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G8 Leaders Urged to Fulfill Funding Pledges

   Joe DeCapua 16 June 2010

   Later  this month, the G8 and G20 summits will be held in Canada.  As
   the  events  approach,  activists and aid organizations are calling on
   leaders to fulfill the promises they made in recent years.

   They  say  rich  nations  have  failed to follow through with the full
   funding  needed  to  achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  There
   are  8  such  goals  concerning  such  issues  as  poverty and hunger,
   education, health, gender equality and the environment.

   The  G8  and G20 summits are being held as nations try to recover from
   the global economic crisis.

   Time running out?

   Joanne  Carter,  Executive  Director  of the Results Educational Fund,
   says,  âThe G8 summit is taking place two-thirds of the way toward the
   2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals.â

   She  adds, âAction by the U.S. and Canada and other G8 leaders in this
   political  window,  extending  fromâ¦the  G8 (summit) to the September
   U.N. Millennium Development Goal summit in New York, will in many ways
   determine  whether  we  have the resources and the commitment over the
   next  5  years  to  achieve  the  MDGs  or whether the G8 simply makes
   gestures.â

   Carter  is  also  a  board  member  of  the Global Fund to fight AIDS,
   Tuberculosis  and  Malaria.   She  says  this  year,  host  Canada is
   stressing accountability on past promises.

   âPromises  like  fully  funding  the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and
   Malaria, like universal access to AIDS treatment and broader financial
   commitments,â  she  says.   Many developing countries, she says, have
   geared up programs in anticipation of increased aid.

   âAt  the  very  moment  when  we  can see the potential of bending the
   curves  of  these epidemics and reaching those last milers â the kids,
   the  72  million  kids not yet in school â weâre actually in danger of
   falling back,â says Carter.

   Jeffrey  Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University
   and  special  advisor  to the U.N. Secretary-General, says both the G8
   and G20 have ârepeatedly endorsedâ the Millennium Development Goals.

   âFive  years  ago,  at  the  G8  summit  in Gleneagles, Scotland, very
   specific  commitments  were  made to double the aid to Africa by 2010;
   and  to raise overall aid to the world by $50 billion per year so that
   these Millennium Development Goals can be fulfilled,â he says.

   Sachs  says the âGleneagles Commitmentsâ are due now.  âThey have not
   been met.â  He adds Africa, which needs assistance the most, âhas not
   received the promise.â

   Many  of  the  G8  nations  have sharply increased funding for various
   issues,  increasing aid by about $30 billion since the 2005 Gleneagles
   summit.   Thatâs  about  $20 billion short of their 2010 goal. The G8
   countries  have  also  written  off about $100 billion in debt owed by
   African countries.

   The  Toronto-based G8 Research group gives the G8 a grade of B when it
   comes  to  fulfilling its promises within a year after they were made,
   calling that âpretty good.â

   This  yearâs  G8 and G20 summits overlap.  The G8 summit will be held
   June  25^th  and 26^th, while the G20 summit is set for June 26^th and
   27^th.

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