FROM THE DESK OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

From a whisper to a whimper: Reflections on the G8 Summit

Release Date: 13 June 2007

By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary-General

Dear e-CIVICUS Subscriber,  

After the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) declared that the “People Roared and the G8 whispered”. GCAP, involving millions of people around the globe, also said that promising to increase aid to $50 billion per year by 2010 was like “responding to the tsunami five years after it happened”. Given the unprecedented citizen mobilisation, we were overall convinced that the G8 leaders were not showing the type of urgency that was required. Given that 50 billion was not enough in 2005 it certainly was not going to be enough in 2010. But even if it were enough, sadly the OECD indicated that aid figures in 2006 declined, once you remove the figures for the huge amounts used to write off Iraqi and Nigerian debt.

One columnist analysed our struggle as a clash of our so-called romantic view with the so-called realistic view of the G8 leaders. Yet there is nothing romantic about the facts as these are shocking to the extreme. In reality, we are witnessing a passive genocide or a silent tsunami every single day in the developing world, at a time when the world as a whole has not enjoyed has much affluence and wealth, as well as the greatest scientific and medical knowledge available to us. Sixteen thousand (16000) women, men and children die daily from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. These are human lives left to waste by diseases that in most cases could have and should have been saved. Every three seconds a child in the developing world dies from poverty related causes. Again lives that can be saved if only there was appropriate political will all round, especially with the world’s eight most powerful leaders. Having said that, we should not forget ‘political will all round’ means exactly that. We have to acknowledge the responsibility off all leaders and governments, not just the G8.

It in this context, building on various GCAP and other national campaigns, that millions of citizens mobilised around the world and most notably in G8 countries, to hold their leaders to account: to finally make them deliver on their modest promises from two years ago. Yes, the track record of deliverance is bleak, but that does not make us romantics at all. Rather it simply shows how untrustworthy many G8 leaders are and how little they care about being accountable. Prior to the G8 I had just come from the ‘CIVICUS World Assembly’ where accountability was the focus theme. Discussions with people ranging from grassroots to the World Bank and from individual CIVICUS members to government leaders had rejuvenated me, had once more confirmed the view that one of the missing ingredients in public life was in fact accountability.  

Thus inspired by the delegates to the CIVICUS Assembly, I arrived in Rostock, Germany, on Wednesday 4 June 2007 evening to be met by my colleagues from GCAP , Kel Currah and Ciara O’ Sullivan who had been working on the ground for a week already. The first activity we did was an African Voices press conference, where colleagues from across the continent made a final plea to the G8 not to abandon Africa , nor the rest of the developing world. A key question asked by the African Voices was a simple one. If 6000 people were dying every single day in Europe and North America , twice the number of people that died in the 9/11 attacks, surely the G8 would have acted with the political will we are all calling for? The African Voices laid it down clearly telling the G8 that if they fail to live up to their promises of amongst other things, universal access to HIV/AIDS life saving drugs, then this would not only be a betrayal of the poor but also a betrayal of their own citizens. Some of us went as far to voice the accusation of racism given that it was mainly people of colour who were perishing in such large numbers on a daily basis.

On Thursday, 5 June 2007 , 75000 people packed a stadium in an emotional event of music and messages from the global south for action to end poverty. The atmosphere confirmed a German public opinion survey that 71% of the German people supported the policy goals of GCAP and wanted their government to act decisively. Disappointingly, albeit expectedly, the G8 leaders once again did not show the accountability and solidarity that their own citizens have been expressing for some time now. This did not stop the G8 from selling the outcome of the summit as nothing short of a breakthrough.

Climate change, apparently, saw a break through. But the entire communiqué is characterised by vagueness, or what Bono and Geldof called, “bureau-babble” and spin. The developing countries and their citizens are least responsible for the environmental crisis generally and the climate chaos specifically, that we face but they are already bearing the greater brunt of it. For the G8 leaders to be smug simply because they agreed to “seriously consider” certain long overdue actions, is a reflection of a deep bankruptcy in political leadership and it is in effect a betrayal of their own citizens as well as the rest of the world.

Additionally, much of the big amounts announced where merely a restatement of 2005 Gleneagles commitments which most G8 countries are behind in meeting. This blatant compliance deficit, a common feature of global governance, raises many troubling questions about the quality of democracy and political leadership at this time.

Their communiqué was responded to in a Press Conference where we were joined by Bono and Bob Geldof, both of whom had met with several G8 leaders in the run up to the summit and who had performed in the concert the day earlier. Unlike in 2005, where there were differences in reading the G8 commitments, this time round we were united in our condemnation that the G8 had acted without the urgency that was necessary. 

In my comments, I noted the following points.  Firstly, what does it mean if 13000 police personnel were recruited to protect the G8 leaders when there are only 7000 African Union Peacekeepers in Darfur where a genocide has been underway.  How exactly do we value human life? What does it mean for democracy if G8 leaders ignore their own citizens concerns for dehumanising global poverty and how seriously can we take our leaders when they signed up to the modest Millennium Development Goals that reach its halfway point on 07/07/07.  Why is it possible for only one G8 member, the USA , to mobilise hundreds of billions of dollars for an illegal, unpopular, disastrous war in Iraq , when half those amounts cannot even be mobilised for health, education, sanitation by all of the G8 members together?   Aid spending is only one twentieth of military spending! When are we going to get our priorities right?

This G8 was a betrayal of democracy as G8 leader’s disregarded the popular support for the GCAP aims and the views of their own citizens. And on that same token, it was a shameless betrayal of poor women, men and children across the world. Let’s hope that in the coming years it will become impossible for the most powerful to break their modest promises to the poorest and most vulnerable. This is a challenge also for the leaders of the developing world, who need to ensure that they make much more progress on gender equality, human rights and democracy, and anti-corruption, which are all within their domain of control.

Therefore, I urge campaigners in both rich and poor countries, to not lose heart. The struggle to end global poverty regrettably is a marathon when in fact it should be a sprint.  Had we not mobilised and put pressure on these leaders again, it is very likely that they would have tried to wriggle out further from the commitments a few years ago.  Public opinion in the rich countries is now decisively on the side of working assertively to end global poverty and we need to build on this momentum to keep the pressure on the most powerful people in the world to act with morality, ethics, and common sense.   

Warmest regards from a very cold Johannesburg ,

• Will the G8 deliver according to its broken promises?

• CIVICUS World Assembly need you to set the agenda 

• "We' re Living in a World of Global Economic Appartheid" 

• Renewed dedication to the Call for Poverty Eradication and Equality  

• Wolfowitz must resign to regain World Bank's credibility  

• Criminalising Human Rights in Zimbabwe

• Who's accounatability to who and why?

• Civil society and the progress of the feminist movement in transitional democracy

• The role of civil society organisations in promoting corporate citizenship

• Civil society faces increasing challenges in Zimbabwe

• The road to Accra: Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

• CIVICUS Youth Assembly to urge for ‘Accountability to Future Generations’

• International Women’s Day, 8 March 2007: Men will never be free until women enjoy full gender equality

• The World Economic Forum is too important to be left to economists alone

• From Nairobi to Davos: Reflections on the World Social Forum and World Economic Forum

• The role of civil society organisations in managing for development results

• World Social Forum 2007: Another World is Possible for Africa

• The importance of civil society in the year 2006

• International Advocacy NGO Accountability Charter: Walking the talk

• Human Rights Day: Righting the Wrongs

• Sharing member impressions and why civil society should be part of CIVICUS’ alliance

• 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

• CIVICUS strategic planning takes centre stage

• Reflections on the CIVICUS Civil Society Index country reports

• Civil society and the challenge of Regional Integration in the Pacific

• Over 20 Million People 'STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY' to Set New Guinness World Record

• People created poverty. Only people can eradicate it." World-wide commemoration of October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

• Campaigning Works!

• If only civil society was taken seriously: Reflections on the fifth anniversary of the tragedy of 11 September 2001

• Help set a Guinness world record by standing up to poverty

• Civil society takes centre stage at the AIDS Conference

• Can we reform the International Finance Institutions?

• Article on the Doha collapse

• Civil Society and the Middle East Conflict

• Reflections of a Meeting with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin

• You can participate in the CIVICUS World Assembly even if you are not going to be there in person

• Can Civil Society make a difference in Iraq?

• The Ethics of Cherry Picking: The dilemma of where you live, work and play!!!

• Former CIVICUS Board Member passes away

• Reflections on a visit to prison

• The struggle for justice is a marathon not a sprint: A personal reflection

• Can Civil Society make 2006 a year of more and better coherence, coordination and communication?

• What 2005 means for civil society?

• Argentina: Thriving without the IMF

• Can legal frameworks strengthen civil society? Is the time right for a Campaign for Civil Society Rights?

• Why trade justice matters to you

• December 2005: Determined, Dedicated and Diverse Dimensions to Direct Action For Justice, Human Rights and Equality

• Reflections on the United Nations Summit

• Civil society gears up for the UN World Summit

• Reflections on the G8 Summit

• Nelson Mandela: Inspiring civil society efforts to create a just world

• Children, youth and the struggle for a just world

• So we think democracy is growing?: Rethinking social exclusion

• You can make difference on ‘Whiteband Day’ - 1 July 2005

• CSW Monthly Bulletin provides a global forum to protect the rights of civil society

• What does democracy really mean today

• The absence of democracy at the World Bank

• Grassroots activism: ordinary people making an extraordinary difference

• Madrid, Manhattan, Manica and Musina: Civic activism driving the agenda for social and political justice

• On International Women's Day civil society wonders if this is Beijing Plus Ten or Beijing Minus Ten

• Internal governance: Responding to the challenge of civil society legitimacy, accountability and transparency

• Poverty or social exclusion - What unites civil society in the North and South?

• Should civil society engage with governing institutions even when they have deep democratic deficits?

• One month gone, eleven to go: Is 2005 the year civil society focuses on its common shared values and agrees to disagree on strategy and tactics?

• The beginnings of the biggest ever mobilisation against poverty launched at the World Social Forum

• Civil Society gears up for a major global campaign against poverty

• What the Tsunami Tragedy means for Civil Society.

Back to CIVICUS Home page.