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G20 Summit- Day After ReCap
Overall, yesterday’s G20 Summit communique has left ONE very hopeful, but as always, with a lot of work on our plates. Below, I’ll quote the very succinct recap by our Global Campaigns Director Roxane Philson, and then I’ll include 3 very short flip camera interviews with some incredible G20 Voice bloggers: Nigerian blogger Sokari Ekine, Richard Murphy of the UK (who was able to ask a question about tax havens to Gordon Brown at his internationally-covered G20 press conference), and Kenyan blogger Daudi Were.
Roxy’s Summary:
“Yesterday’s G20 Summit looks like it made some real progress for the world’s poorest. Caution tells me that some of the vague language will take hard work to clarify, but this morning, as I re-read statements and news from yesterday, I am filled with a sense of hope and optimism.
Highlights include:
Resources: The G20 announced US $50 billion for low-income countries - although we are concerned this includes existing funding - and a further US $100 billion in lending for development banks.
Reform: Developing countries will have greater representation in the international financial institutions and that election to World Bank/IMF leadership will be based on merit.
Regulation: The G20 announced regulation of illicit tax havens.
As with all summits like the G20, we’re left with just as much work coming out of the summit as we had going in. We need to work to ensure that money going to developing countries is given as grants, not loans that trigger another debt crisis. Also, much more needs to be done on the green agenda in the interests of developing countries at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year.”
And below, short interviews with 3 great global bloggers:
Nigerian Sokari Ekine of the blog Black Looks on attending the 2009 London G20 Summit:
UK Richard Murphy of The Tax Research Blog on asking a question on tax haven reform to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the internationally-covered G20 press conference:
Daudi Were, who lives in Nairobi, Kenya, and blogs at Mental Acrobatics blog, on the outcomes of the G20 Summit.
Attending the 2009 London G20 Summit as an accredited member of the media was absolutely the opportunity of a lifetime. I just want to publicly thank Karina Brisby, Shane McCracken, Samantha Bronnar, and everyone who put the G20 Voice project together and made it possible for 50 bloggers from around the world to attend this historic global summit. I hope it’s only the beginning for allowing new independent voices, particularly those from from the developing world, into these critical global discussions. I also want to thank our own Weldon Kennedy for handling all of ONE’s G20 Voice project work from the UK.
-Virginia Simmons
G20 Summit- Day After ReCap
Overall, yesterday’s G20 Summit communique has left ONE very hopeful, but as always, with a lot of work on our plates. Below, I’ll quote the very succinct recap by our Global Campaigns Director Roxane Philson, and then I’ll include 3 very short flip camera interviews with some incredible G20 Voice bloggers: Nigerian blogger Sokari Ekine, Richard Murphy of the UK (who was able to ask a question about tax havens to Gordon Brown at his internationally-covered G20 press conference), and Kenyan blogger Daudi Were.
Roxy’s Summary:
“Yesterday’s G20 Summit looks like it made some real progress for the world’s poorest. Caution tells me that some of the vague language will take hard work to clarify, but this morning, as I re-read statements and news from yesterday, I am filled with a sense of hope and optimism.
Highlights include:
Resources: The G20 announced US $50 billion for low-income countries - although we are concerned this includes existing funding - and a further US $100 billion in lending for development banks.
Reform: Developing countries will have greater representation in the international financial institutions and that election to World Bank/IMF leadership will be based on merit.
Regulation: The G20 announced regulation of illicit tax havens.
As with all summits like the G20, we’re left with just as much work coming out of the summit as we had going in. We need to work to ensure that money going to developing countries is given as grants, not loans that trigger another debt crisis. Also, much more needs to be done on the green agenda in the interests of developing countries at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year.”
And below, short interviews with 3 great global bloggers:
Nigerian Sokari Ekine of the blog Black Looks on attending the 2009 London G20 Summit:
UK Richard Murphy of The Tax Research Blog on asking a question on tax haven reform to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the internationally-covered G20 press conference:
Daudi Were, who lives in Nairobi, Kenya, and blogs at Mental Acrobatics blog, on the outcomes of the G20 Summit.
Attending the 2009 London G20 Summit as an accredited member of the media was absolutely the opportunity of a lifetime. I just want to publicly thank Karina Brisby, Shane McCracken, Samantha Bronnar, and everyone who put the G20 Voice project together and made it possible for 50 bloggers from around the world to attend this historic global summit. I hope it’s only the beginning for allowing new independent voices, particularly those from from the developing world, into these critical global discussions. I also want to thank our own Weldon Kennedy for handling all of ONE’s G20 Voice project work from the UK.
-Virginia Simmons
Getting into the G20 Media Room
Like a kid on Christmas morning - or a global poverty advocate with accreditation to the G20 Summit - I was up early to start the day. Only 2,000 people are allowed into this summit, and we’ve been told that the 50 bloggers of the G20Voice project are the only members of civil society who were allowed accreditation. Below a photo journey of my way in.
I took this during my 5:30 am walk to the Tube -
which opened 6 minutes after I arrived.
I arrived at the proper station by sunrise for the first of four accreditation/passport checks.
Then we boarded the first of 2 shuttle buses.
Where we received our photo badges. (Somehow my passport ID was one number off in their records, but the woman behind the desk remembered my name from the list of bloggers she’d received, so I got in fine.)
We went through security.
Onto a “clean” bus.
And then into the Media Centre for the 2009 London G20 Summit.
Our Table
Once inside the center, I found my way to the table with the large G20 Voice sign. We were told that we’d have a G20 sign just like all the G20 countries’ delegations’ tables had signs. But that didn’t turn out to be exactly right.
Our sign is much, much larger than the other ones.
Below- see our sign, and then Japanese and South African tables’ signs. (Note that South Africa is the only African country in the G20.)
And then here is a shot of our G20 bloggers table.
The Media
There are over 2,000 media here to cover this summit and our job is to try and ensure developing country needs and voices are represented (more on this soon)… a daunting prospect in such a huge room (see below), with locations for every major TV broadcast, radio and newspaper in the world. Even the journalists themselves seem a bit lost – the smart outlets are taping homemade signs around on the walls so that people can locate them…
Today’s FT
Today’s Financial Times is loaded with a four page supplement on how the financial crisis is hitting African countries hardest, and a great opinion piece in the main paper from Bob Geldof about including developing nations in the new global economy.
William Wallis’s lead article in the supplement makes a powerful case for G20 taking urgent action to provide the resources developing countries need to weather this downturn, saying:
“Today many of sub-Saharan Africa’s 47 states are seeing their incomes evaporate, leaving holes in national budgets and foreign reserves as wide as the pits from which their resources have been extracted.
Without urgent measures to limit the damage, fragile recent development gains could be swept away, conflicts will reignite and more states will fail, warns Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister, who is representing Africa at today’s summit of the Group of 20 nations in London.”
Read the full supplement, or download the PDF - which will let you see ONE’s new advertisement in the paper.
What We Want Today
14:23 updated with video
So- I just finished helping coordinate the CNBC interview with two African G20 Voice bloggers, Daudi Were of Kenya and Sokari Ekine of Nigeria alongside Bob Geldof. (I’ll be able to upload some video of it in a bit.) We are working to make sure the media are giving space for opinions and insights from Africa. Many media outlets are now coming by to interview Daudi, which is amazing.
Overall, it’s an incredible privilege to be able to attend this summit and to have the opportunity to advocate for ONE’s goals in such a giant room full of journalists who are often prone to forgetting to cover Africa. So what exactly are our goals? Here they are again below in a very simple list:
1. We want the leaders to agree an immediate $50bn fiscal stimulus for sub-Saharan Africa – many African countries are suffering from the effects of economic downturn, even though they were little to do with the origins of the crisis. Vital development assistance will not only help save trade and jobs but also lives.
2. We also want international institutions to be reformed so that the people of developing countries have a voice at the global level. The World Bank and other organizations are run by developed countries – making them represent developing countries will help ensure a fairer world.
3. We also need better regulation of the financial system – over $800billion of illicit cash flows out of tax havens – imagine if governments could capture that money and put it to good use. So we’re hoping for a deal on tax havens today.
Ok…back to working the room.
London G20 Summit Wraps Up
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
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.)
Rebuilding Trust at St. Paul’s Cathedral
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
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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.
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TAGS: G20, G20 London 2009, IMF, IMF WB Spring Meetings, London G20 Summit Live Blogging, Policy News, World Bank