The Success and Failure of G-8 and G-20

The Success and Failure of G-8 and G-20 Summit
On June 25-27, the leaders of the G8 major market democracies gathered in Huntsville, in the Muskoka region of Canada for their 36th annual summit. The G20 summit followed in Toronto on June 26-27. Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that the G20 should consider measures such as taxing financial transactions to penalize excessive risk taking and limit the burden on taxpayers of bank failures but the United States opposed to the measure. The Muskoka summit came at a time when the global community is still struggling to recover from the worst financial crisis and economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930S.Group eight and Group of Twenty heads of government debated touchy issues such as global economic governance, economic crisis, democratic governance and climate change and the role of developed countries in addressing these issues.
The great international achievements of the past-Canadian contributions to the establishment of international peacekeeping, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Ottawa Treaty to Ban Landmines and the International Criminal Court- are today clouded by concerns about Canada’s current role in climate change negotiations, Afghanistan, reform of the global economy and addressing global poverty. The Prime Minister of Canada identified four areas to move the agenda forward such as global economy, climate change, development and democratic governance. A broad and diverse coalition of Canadian civil society organizations called on Canadian government to seize the opportunity by putting poverty eradication, economic recovery for all and environmental justice at the centre of the international agenda.
The new premier forum for world leader’s G20 must become more democratic by ensuring transparent, representative and accountable global decision-making that is inclusive of the world poorest countries. In Africa where over 40% of the people live below the poverty line, nearly 300 million live in absolute poverty on less than US$1.25 a day. The financial crisis and the deepening climate crisis have hit those who live in poverty the hardest. Environmental and economic pressures—including the high cost of fuel and other agricultural inputs-have combined to raise the price of basic foodstuffs beyond the reach of millions. By the end of 2008 rising food prices had added an estimated 109 million people to chronically hungry, brining their numbers to million more are at risk of being driven into extreme poverty in 2009 and 2010. The World Bank estimates that persons with disabilities comprise about 20% of the poorest of the poor, and that the Millennium Development Goals cannot be achieved without taking into consideration the needs of people with disabilities.
The credibility of the G-8 issue of combating poverty rests on its accountability for past promises. In 2010 key G8 commitments made at Gleneagles in 2005 come due. But it was not met fully which the protesters termed that the rich group countries tactfully avoided the previous promise. The failure of the G-8 to fully deliver their aid commitment is particularly troubling given the growing evidence that recent increase in development assistance have achieved real measurable results. Aid is only one part of the solution to address global poverty but it is critical. In Africa alone, citizens have used ODA flows to provide AIDS treatment to nearly 3 million people to dramatically reduce deaths from malaria and to help put 34 million more children in school. Each year more than 500000 women including adolescent girls, die from pregnancy related causes and 9.2 million children die before they turn five years old. The major causes of maternal and child mortality are well understood and the means of tackling them, through simple and affordable interventions are well known. The G-8 group members have sufficient funding to support the scale up of HIV, TB and malaria programming. In preparation for the second Global Fund replenishment conference that will take place in October this year. It is essential that the G-8 reaffirm their commitment to fully meet the financial requirement of the Fund. In this context where over 5000 people die of AIDS related illness each day, G-8 leader must translate commitment into action with concrete country pledges, commitment and timelines to meet targets for both the Global Fund and Universal Access.
In 2009 the g8 along with 27 other countries, responded to the chronic food crisis though the announcement of the L’ Aquila Food Security Initiative, which induced a pledge of US$22 billion over three years. In Canada the Canadian International Development Agency designated food security as priority theme for its official development assistance and announced 600$ over three years as its contribution to the G8 initiative. In 2010 Canada must ensure that these welcome and necessary commitments are followed though so that leaders can build on this good record to further progress towards greater food security globally.
The single largest cause of sickness globally is the lack of safe or clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. Investments in water and sanitation predictably reduce child and maternal mortality, decrease the incidence of disability caused by water and sanitation related disease, and should be made in conjunction with initiatives to strengthen public health system and sanitations to address specific diseases. Nearly 900 million people lack access to safe drinking water and millions of children become weakened or are disable due to water and sanitation related diseases and infections. A further 2.5 billion people have no access to basic sanitation. The total burden of disease worldwide could be reduced by almost 10%with improvements in water and sanitation. Education is widely recognized as a critical factor in fighting poverty, improving health, reaching gender equity and achieving economic prosperity. In 2000 at the World Education Forum in Dakar, world governments set six clear ‘Education for All’ goals to be met by 2015. As we approach the 2015 deadline, 72 million children are still out of school more than half of them girls and one in five adults cannot read or write. Ninety percent of children with disabilities do not attend school at all.
Through a combination of good policy and increased resources over the past nine years, 40 million more primary age children have gone to school and the gender gap is slowly closing. To keep the momentum the international compact on Education for all needs urgent revitalizing if the goals are to be achieved. Unemployment and underemployment are significant contributors to poverty. According to ILO unemployment reached up to 239 million worldwide in 2009, the worst year on record for employment creation. In some countries unemployment among persons with disabilities is as high as 80 percent. Globally 200 million workers are at risk joining the rank of 1.2 billion workers already living on less than $2 per day. In 2010 the G8 and G20 members must recognize that the implementation of their anti-corruption commitments is a prerequisite to achieving sustainable progress in all areas of the G8 and G20 agendas. Corruption and a lack of transparency undermine development initiatives at the outset by excluding disadvantaged groups from decisions that affect their lives and skewing policies and budgets to benefit private rather than public interests.
The G-20 has begun to address the short term impact of the crisis. But of the $1.1 trillion in funding announced by the G-20 groups in 2009, only $50 billion is expected to go to the world’s poorest countries. Although the IMF and the World Bank have introduced new form of social protection and have reduced the number of conditions attached to new loans, many of the remaining conditions will undermine these attempts to increase social protection.
In 2010 G-20 leaders had the opportunity to being transforming the global economy –both its systems and institutions so that it can deliver decent work and sustainable development to all parts of the globe. G-8 and G-20 leaders must commit to transition to a more representative forum, one that adheres to principles of transparency, accountability and inclusivity of the world’s poorest nations and citizen’s voices. Such a transition must be done within the broader contest of strengthening multilateralism more generally and the role and place of the United Nations in the international system in particular.


Md. Masum Billah
Senior Manager: BRAC Education Programme, PACE
( He regularly writes on various national and international issues)
Phone: 9355253(residence), 01714-091431(cell)
Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com