G20 London 2009

London G20 Summit Wraps Up

Apr 2nd, 2009 9:18 AM UTC
By Virginia Simmons

The 2009 London G20 Summit is finally really wrapping up. Below are some excerpts from ONE’s reaction to the summit’s communique. You can see the full release here.

“ONE today welcomed commitments to the world’s poorest countries in the G20’s final deal, but warned that funds announced for them must not create a new debt crisis.

“The G20 have come up with impressive numbers; it’s what they do with them now that counts”, said Oliver Buston, Europe Director for ONE. “Is the US$50bn announced for Low Income Countries grants or loans? To fight the crisis, Africa needs new effective aid on top of existing promises, not expensive loans.

“Thanks to Gordon Brown’s leadership, the world’s poorest have not been forgotten, now their participation in international talks needs to grow”, he said.”

We will need to look over the details of what’s been decided over the next days and weeks, but we should remember that a few months ago we weren’t even sure if developing countries would be on the agenda at this G20 meeting. There’s certainly a lot of work ahead but ONE members campaigned for African voices and for resources, reform and regulation, and today we made some good progress towards these goals.

This entire experience personally, of attending the summit as part of the G20 Voice project, has been an absolute honor. I’ll post more about that tomorrow.

-Virginia Simmons

Drummond Live

Apr 1st, 2009 9:38 AM UTC
By Virginia Simmons

Watch ONE’s Executive Director Jamie Drummond lead a roundtable on the G20 (at the G20Voice bloggers briefing day) live now.

(I can upload video from his earlier speech in a bit.)

What Needs to Happen at the G20 Summit

Apr 1st, 2009 9:34 AM UTC
By Mikiko Imai

Yesterday, I talked about the leaked draft outcome document of the upcoming G20 Summit and how it compares with what we’d like out of the Summit. G20 leaders’ focus is to restore global growth in light of this current global crisis. In our document that we sent to the G20 governments ahead of the Summit, we emphasise how this crisis is truly a ‘global’ crisis, affecting the very poor in Africa and in other developing countries – which in turn stresses the importance of a global solution that involves the poorest of the world.

We’ve already highlighted in previous posts that decreased economic growth in poor countries will force an additional 53 million people to live on less than $2 a day this year, a rise in absolute poverty that is additional to the 130-155 million more people already pushed into poverty in 2008 as a result of soaring food and fuel prices. While social safety-net programs and stimulus packages are implemented in developed countries, poor countries don’t have the same options. According to a October 2008 Oxfam paper, more than half of the world’s workers and their dependents are excluded from any type of social protection. The impact of the crisis is significant, already being felt across the poorer parts of the world, threatening to unravel major progress made in just the past few years. It is therefore essential that the G20 summit address the needs of the poor. But more importantly, failing to do so could also have ramifications for the rest of the world.

On top of that, Africa has the potential to bring long term benefits to the rest of the world, if it is included in the global solution. Africa offers untapped resources — such as agricultural potential and energy resources — that could potentially help resolve some of the world’s greatest current challenges as well as lift some African countries out of poverty if these assets have the right stewardship. Unfortunately, at this point in time, they all remain potential opportunities that need to be cultivated in order to yield returns to the global community. In order to harness the potential of these opportunities, there is need for immediate and additional investment in Africa through front-loaded development assistance, additional grants and, where appropriate, concessional loans through bilateral channels as well as international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF and the African Development Bank. Investments in infrastructure, agricultural productivity, green investments that could help with climate change mitigation, and development of human capacity are essential elements of this.

In addition, Africa needs new opportunities in order to better integrate itself into the global economy. ONE advocates a number of regulatory and governance reforms including: reforms of the international financial institutions to reflect the voices of developing countries, notably in Africa; Financial regulations reforms to consider illicit capital flight from developing countries and erosion of tax base in developing countries; and ensuring that G20 countries do not retreat into protectionist policies.

-Mikiko Imai

Rebuilding Trust at St. Paul’s Cathedral

Mar 31st, 2009 9:39 AM UTC
By Jessica Gomez-Duran

Today members of the ONE team attended a debate, My word is my bond? Rebuilding trust – the G20 and beyond, at the iconic St Paul’s Cathedral in London. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd both spoke and answered questions from the audience in a panel chaired by the Bishop of London. It was also the last public speech Mr Brown is to make before the G20 Summit on Thursday.

Gordon Brown told faith leaders and NGO representatives that the world must adopt global economic rules based on common values. He said that the leaders of the G20 need to make decisions that will shape the global economy in the interests of everybody with “shared global rules founded on shared global values”. He went on to say, “I believe that both markets and governments have a responsibility to serve the public interest, that the poor are our shared responsibility and that wealth carries unique responsibilities too.”

In his speech, Gordon Brown set out what he deemed our four biggest challenges facing the world today:

1. Financial and economic instability
2. Environmental degradation
3. Violent extremism
4. Extreme poverty

Most notably for our issues, the UK Prime Minister explicitly said that “we must never ever forget our obligations to the poor” and added that “even while others may use this financial crisis as an excuse […] nothing will divert the United Kingdom from keeping to our commitments to the Millennium Development Goals and to our promises of development and aid” – a statement which roused the audience and delivered the loudest applause.

To close the debate, both Prime Ministers were asked what their final message would be to this audience before the G20 Summit. Interestingly, Kevin Rudd said that we shouldn’t let the Millennium Development Goals slide and that they must be core business for every government. He also went to say that Gordon Brown was the “collective conscience of the West” and that he always has it on the agenda and is continuously engaged on this subject.

This is all great to hear, particularly on the eve of such a significant summit, now it just remains to see what does actually get agreed upon on Thursday. We will be blogging increasingly as the week progresses and keeping you all updated so do check in regularly!

See ONE’s reaction to the St Paul’s debate here.

View Gordon Brown’s speech at St Paul’s here.

-Jessica Gomez-Duran

Marching on London

Mar 28th, 2009 9:41 AM UTC
By Weldon Kennedy

Today, ONE joined with 150 other organisations for the Put People First rally in London. I was down on the streets with the crowd of 35,000 calling on the G20 for fairness for the developing countries, and people around the world who have been adversely affected by the financial crisis.

The mood at the rally was jubilant. There were lots of families and even a makeshift marching band adding to the cheer. It was exciting to meet people brought together by so many different organisations, but sobering to remember why we were all there – the 53 million more people the World Bank estimates will slip into extreme poverty this year. Hopefully this rally, along with other efforts like our petition asking Obama to advocate for the needs of developing countries at the G20, will help.

For a bird’s eye view of the rally, check out the BBC report on the march – and look for the ONE signs in the crowd.

-Weldon Kennedy

Bobcast

Mar 17th, 2009 9:10 AM UTC
By Weldon Kennedy

At the IMF conference in Tanzania, Bob Geldof took a moment to share his thoughts on what he would like to see the upcoming G20 summit in London do for Africa.

Learn more about the G20 and what we hope to see the G20 do for developing nations.

-Weldon Kennedy

Highlights from the G20

Nov 18th, 2008 9:12 AM UTC
By Beth Adler

I know that you have all been eagerly awaiting ONE’s analysis of the G20 economic summit that took place this past Saturday. To re-cap, in October, President Bush called for a first-ever meeting of the G20 to discuss solutions to the global financial crisis, and mechanisms to prevent future crises. The G20 is a group of finance ministers from the world’s leading economies (the G8, the European Union and Australia), as well as a group of ten emerging economies including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, and South Africa. After the summit, officials issued a communiqué detailing their resolutions. Here are a few highlights:

1. Developing Country Representation: The G20 calls for better representation of developing countries – both emerging economies and poor countries – in the Bretton Woods Institutions like the IMF and World Bank, in order to accurately reflect the world economy and increase the legitimacy and effectiveness of these institutions. The G20 calls for these reformed institutions to play a role in identifying future crises and responding to them.
2. Trade: The G20 rejects the impulse to turn to protectionist measures to stabilize their economies and promises to refrain from raising new barriers to trade or investment in the next 12 months. The G20 also calls for a successful completion to the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round trade talks.
3. Official Development Assistance (ODA): Considering the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries, and particularly on the most vulnerable in those countries, the G20 countries reaffirm the importance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their development assistance commitments. They urge all countries to undertake commitments consistent with their capacities, and re-iterate the principles agreed upon at the UN Conference on Financing for Development that took place in Monterrey in 2002 that emphasize country ownership of and mobilizing all sources of financing for development.
4. Anti-Corruption: (more…)