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Don't let greed win over justice
The Financial Times (FT) ran an alarming article uncovering that "Leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations are set to backtrack on their landmark pledge at the Gleneagles summit in 2005 to increase development aid to Africa to $25bn a year."
GCAP co-chairs Kumi Naidoo, Adelaide Sosseh and Sylvia Borren responded to the article on behalf of GCAP:
To renege on promises to increase aid, to abandon the target of ensuring everyone affected by HIV/Aids is supported and to water down commitments to provide healthcare and education for poor people, made amid great fanfare in Gleneagles in 2005, would destroy millions of lives and be another failed attempt by our leaders to act in time of crisis.
If, as people struggle to afford soaring food prices, the G8 considers it acceptable to cut back and sweep over the necessary targets of 2010 so that they can afford to bail out the richest and their banks, then greed really will have won over justice and basic rights.
The also added a reminder tor the G8 that people are mobilising against poverty and inequality and expecting them to take concrete actions.
The G8 must remember that it has a mandate to uphold its side of the bargain. Like previous years, almost 1m people have already signed up to a petition calling for the Japanese G8 to deliver on education, health, HIV/AIDS, climate change and aid commitments. Leaders Yasuo Fukuda, Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Stephen Harper and Dmitry Medvedev will all get these wishes delivered to their doors this week by campaigners. They owe it to the people not just to listen but to show courage and act.
Read the full text of the letter to the FT editor Don't let greed win over justice
Read the full FT article G8 leaders ready to backtrack on $25bn aid pledge to Africa
