G8 Summit

Exactly five years ago, about 10am on 2 July, 2005, I was standing in the Meadows in the centre of Edinburgh. The greyish sky had an uncertain look – like it could go either way – that matched my mood. For months we’d been urging people to assemble on this spot on this day for a mass rally that would be the climax of the Make Poverty History campaign, a few days ahead of the G8 summit of world leaders due to take place in Gleneagles. I walked around the field, watching marquees being erected and volunteers arrive in hi-vis vests. We had done our planning. Everything was ready. But would anyone come?

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We have just had another G8 Summit. As other blogs here have discussed, there are clearly problems with the G8. Campaigners, lobbyists and developing country governments put huge amounts of time and attention into deceasing returns.

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Save the Children is waiting to hear what the final communiqué will say before we can judge whether the G8 leaders action will live up to their promises. The official announcement will be made some time between 15.00 and 17.00 on Friday, or late on Sunday, depending on who you ask. Until then we can only respond to leaked versions and rumour.

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The Pacific Health Summit comes in the middle of many international meetings discussing the MDGs and health. The World Health Assembly, the Women Deliver conference with Countdown to 2015 and the G8 meeting in Canada later this week are all leading up to the UN Summit in September.

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Yesterday, I was able to get into the Obama/Berlusconi press conference on climate change – normally out of bounds to charities and campaigners. It was the first time I had been in a room with Obama and he was, as everyone reports, cool and calm and authoritative. He also said that America has changed and will no longer be climate change deniers blocking action on global warming.

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Somebody once defined a cynic as a believer who just keeps getting let down. No wonder cynicism abounds when the G8 circus comes to town. The leaders’ promises on aid from four years ago got repeated again yesterday – but with just a year until their deadline, there are few here who believe they will ever be met. As we said in our reaction, there was a distinctly half-hearted feel about last night’s summit conclusions on aid and development. With one or two exceptions, most leaders’ minds appeared to be elsewhere. At least expectations and reality are better matched this year than at previous summits.

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Yesterday, Day 1 of the G8 summit, saw the arrival of leaders at the airports in Rome, transfers by helicopter, visits to the earthquake ruins and many, many photo opportunities. Of course, journalists, policy advisors and campaigners here in the Media Centre do not see any of this. We just watch it on the televisions like everyone else.

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The G8 (Group of 8 richest countries) is holding its annual meeting meeting in Italy and campaigners and policy wonks are arriving to try to make sure that something good comes out of it instead of being a massive waste of money. The portents are not good.

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On 16 June 1976, thousands of black school children in Soweto, South Africa, took to the streets to protest the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young boys and girls were shot down. In memory of these brave young campaigners, every year on 16 June we celebrate Day of the African Child.

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I was one of the speakers in a meeting on Wednesday morning on the Task Force on Innovative Financing for Health Systems, at the World Health Assembly. I kept my contributions short and posed some questions. In particular, I wanted to get commitments from donors that new money (if it appears) will be targeted to help national governments build health systems, not repeating the mistakes of the past.

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