Today: G8 Leaders Arrive

[photo credit: Oxfam Japan]

Ahead of the 2008 G8 Summit which starts tomorrow, the leaders of Canada, Italy, Russia and U.S. all arrived today in the northern island of Hokkaido. But they weren’t the only ones. Hokkaido is hosting NGOs and civil society organizations that have been gathering in the past couple of days from all over the world. Yesterday, some of these NGOs and several thousand citizens staged a demonstration march in the center of Sapporo, the capital city of Hokkaido, to promote their hopes for world peace and greater equality. Check out the people from Oxfam Japan above, wearing large G8-leader masks and yukatas (cotton kimonos) requesting the G8 nations to tackle international problems in earnest.

I also landed in Hokkaido today, and headed straight to the International Media Centre (IMC) of the G8 Summit. The IMC is in Rusutu, a good two hours drive away from the main airport in Hokkaido. I knew I was close when I started seeing rows of security vans and guards in the middle of Japanese countryside. Apparently Japan has spent $280m on security for the G8… Our team set ourselves up in the main hall of the IMC. The place was only 75% full, but during the course of the day and evening, more and more journalists, camera/video men, and NGO guys like us arrived and catching up with each other in their different languages.

The big interest in the IMC today, at least for the Japanese and American journalists, was the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Fukuda and President Bush. We were glued to the small TV screen listening to the live coverage of the press conference, being held at Toyako. I was happy to hear President Bush passionately say that there is too much suffering in Africa and that G8 must take firm actions to help Africa fight HIV/AIDS and other illnesses. I do hope that he and other G8 leaders follow through with this and make a firm, deliverable commitment this year… Well, I’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on it in the days to come.

-Mikiko Imai

Pre-G8 in Japan, Maternity Health with Mrs. Fukuda

Mikiko Imai works for ONE in Japan. She’ll be reporting in throughout this week on the 2008 G8 Summit in Toyako.

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I’ve just come back from an afternoon tea party on maternal health issues hosted by the wives of two G8 leaders - Mrs. Sarah Brown, wife of the British Prime Minister and Mrs. Kiyoko Fukuda, wife of the Japanese Prime Minister. Mrs. Brown, a Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance, flew in a day earlier than her husband (who’s coming to Japan for the G8, just in case anyone’s wondering…) to talk about maternal health alongside Mrs. Fukuda.



In Mrs. Brown’s speech, she talked about the devastating situation surrounding expectant mothers, babies and infant children in developing countries and how neglected this issue is - the global goal to reduce the number of mothers dying in childbirth by three-quarters by 2015 has made absolutely no progress. She cited the global shortage of 4 million health workers and appealed for the G8 to answer to the calls to secure the investments in women’s health care needed to save lives at the forthcoming Summit in Hokkaido.



Mrs. Fukuda talked about how Japan had managed to overcome high levels of maternal mortality in the recent past and raised the success of the Boshi-Techo (Mother and Child Health Handbook), a book that allows pregnant women and mothers to track their pregnancy and baby’s growth. This initiative started 60 years ago when Japan had a devastatingly high maternity death rate and has had remarkable success since.



After hearing the speeches, there was a traditional English tea (it was at the British Embassy…) and a chance to view an exhibition of beautiful but disturbing quilts made in memory to mothers lost from all over the world. Every piece of quilt had a personal story to it. One quilt depicted a pregnant woman bleeding to death - her name was Khatiza Mai from Pakistan and she had no health care during her pregnancy. As I left the embassy complex, in the middle of sunny Tokyo, I tried to imagine myself in her situation. It was hard - I was born in a modern hospital. Apparently in many developing countries families say goodbye to a woman when she goes into labour - how long will it be before all women are free not to see childbirth as a potential death sentence? I hope the G8 will make progress this week…

-Mikiko Imai (more…)

Bush Says G8 Must Remain Accountable

Moments ago President Bush appeared at the Rose Garden to speak about his upcoming trip to the G8 Summit in Japan. President Bush spoke of the G8 leaders’ 2005 promises to double development aid by 2010, and said one of his major agenda items at the summit will be to rally our partners to “make commitments and meet commitments.”

You can watch video of his remarks below. I also transcribed a portion of his speech. I hope to post the full transcript up here soon.

“Now we need to show the world that the G8 can be accountable for its promises and deliver results…

Accountability is really important when it comes to our work on the continent of Africa. 2005 G8 leaders promised to double development assistance to Africa by 2010. America’s on track to meet our commitments, and in Japan I’ll urge other nations to fulfill their commitments as well.

We must also fulfill our committments in the battle against HIV/AIDS and malaria. I’ve asked Congress to reauthorize and expand the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, doubling our funding for this vital effort. It’s very important that Congress reauthorize this plan, but in the meantime we’re fulfilling our promises that we made, not only to the G8 but more importantly to the people on the continent of Africa.

It’s important that over the next 5 years, we support antiretroviral treatment for approximately 2.5 million people. That we prevent 12 million new AIDS infections and that we care for 12 million people also effected by HIV/AIDS including 5 million orphans and vulnerable children.

Last year the G8 agreed to meet those commitments. They agreed to match. They also agreed to help us reduce malaria in effected-countries by half. I hope that these countries understand the great promise and hope that comes when [clip cuts off here.] So one of my really important agenda items is gonna rally our partners to make commitments and meet commitments.”

President Bush talked went on to talk about healthcare workers, neglected tropical diseases, the food crisis, agriculture and trade.

-Virginia Simmons

UPDATE: Full transcript is now after the jump. (more…)

What we want from the G8 in ‘08 – Health

At past G8 summits, we’ve seen a number of landmark commitments on health – from treating and preventing infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS to improving health systems to eradicating Polio. In fact, it was at the G8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan (the last time Japan hosted the G8) that the initial seeds were sown for the Global Fund. The Global Fund has now saved more than 2 million lives by providing treatment and prevention for AIDS, TB and Malaria.

But eight years after the Global Fund’s inception, the fight against these infectious diseases, and delivering essential health services more generally, is being severely hampered by weak health systems and a critical shortage of health professionals. With this in mind, we’re asking the G8 to deliver a strategy for improving overall health conditions while continuing to vigorously fight infectious diseases. Here are ONE’s three top-line health asks:

1. Develop a time-bound action plan for delivering $100 billion for health: At the 2007 G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, non-US G8 members promised to provide $30 billion for AIDS, TB, malaria and health systems in order to match the United States’ $30 billion, five-year AIDS, TB and malaria program. That program, known as PEPFAR, will now be authorized at $50 billion over five years. Non-US G8 donors should build on the original spirit of the Heiligendamm commitment by providing a $50 billion match over the same five-year period, and improving the quality of these investments over the same time frame.

By the end of the Japanese G8 presidency, the G8 should provide a donor-by-donor timetable for delivering on this health commitment.

2. Set a numeric target for filling Africa’s critical shortage of health workers: G8 leaders should agree to funding an increase of at least 1.5 million additional health workers in Africa by 2015, with an interim target of at least 600,000 additional health workers by 2012.

According to the WHO, meeting major health-related MDGs, such as universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS, is “very unlikely” unless countries reach a minimum threshold of 2.3 doctors, nurses, and midwives per 1,000 population. In Sub Saharan Africa, this ratio translates to roughly 1.5 million additional health workers, including more than 800,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives.

3. Coordinate new and existing donor resources for health systems and health workers around national health sector plans. The G8 should agree to support the development of, and effective coordination of aid around, national health sector strategies. Assistance should be immediately scale-up in countries that already have rigorous national plans and a process should be developed to ensure all poor countries have the resources to complete donor-ready health sector investment plans.

-Ben Hubbard

What we want from the G8 in ‘08

This week we’re highlighting some of the key development issues we’re hoping to see addressed during next week’s G8 summit in Japan.

Yesterday, Josh Lozman put the spotlight on overall development financing and Monday’s troubling Financial Times article that indicated G8 negotiators are considering omitting a reiteration of their 2005 promise to increase aid to Africa by $25 billion by 2010. Watering down that commitment would be a serious breach of the G8’s credibility and accountability and we’re fighting to make sure it doesn’t happen.

But it’s important that we also focus on what’s needed to achieve the aid target. Big numbers, after all, are easier for the G8 to hide behind. Ultimately meeting the ambitious $25b goal requires scaling up financing for effective programs in specific sectors, such as health, education, agriculture and water and sanitation. Previous G8 commitments to these sectors are more than enough to meet the $25b goal. That’s why we’re asking G8 negotiators to get devilish in the details – we want to see an annual action plan for delivery on these promises.

In my next post, I’ll focus on what we’re asking the G8 to do this year on health.

-Ben Hubbard

The Midpoint Moment

One week from today, world leaders will gather in the lakeside town of Toyako, Hokkaido in northern Japan for the 2008 G8 Summit. We like to talk about “big moments” in the advocacy world and this is certainly one of them. The 2008 G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit will bring the world’s wealthiest nations together during a year that marks the halfway point to both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the G8 Gleneagles promises to Africa. Earlier this month, we launched the 2008 edition of the DATA Report, which shows quite plainly that the G8 are dangerously behind on these landmark commitments.

But the cold hard facts of the DATA Report also tell another, more positive story – that even the modest increases in aid from the G8 are turning into inspiring successes. 29 million more African kids are in primary school and 2 million Africans are receiving lifesaving AIDS treatment, to name just two.

That’s why ONE and other partners are so determined to keep G8 leaders accountable to their commitments: we know our aid dollars are working.

In 2008, we’ve been hard at work in the US, Japan and other G8 countries to lay the groundwork for a summit that gets the G8 back on track. Our job as advocates is admittedly not an easy one this year. Soaring energy costs and a weak global economy have put the squeeze on national budgets.

But 2008 is also a year that’s seen millions of poor people priced out of the market for food, threatening to erase many of the recent gains in poverty reduction. Given all the global attention on the food crisis, we think there’s a real chance the G8 will announce a plan to reverse decades of underinvestment in the agriculture sector and maybe even do something visionary, such as investing in an agricultural revolution in Africa.

We’ll also be watching closely to see if the G8 provide an accountable timetable for delivering on their $60b health financing commitment from 2007 and announce new support for health workers.

We’ll be tracking all the important issues and events here on the ONE Blog. And our small team in Hokkaido, led by our friend Bob Geldof, will be sharing their thoughts as events unfold. Stay with us.

David Lane, President and CEO of the ONE Campaign

Troubling signs: can the G8 be trusted to deliver on their promises?

Today, the Financial Times published an article based on a draft G8 communiqué obtained by the newspaper . The draft communiqué for the Hokkaido Summit mentions the development assistance goals for Africa made in Gleneagles in 2005, but drops mention of the specific target, approximately $25 billion. The communiqué recommits the G8 to working towards the goal of universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care, but drops mention of doing so by the original promised date of 2010.

ONE just published its 2008 DATA Report that monitors G8 commitments to Africa from Gleneagles. One of our headline findings is that the G8 have only delivered 14% of their promised development assistance increases. The G8 committed to $21.8 billion (the $25b was an approximation that was made before clarifications by the countries), but now, half way to the 2010 target date, they have only collectively delivered $3 billion of this promise. On AIDS: despite great progress (nearly 30% of Africans in need of HIV/AIDS treatment now are receiving them), there are still nearly 5 million people on the continent that are in need of treatment in order to stay alive.

No wonder then that the G8 wants to hide from their earlier promises. This is hard work. Their slow delivery until now has made the road to delivering the promises a bit steeper, but these are the wealthiest and most powerful nations in the world’s history. The G8 as a whole is spending 0.07% of their GNI on development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa. This is NOT a big budget item. If the G8 want to honor their commitment to Africa, they can. The road to doing so is shown here in this.

We can’t hide the numbers of people waiting for life-saving HIV medications and we can’t hide the millions of children waiting for the opportunity to go to school. The G8 shouldn’t hide the commitments they made in 2005 and recommitted to in 2006 in Russia and in 2007 in Germany.

The G8 will be tackling a host of issues critical to all of us: a global financial crisis, climate change, the food crisis, an economic downturn, and the role the G8 will play in the growth of Africa. On all these issues, the G8’s ability to keep their promises will determine whether they will be a relevant and trustworthy body in the 21st century.

The FT reported that what they obtained is a draft communiqué. Rather than backtracking, the G8 must at the very least include a recommitment to their promises to Africa. What they should be doing is taking a step forward by setting annual timetables for meeting their overall development assistance commitments and specifying a timetable for meeting their health commitments from the Heiligendamm Summit. One week from today, the G8 Summit starts in Japan. We will find out shortly if the G8 will stand by their word.

-Josh Lozman

Take Action: Keep the G8 to their Word

The G8 - a group of the world’s most powerful countries consisting of the US, UK, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Russia - are meeting in a couple of weeks for their annual summit.

Having this many leaders in one place at one time always gives us a great chance to pressure them to do more for the world’s poorest people, especially when you consider that most of these countries are not keeping promises they have already made to increase development assistance.

This year, we’re working to remind these leaders that fighting poverty works. Thanks to global efforts so far, 2 million people are receiving lifesaving AIDS medications and 29 million African children, once denied a basic education, are now in school. The problem is that over 72 million children are still out of school, and in 2007 AIDS killed 2.1 million people.

Please take a moment to sign our petition to the G8 and ask them to continue to the global success against poverty by delivering on their commitments to the world’s poor.

We’ll be delivering our petition along with some of our allies in Japan just head of the G8, and will make sure to bring you coverage of the deliver when it happens.

-Weldon Kennedy

Europe’s Report Card

Last week, ONE launched the DATA Report in France. I posted a few blogs entries covering the overall findings, the launch itself and a more detailed look at the United States’ performance.

But, we launched the report in France for a few reasons. First, the 4 EU G8 (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) make up more than 75% of the promised increases in aid from the G8. France takes over the presidency of the EU on July 1 and alone makes up 23% of the promised increases. And, though France has been a strong supporter of the Global Fund, they have only delivered 6.7% of their promised increases so far. In short, France made a huge promise, but delivery has been weak. This story is true across the EU G8.

France cut aid to Africa in 2007. Wrong direction. France has committed to increase aid to Africa by $4.986 billion by 2010. Of that promised increase, they have only delivered $334 million. In order to get back on a linear track towards their 2010 target, France would have to increase aid to Africa by over $1.5 billion dollars next year. Though a sizeable amount, this number is so big because France has been so slow in increasing aid so far. France is really important for Africa, both historically and now. As France becomes the President of the EU and decides its internal budget, President Sarkozy and the French people need to demonstrate that they are going to meet their commitment Africa.

Germany was last year’s host of the G8 and promised to get on track to meet their commitments after a very slow start. Chancellor Merkel and Germany increased aid to Africa by $311 million last year. Though not enough to get back on track, it was a big step in the right direction. Next year, we expect Germany to increase aid by $634 million – again moving closer to being on track. Germany hosted a strong Global Fund replenishment conference in Berlin late last year and has made strong progress, but there is still a long way to go towards accomplishing Germany’s promised increases of $3.969 billion by 2010.

Italy is a tricky story. Italy’s aid to Africa has actually decreased below the level it was at in 2004. But, Italy posted the largest increase in 2007: $417 million. As Prime Minister Berlusconi returns to office this year, it is our hope that he will push Italy to make this large increase the start of sustained progress rather than just a one year anomaly.

All of these commitments were started in 2005 at the Gleneagles Summit hosted by the United Kingdom. Though Tony Blair was then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has always been a strong supporter of Africa and global development generally. We were surprised to see that UK aid to Africa this year only increased by $48 million. Despite this small increase, the UK has accomplished more of its promised increases than any other country – 26%, and looking at the UK’s three year budget, called the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), ONE is fairly sure that the UK will meet their commitment to increase aid to Africa by $3.908 billion over 2004 levels. Our colleagues and fellow advocates in the UK will hold the government accountable to these commitments until they are met.

Following through on the G8 promises to Africa will be a test of the EU G8’s ability to keep to their word as we continue this transition to a globalized business and political world. It is essential both for Africa’s development and for the G8’s ability to act as global leaders that they keep these commitments.

The next two blog posts on the DATA Report will be about Japan, this year’s G8 host, and Canada.

-Josh Lozman

Catholic Bishops Weigh in on the G8

On Thursday, bishops from all of the G8 countries released a letter urging the G8 country leaders to honor their commitments to reduce global poverty and address climate change at their July summit in Toyako, Japan.

From the CNS:

“Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was joined by the presidents of bishops’ conferences in other G-8 countries in reminding the leaders of their promise to spend $50 billion annually on development assistance — with half going to Africa — by 2010. “This commitment must be met and additional commitments should be made in the areas of health care, education and humanitarian aid,” the bishops wrote.