G20 Pittsburgh’s over – so, how did it go?
The summit of G20 leaders in Pittsburgh last week, a year after the Lehman shock, was always going to be about economic recovery and on whether we need to regulate banker’s bonuses. So, did they talk development, at all? The short answer is yes. First, they reaffirmed previous commitments that they have made to the poor. Second, the leaders called on the World Bank to develop a new trust fund to support the new Food Security Initiative agreed at L’Aquila G8 Summit in July. Third, they agreed to review the capital needs of the multilateral development banks, especially the World Bank’s soft loan arm, the International Development Association (IDA), and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
But, there were some clear omissions too. On climate change, even though some G20 leaders committed to scaling up its assistance at the UN High Level Summit on Climate Change just a few days ago, the G20 as a group failed to call for resources to help the poorest countries adapt to the harmful impacts of climate change, and tackle its causes.
This Summit was another opportunity to recognise Africa as part of the solution to the global economic recovery. We thought that the best way to underscore the important role that the continent plays in today’s world is for the G20 to agree to hold an upcoming G20 Summit in Africa. With the G20 becoming the new G8 and the next several hosts already queued up (Canada in June 2010, South Korea in November 2010, and France in 2011), unfortunately, there will be no “G20 Africa Summit” any time soon. One thing is sure though – regardless, ONE will urge these leaders to keep the challenges of Africa and the world’s poor as an important issue on their table.
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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.
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.
07/10/2009 at 5:33 pm
We tried, and will continue to.
08/10/2009 at 2:51 am
I Think the way that One realize this is a excellent and i`m happy for participate in this group . I hope these leaders keep their challenges of Africa..
08/10/2009 at 3:18 pm
Yes! The poverty of Africa is very very important for all women, child & men. To me it is number one issue
we are losing a lot of good people from Africa who are dying for not good reason . Being poor should not be a death sentences and the poverty ? has to be addressed.
10/10/2009 at 7:19 pm
I think the G20 should meet in Africa the very next time. This means that Canada should abdicate its position as the 2010 host and defer to Africa. Malawi would be a wonderful country to have the summit because of its extreme poverty. Another is Mali or almost any country in the Sahel area.