a great moment. You can check out the video here (about 2/3 of the way through). Transcript below!

Question to Prime Minister Berlusconi:

I was present when Bob Geldof interviewed you last week. You said ‘I’m sorry for not having kept my promises’. What will you do this week to reverse the aid cut of €411m and what additional funds will you give on top of this to the G8 initiative on agriculture?

Prime Minister Berlusconi’s response (summary):

We were responsible for creating the Global Fund in Genoa in 2001, which has so far saved the lives of 4 million people. Because of the current economic crisis it is harder to balance our budget, and we know we are late in our payments to the global fund. But by the end of the year we will pay the 130m we owe as well as the 30m extra requested by the fund to cover shortfalls. We recommitted to our aid promises and tomorrow we will present an agriculture initiative and Italy will play its part.

The ONE verdict? Well, he clearly didn’t answer the question. But we remain hopeful there’s a rabbit in the hat from Italy which means they will pledge more than the 411m they cut. At least the question showed the Prime Minister, and the audience, that we are watching and we will not give up. And hopefully a few of the folks watching the live broadcast on Italian TV will also be curious to find out when he really gives an answer to those questions.

As we enter into Day 3 of the G8 Summit, we’ll have more from on the ground soon!

-Jessica Gomez-Duran

President Obama has just spoken at a press conference at the G8 summit in Italy. He was followed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. They were talking about climate change. An update from the ground of what was said is coming right up!

-Jessica Gomez-Duran

The G8 Summit in Italy has been going on for half a day and already the first of a reported 10 communiques has been released.

In predictable fashion, the release of the communique covering the world economy, climate change and development was of great interest to us, and we quickly issued this reaction to it yesterday.

While the scramble for the communique was going on, a group of over 100 journalists were shepherded into an auditorium to meet with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

On development, Berlusconi started by recalling that the Global Fund stands out as a success of the Summit in Genoa, having saved millions of lives since it was founded in 2001. He also said that the 2009 dues would be paid by the end of the year. Otherwise, he referred vaguely to a commitment to increase aid.

No mountains have been moved yet, but we’re working to keep the pressure on for a better outcome tomorrow. More soon!

-Eloise Todd

The G8 Summit in L’Aquila just released the communiqué, which we’re now in the process of reading and analyzing. We’ll have further analysis soon, but in the meantime wanted to share with you this reaction from ONE’s Oliver Buston:

We welcome the fact that the G8 are focusing on accountability this year – announcing a new more in-depth way of reporting back on their development commitments. But what the world’s poorest people need now is not a re-cooking of old promises or yet more plans. They need immediate action, especially from G8 host Italy. Prime Minister Berlusconi now has two days to reverse his disastrous aid cuts and salvage his credibility. The G8 as a whole can show they are serious by announcing significant new money for African agriculture on Friday, and ensuring it is spent effectively.

As we mentioned earlier, ONE is calling on the Italian Government to immediately:

• Reverse its €411 million aid cut
• Provide an extra €350 million for agriculture
• Pay up their dues for 2009 to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

We’ll have more on this soon!

-Chris Scott

We’ve heard that there might be a communique coming out in the next half an hour or so. This is expected to cover the world economy, climate and development Keep checking back as we’ll update you on what’s happening.

-Jessica Gomez-Duran