Summit scorned by NGOs
Scorn is the unanimous feeling among NGOs following the G8 and G20 summits held in Canada
di Staff
“A failure”, “shameful”, “nothing new”. NGOs worldwide are unanimously scornful of the results achieved by the G8 and G20 summits held near Toronto, Canada which ended on Sunday. The eight richest nations in the world (USA, Japan, Germany, France United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Russia) have been accused of abandoning the pledge made at Gleneagles five years ago to double aid to Africa, and of falling between 10 billion and 20 billion dollars short of their goal. The G20 was accused of only being able to agree on disagreeing over how to make banks repay the cost of the economic crisis.
“After the G8 dropped the ball on aid, the G20 missed their chance to score against poverty by failing to move towards a Robin Hood Tax on banks,” said Mark Fried, Oxfam spokesperson. “With all eyes on the World Cup, a determined Canadian defence held the US and Europeans to a goalless draw in the big game of the day for Africa.”
See what individual NGOs had to say (interviews by Daniele Biella):
Action Aid: “Bitter epilogue”
“It was a bitter epilogue”, says Luca de Fraia, vice president of ActionAid Italy, on his return from Toronto. “The leaders of the richest countries haven’t adopted any concrete measures to fight poverty and Italy hasn’t showed any intention of mending its ways”. Italy is one of the G8’s worst debtors, 21 billion dollars short of its promises and with an IOU of 280 million euros to the Global HIV Fund. If this G8 was Italy’s chance to regain its credibility on the international scene, it has blown it as, says De Fraia: “Italy’s voice was weak and it failed to support the adoption of a tax on financial transactions”.
Oxfam: “Shameful”
“No leaf is big enough to cover the shame of the summit’s broken promises” says Farida Bene, Oxfam and Ucodep (Oxfam’s Italian partner) spokesperson, referring to the maple leaf chosen by the summit as symbol. Promises aimed at creating real changes in people’s lives. “The failure of the G8 means there will be children who will not go to school, ill people who will not be cured, hungry people who will go without food. What the G8 are doing is simply doling out the same money in different ways”, says Bene. Mark Fried, from Oxfam UK is equally scathing: “The terrible impacts of the Gulf oil disaster highlight the insanity of giving billions of taxpayers’ dollars to subsidize dirty oil and coal. “Sadly, what is obvious to everyone else is not obvious to world leaders”, he said, adding that: “poor people caught up in an economic crisis caused by a financial sector out of control can only hope that the next round in South Korea in November produces a more positive result.”
To find out what the WWF and other environmental NGOs had to say click here.
