Is The G8 Still Relevant?

PatrickWatt, head of public affairs and campaigns for the humanitarian agency WorldVision UK, spoketo VOA from Westminster, England, about the relevance of theG8.

"Thesummit coming up next week is going to be a test of whether the G8 can continueto demonstrate relevance.     And to do that it's going to have to deliveron the pledges that it's made, not least to the world's poorest countries," hesays.

Promises made, promises not kept?

In2005, at the Gleneagles Summit in Scotland, G8 leaders pledged to greatlyincrease aid to the developing world. Critics say many of those promises have not been met.

"Ithink there are probably different reasons in different G8 countries. I think in some countries it's been down to alack of political leadership. Somecountries don't necessarily have the same history of high-level commitment tointernational development," he says.

Hesays Italy, the summit host, was "lacking on its aid commitments well beforethe current recession that's now being used as an alibi."

Forits part, Italy has placed aid to Africa high on the agenda at the L'Aquilasummit. Watt says the United States andBritain have a good record of meeting their commitments or being on track to doso.

"Thatunderscores the fact that these commitments are achievable," he says.

Two big challenges of health and aid

"The G8 have already made a number ofpledges to tackle the global health situation…to cut child deaths by two-thirdsby the year 2015…. The G8 has already come up with commitments, for example, in2006 to pledge $60 billion in aid over five years to help address that," hesays.

"Whatwe're calling on the G8 to do is to actually fulfill those pledges. There are other challenges as well: thecommitment to ensure that everybody with HIV is on treatment…by the year 2015."

Keeping track of the G8

Wattsays a better accounting system is needed to check on whether G8 assistancepledges have been met.

"There'sbeen a lot of discussion…about what's being called an accountability matrix….There would be a tracking, country by country, where each of the G8 members isin terms of fulfilling the pledges it's made to the poorer countries," he says.

Buthe says both Italy and Germany are opposed to the idea, which means such a trackingsystem may not be mentioned in the summit's final communiqué.

"Withoutany basic accountability, it's very hard to actually really follow through onthese pledges and have transparency about what has and has not been done," hesays.

Wattcalls Africa the G8's "litmus test" for the L'Aquila summit.

"Becauseit's the poorest region of the world. It's the region of the world where aid continues to play a very criticalrole in enabling people to meet their most basic needs," he says.

Countrieslike Ghana and Tanzania were only able to make great strikes in education andhealth, he says, because of ""critical support from donor countries like theUnited States…UK…France and Germany."

"Africa is the test bed. And it's the region where half of the aidincrease that was committed in 2005 (at Gleneagles) is supposed to be going,"he says. 

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