G8

The following op-ed from ONE’s Executive Director Jamie Drummond and Policy Board member John Githongo has just been published in Canada’s Globe and Mail and newspapers across Africa:

As host of this year’s G8 and G20 meetings, Canada is in a great position to lead the essential process of reinvigorating the global campaign against extreme poverty. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s call for greater accountability in G8 development promises and increased investments in child and maternal health are very welcome and we look forward to more details. European leaders and U.S. President Barack Obama, who has called for a new global plan to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, are already on board.

A new plan can avoid the pitfalls of past top-down approaches – if it supports a more bottom-up citizen-led strategy for sustainable development. Take Africa, where there have been real improvements over the past decade. Economic growth has been averaging about 5 per cent a year, 42 million more children are in school, malarial death rates have nearly been halved in a number of countries and more than three million people are on life-preserving AIDS medications. We suggest a new citizens compact to build on these results. It would ensure that development is devolved, that citizens are connected with new technologies, that executive powers are diffused, that political parties are strengthened and that the integrity of leaders and governance institutions firmly take centre stage.

There are three urgent considerations for such a strategy.

First, African accountability efforts by civil society and think tanks must be expanded dramatically. Efforts such as Twaweza, an East African citizen accountability movement, can be scaled up across the continent and deliver great returns on investment by empowering citizens to demand their rights. Canada’s International Development Research Centre has already partnered with the Gates Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation to invest more in African think tanks, and this can be expanded. These efforts are easier with today’s technology, especially mobile telephony. From the student who can text a hotline when her teacher does not turn up to the anti-corruption monitor who pores over statistics from national budgets online, new technology is the tool of the activist. Also, a new citizen strategy should not repeat past mistakes of lionizing specific political leaders – this makes it harder for Africans to hold them to account.

Second, experience shows that constant vigilance about transparency, especially with regard to national budgets, is critical. Thieves have more to hide. Regimes run by kleptocrats are more likely to fumble and fall, with wider security implications. But it is not just African budgets that must be more transparent. One of the great scandals in development is the lack of good statistics to measure progress – this area needs much more investment. Another scandal is the hypocrisy of most high-profile global promises, such as the vague billions alluded to at the Copenhagen climate-change summit. Donors must be clearer about what is really new money. Canada’s effort to chart all existing G8 development promises and improve accountability is especially important in this regard. Companies doing business in Africa must also be more transparent, as must the international banking system, so bribery can be exposed and stolen funds tracked down and recovered.

Third, private investment can also drive the citizens strategy. Proliferating mobile telephony is allowing Africans to leap digitally from the Third World into the First. Africa has tremendous renewable energy potential that is ripe for investment. African stocks have been doing well, although this has been barely noticed by investors abroad. This summer’s soccer World Cup in South Africa is an opportunity for a rising generation of African entrepreneurs to present this new image of their continent, a chance that must be seized. We propose a new “Africa Rising” fund to capture the moment – campaigners who once rightly called for disinvestment to help end the injustice of apartheid can now call for new investment to help fight the injustice of poverty.

These measures can increase the effects of much-needed new investments to boost education, agriculture and health and fight infectious diseases and climate change. Without them, reversals may occur. With China offering less democratic options for development, it is no longer politically incorrect to ask whether democracy really suits Africa. The situations in Kenya and Nigeria both show the challenges where growth takes place but most citizens are excluded.

This need not be Africa’s path, though. This year is the key moment to renew the right kind of Canadian, G8 and G20 support for citizen-led development.

When you have a minute, check out Canada’s new G8 website. The idea behind it is to give Canadians a chance to sound off and participate in June’s G8 summit which Canada will be hosting this year in the Muskoka Region.

A press release issued by the Canadian government frames the new website as “part of the [government's] goal to make the G8 process as transparent and accountable as possible.” The site will give the public a forum for open discourse about the summit as well as provide behind-the-scenes blogging.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper today has an op-ed laying out his priorities for the G8 ahead of the G20 Toronto summit in June. In it, he states that he believes “security concerns and human welfare” will be the focus of the G8 and talks about the need for “leaders of the world’s most developed economies to assist those in the most vulnerable positions.”

You can read the full op-ed here.

The plight of the people of Haiti concerns us all and the world’s response has been uplifting and encouraging. Within hours of the devastating earthquake demolishing the capital, governments around the world mobilized and coordinated a massive relief effort. Soon after, donations began pouring in as people opened their hearts and wallets to help. It serves as a reminder of the innate human kindness we hold toward one another.

Yet, it should not take a natural disaster to turn our attention to the less fortunate. The world’s poor have been hit hardest by the global economic downturn and in these difficult times we must address their pressing needs.

Indeed, all too frequently, tragedy strikes those who can least afford it. The lack of the most basic services can lead to dire consequences, especially for the world’s most vulnerable populations. Each year, it is estimated that 500,000 women lose their lives during pregnancy or childbirth. Further, an astonishing 9 million children die before their fifth birthday.

This is simply not acceptable. The United Nations had hoped to reduce the number of deaths related to pregnancy by 75 per cent by 2015 as part of its Millennium Development Goals. It now appears this target will go unfulfilled. What makes it worse is that the bulk of the deaths during pregnancy – experts claim as many as 80 per cent – are easily preventable. There is a pressing need for global action on maternal and child health.

As president of the G8 in 2010, Canada will champion a major initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world’s poorest regions. Members of the G8 can make a tangible difference in maternal and child health and Canada will be making this the top priority in June. Far too many lives and unexplored futures have already been lost for want of relatively simple health-care solutions.

Yesterday Bob Geldof, advisor to ONE, appeared on the Canadian Television News segment “Power Play” to discuss Canada’s progress in meeting the 2005 Gleneagles Summit commitments and its role in hosting the upcoming G8 Summit. He had some very kind words for the Canadian peoples’ strong commitments (and strong follow-through) in ending extreme poverty.

You can check out the clip here:

The G20 has a lot to do tomorrow in Pittsburgh. But, I hope they take a moment to look north. Next June, some, maybe all of the members of the G20 will be about 300 miles north in Huntsville, Ontario for the next G8 Summit.

Development advocates have watched cautiously as the political center of global discussions has moved between the G8, the G20 and the United Nations. Which of these is the best forum to move the development agenda forward? No one has a definite answer on that; certainly all are important. But, no development advocate should doubt the importance of Canada’s G8. Canada’s G8 Summit in 2002 in Kananaskis really launched the G8’s focus on Africa that eventually led to the Gleneagles set of commitments that have since framed the discussion on development assistance to Africa. It is at Canada’s Summit when these commitments come due. How Prime Minister Harper and the Canadian government approaches that will be the subject of much of ONE’s work for the next 9 months.

Lots more to come on this topic, but for now check out this article from Tuesday’s Global and Mail discussing Canada’s G8.

-Josh Lozman

On Tuesday, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus and the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson joined together to present the G8 with one simple request: send every child to school.

In an open letter to the leaders of the G8 countries, the group asked for the G8 to commit to launching a Global Fund for Education. The proposal comes from a pledge made by President Obama himself, which you may have read about here before.

The letter reads:

We are heartened by the commitment of the United States President, Barack Obama, to provide a contribution of at least $2 billion dollars to a Global Fund for Education which would help to eliminate the global education deficit by 2015. Such a bold and ambitious plan should be endorsed by other members of the G8 through a public commitment to such an initiative, which must be launched before the end of the year with full funding. A Global Fund for Education would ensure that the funding shortfall is no longer the main impediment to progress on basic education, and moreover that those investments have the greatest impact on access to and quality of education.

Putting every child in school seems like a tall order, but history has shown that remarkable progress is possible with a combination of dedicated government investment and international support. Ethiopia, for example, was able to double its enrollment rates between 1999 and 2007, leading to a total of 3.3 million more children in school. Increased government spending on education, incentives for girls to enroll and the construction of schools in rural areas all contributed to this impressive progress. Across Africa, stories like this have resulted in 34 million more children in school since 1999.

A Global Fund for Education could help replicate successes like Ethiopia’s by helping to galvanize new momentum toward basic education and reverse the declining investment the sector by international donors. This is more vital than ever given the current global financial climate. In many countries, expenditure on sectors like health and education will be one of the first victims of stretched government budgets, and a skilled, educated workforce will be one of the key ingredients to recovery and fueling long-term economic growth.

We’ll be following the G8 closely next week, so we’ll keep you posted on any new education commitments and hopefully, a plan to launch a Global Fund for Education.

-Nora Coghlan

At the end of last week I attended G8 Development Ministers’ meeting in Rome. It fell the day after the launch of ONE’s 2009 DATA Report in Rome. During the final press conference a journalist asked the Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Franco Frattini what his response was to the Report’s findings – Italy has fulfilled only 3% of its commitment and accounts for nearly half the G8’s total gap for 2008. Frattini, without contesting the content of the Report, replied that Italy is aware of the shortfalls and that it would make up for the 2009 financing gap by the end of 2009! This is quite an amazing statement, particularly given what this would mean in dollar terms combined with the government’s deep cuts in bilateral aid that have been foreseen by the 2009 budget.

During the press conference I had the opportunity to ask Frattini when exactly Italy would pay its full 2009 contribution to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Frattini answered that the relevant appropriation law for this will definitely be passed before the end of this year, and that it’s very likely that it may pass before the G8 Summit in L’Aquila.

The 2009 DATA Report has already had a significant impact in Italy and been covered widely in the Italian media. One example of this was during a press conference with Colonel Gaddafi of Libya, also current head of the African Union, someone asked Prime Minister Berlusconi for his response to the DATA Report. Prime Minister Berlusconi confirmed that Italy would certainly honour all of its commitments. He also stated that donors have to be extremely careful to ensure money given reaches the intended recipients.

This Development Ministers’ meeting was followed by the G8 Finance Ministers’ meeting in Lecce, southern Italy. Unfortunately, there were no major agreements or announcements made on our issues. The focus of the meeting was on the “Lecce Framework” – legal standards being drawn up to try and avoid future economic downturns. Here at ONE we are really concerned about the current and future impacts of the recession on the poorest countries around the world. The Managing Director of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Kanayo Nwanze, also recently echoed this: “the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries is going to be more visible in several months,” he said, warning that African governments would encounter budget problems in paying civil servants and subsidising food in urban areas.”

Jessica Gomez-Duran

The 2009 edition of the DATA Report, ONE’s annual assessment of the G8’s progress on their commitments to global development, is  launching this morning in London at a special kick-off event featuring Bill Gates, co-Chair of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bob Geldof, anti-poverty activist and ONE principal, Dr Francoise Ndayishimiye, of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria; Arunma Oteh, of the African Development Bank, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Visit the DATA Report website to watch the event live beginning at 10:30a.m. GMT.

-Aaron Banks

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

On April 2nd, Gordon Brown will be chairing the next G20 meeting in the UK, and we’re going to be following it here on the ONE Blog. To start it off, I wanted to give you a background on all this Gx stuff

Is it me or are there a lot of G’s flying around? G7, G8, G13, G20 …

The G20, established in 1999 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, has been the focus of much attention recently, primarily due to the global economic turmoil. The G20 is made up of the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the USA and the European Union. The IMF and World Bank also participate in G20 meetings on an ex-officio basis.

In areas such as global economic stability and growth, the G20 aims to promote open and useful exchanges between the cross-section of countries, including emerging countries as well as advanced. Its members are one of the things that really set it apart from the more well known G8. The G20 also plays a significant role in the reform of the international financial architecture which is one of the reasons why it has become so prominent in recent months. As well as measures to cope with the financial crisis, the G20 should also be making progress on international development and climate change for example.

On 15 November 2008, leaders of the G20 countries met in Washington for an emergency summit were they came up with a declaration and action plan. This meeting wasn’t in isolation though but rather the first of a series of meetings and processes which will unfold. One of the key meetings coming up is the G20 summit in London on 2nd April hosted by Gordon Brown (the UK are chairing the G20 this year) where Heads of State and others will seek ways to implement the actions put forward in the November summit.

Paul Martin, Canada’s former prime and finance minister (who attended the G7 meetings and helped form the G20), believes that (more…)