2009 G8 Summit

This year's G8 Summit was held in L’Aquila, Italy, to discuss the world economy, development, climate change, trade and international political issues. A significant portion of the three-day summit included major emerging economies and other key international players. Several African leaders joined the summit on the last day. 

The G8 countries have only a year before the Gleneagles commitments to the poorest are to be delivered, but some G8 countries, particularly the Summit chair Italy, are falling dangerously behind on their commitments.  As the global economic crisis and the threat of climate change compound extreme poverty, ONE urged the world’s wealthiest countries to: (1) be accountable to their individual Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments by setting out clear timetables on how to get their promises back on track; (2) provide US$25 billion over three years for medium and long-term agricultural initiatives to support smallholder farmers in Africa; (3) fully implement and expand upon previous commitments on health such as to provide adequate funding to the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria and to implement the Global Health Care Partnership to strengthen health systems; and (4) agree to mobilise adequate funding for climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts in developing countries. (Read ONE’s policy perspectives for the 2009 L’Aquila Summit.)

Several important agreements were reached at the summit.  Significant progress was made on agriculture, where the international community committed to mobilising US$20 billion over three years to help farmers in developing world boost production over the long term and has helped inject fresh momentum in a sector that has long been neglected. On accountability, the G8 countries published a preliminary accountability report at the Summit, and pledged to develop a comprehensive framework to monitor and progress and strengthen the effectiveness of their actions and publish the full report in time for the 2010 Summit. The G8 also asked for an international assessment in 2010 to examine what is needed in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.