What did the G8 achieve in real terms and did it make any progress? Is development towards Africa in a downturn? Read the current comments on the G8 and the call for ‘Smarter Aid’.
A brief history of the G-8
We come to the G8 Summit here in Hokkaido, Japan. We have not only in Bush, Sarkozy, Brown, and Fukuda a group of discredited leaders with very low ratings at the polls in their own countries. We have as well a G8 that is, more than ever, lacking in legitimacy as the typhoon unleashed by the project of globalization that it has promoted is wracking the globe in the form of the simultaneous crises of skyrocketing oil prices, rising food prices, global financial collapse, and worsening climate change.
What Did the G8 Summit Achieve? Progress or Stalemate
Poverty, climate change, and the food crisis were at the forefront of the G8 Summit held in Hokkaido, Japan. Johannes Linn, Executive Director of the Wolfensohn Center for Development, assesses the G8 meeting outcomes and explores the implications of their commitments and other pending issues, including potential enlargement of the group.
Development in a downturn- by Simon Maxwell
The global economic turmoil of 2008 could endanger progress in tackling world poverty. To avert this, a new development narrative is needed that keeps the issue alive, says Simon Maxwell of the Overseas Development Institute.
A call for Smarter Aid
When world leaders gather in Japan for the G-8 summit, they will confront a pressing question–how to make aid smarter. While past summits focused on increasing the amount of aid to the poorest countries, this summit should also highlight smarter ways to effectively deliver foreign assistance dollars.
