May 8th, 2009 2:17 PM UTC
By Eloise Todd
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This week in Rome, around 240 delegates from more than forty countries, representing around 100 million people, presented their priorities to the representatives of our G8 governments – the sherpas that prepare the territory before the Summit. There were development organisations, climate change groups, trade unions – a broad range of civil society. (The G8 Sherpas literally surrounded by civil society delegates from all over the world was quite a sight.) Despite that breadth, the messages that came out on alleviating poverty for the poorest in the world were loud and consistent. The food crisis was top of the agenda – the crisis that many feel has been forgotten amid the economic and financial problems engulfing the globe. Justice and fairness were themes: there was a strong call for a new kind of global governance whereby decision making processes include developing nations’ governments as well as representatives of civil society from all over the world.
The document that NGOs presented to the sherpas covered five different topics: basic necessities, climate change and the environment, food and agriculture sovereignty, global governance and finally, finance and labour.
The meeting was hosted by the City of Rome in collaboration with the Italian Coalition of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP). We heard positive remarks from the Sherpas about how the G8 Summit will focus on Africa, agriculture and climate change. ONE’s priorities are to see the G8 stump up at least the money they promised during these difficult times – we need a stimulus for sub-Saharan Africa. It was also reassuring to hear the Sherpas affirm unanimously that the so-called “Whole Country Approach” – whereby the whole range of investments from donor countries into developing countries, including charities, business, private donations, be counted up and just aid contributions, -will not detract from existing ODA commitments and is no replacement for these. All organisations clearly reaffirmed that rich countries must keep their promises so that innovative financing, other contributions, remittances and other investments must be additional to existing ODA pledges.
There’s a lot of work to be done between now and July. The G8 must deliver on their aid promises, we need an ambitious plan to fill the spending gaps on agriculture and we must make crucial investments in the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, health systems, education, and water. There’s quite a way to go before we reach that Summit. Stay tuned for the climb.
-Eloise Todd
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Apr 9th, 2009 11:21 AM UTC
By Eloise Todd
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On Wednesday April 9th, the European Commission launched its yearly update on how EU donor countries are helping to meet the MDGs. This year President Barroso and Commissioner for Development Louis Michel used the opportunity to make some key announcements on advancing crucial development assistance for African countries. It’s fantastic that the leadership of the Commission is putting development matters so high on his political agenda. Less than a week after the London Summit, the Commission outlined three main ways it would act to help developing countries combat the effects of this economic crash:
- Pushing EU governments to meet their aid promises and ensuring the highest degree of aid effectiveness possible. Development Commissioner Louis Michel’s message was: “We know what we must do: meet our aid targets, advance our money to have an impact when it is most needed, refocus our existing programmes to tackle the crisis and then make every Euro count”.
- The EU is proposing spending more cash for the poorest countries to help fill some of the financing gaps created by the economic downturn. The €1billion Food Facility was intended to be spent over 3 years- now the Commission have promised to spend €800m of it by the end of the year to inject much-needed cash into the agricultural sectors of countries most in need of support for farmers. A whopping €3billion will be brought forward for African, Caribbean and Pacific country governments and another €500m for spending on health, education and other vital social spending.
- Thirdly aid effectiveness is the Commission’s priority. When Louis Michel spoke of ‘making every euro count’ he was alluding to some research he had commissioned which showed that just by working together more effectively, the European Commission and the 27 governments could save a huge €7billion a year which could be freed up to save lives in this downturn. The Commission wants more coordination between donors- it’s common sense that not every donor should work on every sector in one country, and we should be seeing more of donor countries playing to their strengths and taking the lead amongst donors in their specialist areas.
All in all the announcement yesterday was a very positive step- it shows the EU has not just read the G20 communique and agreed- it is doing that rare thing of acting quickly upon agreements. We hope it will convince other G20 countries to do the same, and fast- we’re particularly looking toward the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF to raise more funding for Africa in grant form. Any loans that are given we will argue should be extremely concessional so they don’t spark another debt crisis. There are of course some concerns about the announcements yesterday– Will governments replenish those funds when there’s not enough in the pot next year? Ironically, if the EU alone kept to its 2010 promises, that would mean another €20 billion on overall assistance over the next two years. So the message is simple- we welcome these announcements, on the condition that EU governments stick to their ODA promises.
-Eloise Todd
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