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Infrastructure: no excuses for the G20, concrete solutions do exist
The month at the G20 in Cannes a High Level Panel of investment and infrastructure experts – including ONE board member Mo Ibrahim – submitted its report on increasing infrastructure financing in developing countries.
The G20 has made infrastructure one of its priorities this year, and this for good reasons: Recent estimates by the African Development Bank (AfDB) put the annual infrastructure deficit in Sub Sarharan Africa at over $45 billion. A lack of decent infrastructure on the continent means poor people too often pay heavily in time and money to access essential services such as healthcare and education – tying achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 70% of the population has no access to electricity and the majority of rural population has no reliable roads to get to the nearest markets or healthcare. In some countries this lack of infrastructure also reduces economic output by 40%.
According to work by Afrobarometer African citizens and businesses repeatedly place access to reliable infrastructure near the top of their development wish lists. It was for this reason that ONE made a submission to the Panel and the G20. Our key asks were:
- An increase in private and public sector infrastructure investment to address Africa’s infrastructure deficit, especially in sectors such as rural roads which are essential for pro-poor economic growth
- The use of transparent and pro-poor, sustainable, investment criteria such as the UN Ruggie Principles, the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative principles and the OECD principles on infrastructure for poverty reduction.
The Panel’s report, which was chaired by former Ivorian Minister and current head of Prudential Insurance Tidjane Thiam, highlights how investing in infrastructure should be part of a global growth and development strategy. They propose concrete recommendations to the G20 on how public funds can be used as a catalyst to raise even greater amounts of private investment for infrastructure in Africa, such as through the Sokoni initiative, which should hopefully allow for greater availability of future public funds to be used for specific pro-poor infrastructure projects. In addition, even though the mandate of the High Level Panel Report was not to look at pro-poor infrastructure or safeguards, it is encouraging that the report repeatedly stresses the importance of transparency and building local capacity. The G20 should now take forward the recommendations of the panel, and in addition, address the need for investment safeguards such as environmental and social impact assessments to ensure infrastructure projects do not undermine but rather increase poverty reduction.
In response to the report ONE’s Europe Director Adrian Lovett said:
“In the middle of a growth and debt crisis what the G20 needs is concrete ideas to kick-start the global economy. Tidjane Thiam’s report on infrastructure shows how Africa can be part of the solution in driving global growth while addressing some of the constraints to poverty reduction on the continent. Africa is the new frontier for investment and Thiam has shown how public money can be used to leverage significant extra sums from the private sector to address Africa’s Infrastructure deficit.”
“For many people in Africa a lack of infrastructure is not an inconvenience, it is a daily hardship that means reduced access to healthcare, education and jobs. Thiam’s report should kick-start a G20 focus on infrastructure that results in concrete results by the time of the Mexico summit.”
How your support made a difference at the G20
Last week, I was in Cannes at the G20 summit. As you know, media coverage of the meeting was full of the eurozone and Greece, and you might be forgiven for thinking that’s all they discussed. But behind the headlines, something else really important happened. G20 leaders heard your voice, and the voices of more than 400,000 others who backed our Hungry No More campaign.
What’s more, they committed themselves to a number of the short and long-term agricultural solutions we’ve been pushing for to break the cycle of famine. With over 13 million people still in crisis in the Horn of Africa, I wanted to let you know what the G20 have pledged, how you helped achieve this, and what we need to do next.
In their final declaration, the G20 agreed that there is an urgent need to strengthen emergency and long-term responses to food insecurity and that responsible investment in long-term agricultural solutions in the poorest countries is “essential to promote food security and foster sustainable economic growth,” especially when focused on smallholder farmers.
They also pledged to reduce the dangerous impacts of food price volatility and improve the transparency of agricultural commodity markets. That could make a world of difference. Some of the poorest families have to spend as much as 80% of their household budgets on food, so sudden price rises mean real hardship.
More good news is that President Calderon of Mexico – the next Chair of the G20 – announced in Cannes that food security will be one of the G20’s major priorities in 2012. The G20 has made a good start on a framework to fight poverty through agriculture, and now is the time for countries to step up and turn it into reality.
As a ONE member, you are one of our strongest advocates, and we owe you a big thank you. This campaign was just 30 days long, and here’s a snapshot of what you helped achieve globally:
- 409,000 people signed our petition urging G20 leaders to act, and more than 700,000 viewed our ‘F-word’ TV ad on YouTube
- In just one week in the UK, nearly 500 members searched for their Member of Parliament using our new toolkit, leading to a burst of tweets, personalised emails and meetings with MPs. A few members also represented ONE at Downing Street, and handed in our petition
- ONE members in France joined our Paris team to project our campaign videos and a list of petition signers’ names onto the face of the historic Hôtel de Ville
- In Germany, members’ tweets provoked a response from a Government spokesperson assuring that they considered agriculture, food prices and food security important at the G20
- ONE members in the US handed in our petition on Capitol Hill, taking our message right to the heart of the US government.
But this isn’t the end of our Hungry No More campaign. Although we saw progress, the G20 still have a long way to go to make sure these promises are more than just warm words. We didn’t hear enough urgency or commitment to implementation, and the focus could too easily move away from this crucial issue.
Our job is to stop that from happening, and keep up the pressure. So when the smaller G8 meet in Chicago next year, and when the G20 gather again in Mexico, we will need your support to push for concrete results that make world leaders accountable to their commitments.
We’ll be in touch to let you know how you can help, but for now I simply wanted to say: thank you.
Together as ONE, we are making a difference.
PS. If you haven’t seen our Tigray: Then and Now documentary, then please do take a look and share. This is what your support is helping work towards.
75 minutes of hope in a summit dominated by Greece
At a summit dominated by the eurozone crisis G20 leaders failed to recognise that investing in Africa is a big part of the solution to the global economic crisis. Bill Gates’ report on financing development does however provide a new opportunity for leaders to make good on their promises in the years ahead.
ONE co-founder Bono said:
I heard what President Calderon said in France this afternoon about the priorities for his G20 presidency in 2012. It’s great to hear that hunger and food security will be high on the agenda. And I’m glad he wants to retain the services of Bill Gates for a little longer too. Bill has started a quiet revolution with his smart proposals for financing development.
Speaking from Cannes, Adrian Lovett, ONE’s Europe Director, reacted to the outcome of the G20 Summit:
For 75 crucial minutes, the G20 hauled themselves from beneath the wreckage of the eurozone crisis and focused on bold ideas for the fight against poverty. Those 75 minutes, used for talks about innovative finance for development, may have saved this summit. Now we need to ensure that this moment of promise in Cannes becomes a legacy of action in Los Cabos when the G20 meets under Mexican leadership there next year.
“The G20 failed to recognise that investing in Africa is a big part of the solution to the global economic crisis. But this was the first G20 summit where leaders did at least recognise their promises to deliver aid. Progress was also made on agriculture, with commitments to limit harmful speculation and investing more in agricultural productivity. These commitments address specific calls from 400,000 ONE members, whose voices have been heard in Cannes.
Michael Elliott, President and CEO of ONE, said:
The good news from Cannes is that development is now firmly embedded in the G20′s agenda – largely thanks to the report on financing 21st century development which President Sarkozy commissioned from Bill Gates, and the welcome that report received. Bill Gates demonstrated to the G20 that the fight against poverty is a fight we can win. When so much progress has been made in saving and improving lives, now would be the worst possible time to retreat. The report’s recommendations represent a bold challenge to world leaders and a shot in the arm for campaigners worldwide. We look forward to the G20 carrying forward its work on development in 2012 under the leadership of President Calderón of Mexico.
G20 endorses initiative to connect people, projects, and capital in Africa
Africa suffers from an infrastructure deficit that greatly limits growth and poverty reduction on the continent. 70% of the population do not have access to electricity and many rural communities lack road to access to markets or health facilities. In some areas a lack of infrastructure reduces economic output by as much as 40%.
However both government and private investors often find it difficult to find African infrastructure projects to invest in. This isn’t because of a lack of projects, but rather a lack of information being made available to investors. As a result potential investors find it very hard, time consuming, and at times, expensive to find information on projects and other potential investors. This impedes investment even though new projects often yield attractive rates of return. The result of this is that African people continue to suffer from this lack of infrastructure.
Today however at the G20 summit in France world leads took steps to address this problem by endorsing the establishment of the Sokoni African Infrastructure Marketplace. This African Development Bank and the Zanbato Group Sokoni proposal (‘Sokoni’ is Swahili for ‘marketplace’) should help overcome many of the challenges investors face by creating a single platform for information on a large number of African infrastructure initiatives. Governments and investors will be able to come to find transparent information and link up efficiently with each other. Using ICT and technology Sokoni will help enhance efficiency, transparency, and connectivity in the market and help to mobilize increased resources from Africa and abroad for badly needed infrastructure projects.
ONE welcomes this initiative and the support of the G20 world leaders for it. You can find out more about Sonoki from its website http://www.sokoni.com/
ONE final push
As leaders gathered in France today for the G20 Summit of wealthy nations, they brought with them the voice of hundreds of thousands of ONE members.
We’ve been campaigning hard this month to highlight the food crisis in the Horn of Africa and call on world leaders to ensure they break the cycle of famine. Our petition has had a phenomenal response now totalling over 400,000 signatures. So we wanted to make sure our members’ voices were heard loud and clear in the corridors of power.
On Monday as President Sarkozy prepared to leave Paris to host the G20 Summit in the south of France, we broadcast a huge video projection on the side of the city’s iconic Hotel De Ville. The film loop included the powerful celebrity F-word video “famine is the real obscenity”, the message that by then, over 360,000 ONE members had called on leaders to take action, and a scrolling list of members who had signed the petition. Strong media coverage of the event ensured the message was seen far and wide across France.
On Tuesday a group of ONE members joined our European Director delivering the campaign to the UK Government. With the G20 looming and a surge in the number of people signing up, the petition total had jumped to a staggering 400,000 by that afternoon – requiring a large trolley to deliver it!
On Wednesday ONE’s team in Berlin, pictured here in their “Nicht Mehr Hungrig” (“Hungry No More”) t-shirts outside the Chancellery Building, handed in the petition to the German Government. Along with pressure from our staff and members across the United States, this ensured the leading G20 powers have felt the pressure to act going in to today’s Summit.
We’ll be updating here about the Summit’s progresses, and stay tuned for a post early next week giving an overall assessment.
21st Century Development: Innovation with Impact
While leaders meet at the G20 summit in Cannes, Bill Gates was invited to speak about financing for development.
In his report, he makes the case for why we must continue investing in the livelihoods of poor people—and he suggests some innovative ways to do it.
In the report, Bill Gates says:
“Leadership from the G20 is critically important right now. The global economic situation is as fragile as it has been at any time in the past 50 years. As leaders of the G20, you face a difficult challenge: How do you resolve the immediate crisis while continuing to make smart investments in long-term growth and improved living conditions?
In the past 50 years, a billion people were saved from starvation by advances in agriculture. Health has improved in stunning ways, thanks to innovations like vaccines. In 1960, 20 million children under the age of 5 died. In 2010, fewer than 8 million children under 5 died. The world population more than doubled during this time, which means the rate of death has been cut by over 80 percent. Aid generosity has played an important role in these successes
Despite the current economic crisis, I am optimistic that we can build on the generosity and innovations that worked in the past. The group of countries able to contribute resources to development is larger than ever before. The number of people who can spur innovations is much greater than in the past. For these reasons, I am convinced we can create a new era in development.”
Greece is the Word. But can the G20 Hummus Another Tune?
This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post
As somebody once said about these big summits: if you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu. And Greece has been breakfast, lunch and dinner here at the G20 so far. Its bones have been well and truly picked over. There can hardly be a morsel left to digest. President Sarkozy had aimed to put global development at the heart of the G20 agenda but Greece has been the only topic of conversation in Cannes. I’ve never seen a global summit so blown off course as this one.
My first G8 summit was in Birmingham in 1998. I didn’t get inside that time – I was one of 70,000 people who formed a human chain around the summit to call on leaders to cancel third world debt. As I recall, something happened to divert the world’s attention then. I think it was the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury went to the FA Cup Final rather than join the protest.
Over the years, these summits have often been buffeted by events. Sometimes by tragedy: in 2005, the Gleneagles G8 was temporarily suspended while Tony Blair flew to London to deal with the 7 July terror attacks. I remember how the oxygen seemed to be sucked out of the place in an instant. But that horror somehow seemed to focus leaders’ minds back on the business in hand: they restarted the meeting and finished negotiations on the Gleneagles Declaration, promising $50 billion more in aid for the poorest countries.
There is a slim chance that this Cannes summit also could be brought back on track. The report presented to the G20 this afternoon by Bill Gates puts Africa centre stage. Gates recognises that Africa can be part of the solution to the global economic crisis. He says “development isn’t just good for people in poor countries; it’s good for all of us”. With 500 million people of working age, and six of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world, the G20 will be missing a trick if it fails to recognise Africa as a new source of consumer demand and a solution for weak global growth.
With a few notable exceptions, world leaders have been quietly backing away from their promises to the world’s poorest and hoping nobody would notice. The Gates report shows how financing for the fight against poverty can be found, leaving leaders with no excuse not to act. A coordinated global agreement on investment, aid and innovative taxes could raise enough revenue to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and avoid catastrophic consequences of the eurozone crises – not only for Europe and the international finance system, but also for developing countries who are the innocent victims of this crisis.
The G20 has never met this close to Africa. The continent is barely five hundred miles from where the leaders are sitting. Yet the interests of Africa feel a world away. If he can go the extra mile in the next few hours, President Sarkozy might just ensure this G20 is remembered for more than the Greek crisis. It’s a long shot – but don’t bet against it just yet.
Updates from the G20 Summit: getting development on the agenda
The G20 summit is officially starting today in Cannes, at 12 pm CET.
So far, France, which chairs the Summit this year, has called for a common and sustainable dynamic for development. However, tensions about the Euro crisis may overshadow action against global poverty at this year’s conference.
“Development will be a second major challenge for the G20. I want our dual presidency (G8 and G20) to make Africa its priority”
Nicolas Sarkozy said at his press conference in January 2011.
However following recent events in Greece, this morning after a bilateral meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy, Barack Obama said that their most important task for the next two days is to solve the Eurozone crisis.
Does it mean that development will be, once again, the “poor kid” of the summit?
Our team is on the ground in Cannes and will regularly update us on the summit. Stay tuned, we will update this blog throughout the conference. We’ve also put together a list of people tweeting updates which you can follow for minute by minute reports.
Updates
Gates offers relief from Greek tragedy and puts Africa centre stage – Bill Gates has published a report on development and has urged G20 leaders to embrace his “bold formula”
ONE members’ voices resonated around Paris to call on G20 leaders to break the cycle of famine
The “F-word” resonated loudly last night in Paris as anti-poverty campaign group ONE teamed up with the City of Paris to send a shocking message to G20 leaders, who are meeting later this week in Cannes. The square of the Paris Town Hall was plunged in complete darkness while ONE’s “F-Famine” and “A future without famine” videos were projected onto the wall of the Town Hall.
On the eve of the G20 summit in Cannes, hundreds of members of ONE, along with a few celebrities including Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Friedreric Diefenthal, gathered on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris to recall on world leaders that if the drought is an act of nature, famine is man-made.
With the exceptional support of the City of Paris, the latest clips of ONE, called “F-Word: Famine is the real obscenity” and “A future without famine” were projected onto the walls of City Hall, first in their French version and the English version.
The names of over 400,000 ONE members who have signed the petition calling on G20 leaders to break the cycle of famine were also projected on the building in the center of Paris. This exceptional mobilization was living proof of all ONE Members’ voices calling our leaders to make sure people are hungry no more.
As Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, said : “Today we are reach 7 billion worldwide. The challenges of population growth are numerous but one that is particularly urgent is food. A few days before the G20 I seize on this occasion to call for global mobilization against hunger…”
At ONE, we hope that the voice of all our members will be heard and strong commitments will be taken and actions implemented by the G20 leaders.
It’s not to late to add your voice to the 400,000 people who have signed the Hunger no More petition
Win a chance to shape ONE’s campaigning
Would you like to help decide what ONE does in the future? I’m delighted to announce the first in a series of competitions to win a place on ONE’s new European campaign advisory group.
We’re setting this up to recognise that the success of ONE is built on our members – a growing movement of 2.5 million people from around the world raising their voices to demand action. The advisory group will include several members, whose valuable input will help shape our future campaign activities.
To launch this initiative, we are inviting UK and German members to take action with our Hungry No More campaign aimed at your government, and then post what you did in the comments section below. Those taking the most actions, who get the best response from a campaign target, or think of the most interesting advocacy idea and can explain what you did, could win a place on our advisory group.
Take action now at: www.one.org/international/actnow/mptoolkit
Good luck and don’t forget to let us know what action you took and what response you got. I’m really looking forward to seeing your results!
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About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
TAGS: Africa, G20, Policy News