Tearfund has given this year's G8 summit a 5 out of 10 - particularly on Africa. This is tragically close to failure. Here is our response to the summit's communiqué on development.
Andy Atkins, Tearfund's advocacy director, says, 'These unfulfilled Gleneagles G8 promises will cost millions of lives. Two years after the grand promises of Gleneagles, the true ambivalence of the G8's concern for Africa is becoming apparent. The early success of Gleneagles is being squandered by paltry responses on AIDS, trade and aid.
Climate change
G8 leaders, supported by the +5 countries of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, have jumped some important hurdles but there is still a long way to go. Only if the UN negotiations get underway at Bali and are concluded successfully in 2009, will we be able to say that the world is on course to avert catastrophic climate change.
If we pass a tipping point of a global temperature rise of 2 degrees, which could happen within the next 50 years, more than a billion people could face water shortages and more than 250 million people face food shortages. We are holding the world to ransom and it is imperative that clear targets are urgently set and agreed by 2009.
HIV and AIDS
This is potentially a betrayal of the promises made at Gleneagles. Millions of people living with HIV and AIDS will suffer as a result of this piecemeal response to calls for long-term funding.
Whilst it is good news that the G8 has recommitted to providing near universal access to ARVs for people with HIV and AIDS, they are still badly off track for delivering this. The pledge of US$60 billion has no deadline for delivery and will not go nearly far enough to bring them back on track.
Even more worryingly, they are targeting only 5 million people for treatment when it is more like 10-16 million people who need help. It would be criminal if this inaccurate target is used to constrain the delivery of the promise further down the line. If so, the G8 will have failed the continent of Africa.
This means less than half of people that need treatment will receive it - at least 5 million people will lose their lives. We do welcome the new emphasis on mother to child transmission, feminisation of HIV and AIDS and the need to build up health systems - all of which we have been calling for.
Trade
The communiqué says nothing new on trade. For example the aid for trade commitment of US$4bn in this communiqué was also in the St Petersburg G8 communiqué of 2006. The G8 say that they are committed to working together in support of regional integration and trade in Africa. However, while this is fine rhetoric, the European members of the G8 are pushing trade deals on Africa that will do the opposite.
Water and Sanitation
It is a shocking omission that water and sanitation are simply not mentioned at all. G8 leaders have ignored the United Nations Development Programme, which last November called for the G8 to announce a global action plan on water and sanitation. Four times as many children die from water related diseases every year as die from AIDS, therefore it is critical that the Japanese G8 delivers on the global action plan.
Read a full Tearfund policy analysis of the G8 outcomes here. (PDF 68K)