After two days of negotiations, the G8 Summit drew to a close last week. Isolated in a lakeside resort hotel, secure from the thousands of protesters that convened on Hokkaido, the G8 has shown itself to be out of touch with the problems it seeks to fix. Before discussing the soaring costs of food, for example, the leaders enjoyed a sumptuous banquet featuring white asparagus and truffle soup, sea urchin, and imported champagne. The final communiqué basically recycles old promises repeated in every summit since the landmark Gleneagles meeting of 2005.
Max Lawson of Oxfam and Oliver Buston of Debt Aid Africa headed a coalition of non-governmental organizations that presented to the G8 leaders on Monday. They demanded the G8 live up to its commitments on aid and health in Africa: “Bureaucratic sleight of hand is not an appropriate response to these important development assistance and AIDS treatment targets.” A related press release from HEALTH-GAP breaks down each G8 promise about global health and details what still needs to be done.
This Monday, July 7, Japan will be hosting the heads of government from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the UK, and the US in the
northern province of Hokkaido for the 2008 G8 Summit. The leaders of eight of the richest countries in the world meet
annually at this conference to coordinate their strategies for tackling
poverty, climate change and other global problems.
Will the G8 nations take decisive action to promote a just approach to African
development? According to Overseas
Development Institute analyst Fletcher Tembo, “This G8 Summit will be
particularly significant because there are big issues on the international
development agenda that require firm G8 commitments to be made in 2008; and yet
the risk of not delivering on these agendas has never been higher.” Japan, Britain, Russia and France are all
sending new presidents to the summit. These “first-timers” may be wary of rocking the boat by making big
international commitments.
