g8

GCAP hands over petitions for change to Berlusconi

On July 2nd GCAP met the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Meeting participants included 10 GCAP member representatives (Oxfam/Ucodep, Save the Children, ActionAid, WWF, trade unions, UN Millennium Campaign, Legambiente, Aidos, Italian NGO Association and Focsiv) + 2 GCAP spokespersons; Italian Sherpa Massolo and his team; Berlusconi and his advisors. 

We gave him a huge check symbolising the collective number of petitions gathered by GCAP international members.

We handed him over a total 1,538,500 signatures, including the 1.1 million signatures collected for the Oxfam 'For All campaign'.

Interactive online tool

The Interactive online tool “Press the G8” was online on the website of GCAP Italy as well as on the websites of many other italian and international organisations (Many thanks for your help guys!). The campaing 'Press the 8' has been quoted many times in newspaper and television.

Press the G8 now!

Add the animation to your website. Contact Helena Suarez (helena.suarez[at]whiteband.org) if you need support to add this to your website.

Stunt and Media activities

The GCAP stunt of July 7th went very well, we got a very good media coverage (national and international) and our pictures where everywhere!!

We where 30 activists (Sylvia Borren and many others where there as well) putting pressure on this huge inflatables with the 'press the 8' campaign printed on it.

Links

roma.repubblica.it/multimedia/home/6773419
roma.repubblica.it/multimedia/home/6774775/1/12
www.corriere.it
www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article4077419/Darum-ist-der-G-8-Gipfel-wie-eine-Zwiebel.html

You can see more pictures at GCAP Italy's Flickr page at www.flickr.com/photos/38377014@N03

GCAP Philippines has started a Facebook page, please join them at apps.facebook.com/causes/312023?m=91e6b129

On July 1st World Vision Germany handed over 4,700 signatures collected in Germany (out of 21,000 globally) to the G8 sherpa, secretary of state, Dr. Bernd Pfaffenbach. GCAP Germany was visible in the shape of a print version of the interactive online tool “Press the G8” (see photo attached; photo credit: World Vision).

Two days later on July 3rd Oxfam Germany handed over more than 50,000 signatures to the German development minister Heidemarie Wieczorek Zeul. Part of Oxfam’s delegation were celebrities (famous German punk rock band “Die Toten Hosen”) and eight women from developing countries (W8). The logo of GCAP Germany was visible on the poster that was handed over (see photo; photo credit: Mike Auerbach, Oxfam).

More information (in German) on www.deine-stimme-gegen-armut.de/blog/2009/07/07/druck-gemacht-auf-die-g8

Interactive online tool

The Interactive online tool “Press the G8” was online on the website of GCAP Germany as well as on the websites of seven other organisations, e.g. CARE Germany, Action against Aids and other.

Media activies

Media in Germany is starting its G8 coverage in these days. dpa, one of the main news agencies, launched a story about the expectations of civil society vis-à-vis the summit. Among others there were quotes of Sylvia Borren, co-chair of GCAP, and Heike Spielmans, managing director of VENRO (association of German development NGOs) in the story which was picked up by several newspapers.

See:
www.tz-online.de/nachrichten/politik/viel-hoffen-wenig-erwarten-armen-laender-388260.html
www.netzeitung.de/politik/ausland/1397059.html
www.an-online.de/sixcms/detail.php?template=an_detail&id=964179&_wo=Nachrichten:Topnachrichten

The interactive ‘game’ and an online petition are based on the concept ‘Press the G8’.

www.whiteband.org/action/presstheg8

The interactive counts the amount of ‘pressure’ that individual activists put on the G8 leaders. Individual activists add their pressure by literally ‘pressing’ the G8 leader or leaders of their choice, each time a leader is ‘pressed’ the counter goes up.

Individual activists can also sign a petition to further express their support by adding their names to the cause.

The amount of pressure added and the total number of signatures will be used to lobby the G8 during their upcoming meeting in July in Italy.

The petition and interactive work independently of each other, and you can use the petition and/or interactive in your own websites in a variety of ways.

Link to the interactive and petition page on whiteband.org from your website

• www.whiteband.org/action/presstheg8 (English)
• www.whiteband.org/action/presstheg8/es (Spanish)
  
• www.whiteband.org/action/presstheg8/fr (French)
  
• www.whiteband.org/action/presstheg8/it (Italian)

Civil Society representatives gathered in Rome to finalise a set of demands and questions for the upcoming meeting of the G8 in Italy in July. They met with G8 Sherpas on the last day and presented them with demands and questions focusing on the following five areas:

1. World economy, development finance and labour
2. Common goods
3. Food sovereignty and agriculture
4. Global governance
5. Climate change and the environment

The following cross-cutting issues were also raised:

• Accountability through democratic institutions
  
• Not punishing the victims
• Need for systemic change

Download a late draft of the statement from the Civil G8.

The Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno joined with Civil G8 delegates meeting in Rome to launch the 'Press the G8' action.

To find out more about the 'Press the G8' action, please contact Marta Guglielmetti (m.guglielmetti[at]millenniumcampaign.it) or for information on the online action, contact Helena Suarez (helena.suarez[at]whiteband.org)

The meeting will be working on the following thematic areas:

• Common goods
• Climate change and the environment
• Food sovereignty and agriculture
• World economy, finance and labour
• Global governance

The extraordinary financial crisis and rapid rise of the G20 as an alternative forum for global decision-making has put a date on the shelf-life of the G8.  What ever the final make-up of the new global forum (G20 or G13), the traditional G8 seems destined to change. But, it still has a number of major commitments coming due in 2010 that must not be avoided, forgotten or watered down. The G8 cannot play against the clock in delaying much needed resources to the poorest nor can it walk away from its pledges to just to join another larger grouping to make new pledges.

The financial crisis has had an enormous impact on the developing countries and the poorest within those countries. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the number of people without access to sufficient food has risen by 150 million to reach 1 billion – all in the course of two years. This crisis needs the sort of response seen within the G8 countries in terms of bailing-out banks and crediting car companies.

However, the response by the G8 countries has been poor, in-terms of its 2005 pledges. Overseas Development Aid (ODA) has been decreasing in G8 countries – quite substantially in the G8 host country Italy. Commitments to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support and education, particularly the EFA Fast-Track Initiative remain seriously off track.  G8 member states are also continuing to fail to meet the resource demands placed on the Global Fund. While the recent commitment by the UK government, announced in its 2009 budget, to keep to its projected increase in actual ODA spending levels despite the financial crisis is commended, the G8 as a group is not rallying together to meet the pledges, rather, the group appears to be readying itself to abandon its promises.

This cannot be allowed to happen. The global financial crisis will have a long and enduring tail in developing countries. The loss of progress on health, HIV/AIDS, education and climate change will not be addressed in months – like the markets, but rather in-terms of decades.

The G8 Working Group has set out in this document the actions necessary for the G8 to take to meet its previous commitments and make the appropriate response to the financial crisis and its impacts on the poorest. The Gleneagles Commitments can be achieved in full and on time, it just requires the necessary leadership and political will to make it so.

For a full overview of our common  'asks', download the GCAP G8 Common Lobbying Positions paper.

On occasion of the G7 Finance Ministers’ and Governors’ Meeting, hosted in Rome on the 13th and 14th February, GCAP Italy prepared, in collaboration with Eurodad, a letter to G7 Finance Ministers. The goal of the letter was to distribute it through the GCAP platforms, offering an advocacy tool to everybody and in particular to the G7 GCAP platforms. More of this actions or tools will be share in the next months.

In Italy, the letter was sent to Finance Minister Tremonti and presented to the media in a Press Conference held on the 14th of February. During the press conference, the GCAP Italy speakers, Laura Ciacci and Sergio Marelli, presented to the media the Italian Coalition against Poverty (GCAP Italy) and its advocacy and policy work: the GCAP Italy policy paper for the G8 2009 as well as the GCAP Italy and Desmond Tutu unresponded letters sent to Minister Tremonti. The English version of the policy paper will be send soon.

Read the full text of the G7 letter in English or visit the GCAP Italy website www.gcap.it  

“BROKEN HEART” Mobilisation Action

Following the press conference, GCAP Italy invited all its activists and journalists to participate to the “Broken heart” mobilisation action.

The idea of the action was to call on Min. Tremonti to not break our hearts and to keep Italian government commitments. The action was realised in the famous square Barberini, very close to the G7 press conference, with the voluntary participation of musicians dressed up as cherubs playing a romantic serenata to Min. Tremonti, and activists who invited the public to join us.

Read the report with images G7 meeting, Rome, February 2009 - GCAP Italy mobilisation

With even the World Bank calling on the ministers to focus on addressing the poverty crisis, there is added pressure on G7 finance ministers to come up with concrete proposals for solutions to the current crises facing the world.

GCAP Italy has sent a letter to G7 ministers expressing their concern about the impact of the current economic and financial crises in developing countries, which are heavily exposed to the worst consequences in the long-run, while Northern countries have been responsible for the crisis.

GCAP Italy highlight four key priorities for action by the G7 finance ministers (summarized here):

• remove the ‘shadow’ banking system so that all institutions and products, including investment funds such as hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds become properly regulated;
• limit damaging speculation by controlling derivatives trading, credit securitization, and other complex financial instruments in a globally coordinated way;
• compel tax havens to cooperate to lift the veil of secrecy that allows  firms and individuals to avoid international standards, and makes illicit capital flight and tax evasion possible;
• compel multinational companies to report in a transparent and accountable manner, including through the introduction of country by country international accounting standards to disclose profits made and taxes paid in each country, and by making governance arrangements, and social and environmental assessments part of listing and reporting requirements for all companies.

Read the full text of the letter to G7 ministers: LETTER TO G7 FINANCE MINISTERS FROM THE GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY IN ITALY or read it in Italian at the GCAP Italy website http://www.gcap.it

Meanwhile, the United Nations Millennium Campaign is also urging G7 finance ministers not to forget about the world’s poorest people, who have had nothing to do with the causes of the crisis, but are facing the consequences.

Salil Shetty, Director of the UN Millennium Campaign, warned:

“As the full force of the crisis starts to hit poor countries with big drops in commodity prices, exports, foreign direct investment and remittances, the G-7 finance ministers must recognize that poor countries simply do not have the ability to handle the shock and that supporting them is not just a moral responsibility but sound economics as well. Putting even a small fraction of the stimulus packages invested in the G-7 countries into a vulnerability fund for poor countries will yield a much higher payback for the world as a whole through greater prosperity and security for all.”

Read the full press release: http://www.endpoverty2015.org/node/454

More news from Google on the G7 + poverty

• G-5 Political Declaration - PIB Press Release
• G8 meeting 'thin on results' : World: News: News24
• AFP: G8 pledges action on food, oil
• G8 leaders meet major developing countries in final day of talks : Environment
• The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | Clean climate onus on you, G5 tells big eight
• TheStar.com | World | G8 climate rift emerges
• Tony Juniper: The developed world must shoulder the burden | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
• G8 backs 'make-or-break' global trade deal to ease flagging economies | World news | guardian.co.uk
• G8 'fails to dig deep' on emission cuts - The Scotsman
• The G8 Takes on Maternal Health -- Or Does It? | Reproductive Health | RHRealityCheck.org
• G8 at crisis: Ignoring their past commitments to Africa
• Civil Society’s Choice at the G8 Summit: The Road of Genoa or the Road of Gleneagles?

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“The G8 came, talked and failed to conquer the greatest battle we face, the fight to end poverty and inequality” Ana Maria Nemezo, GCAP Philippines

This year, the G8 communiqués reflect how completely out of touch with reality this group of leaders are on the main issues related to ending poverty and inequality.

The lack of any real discussion on biofuels in relation to the food price crisis is appalling. References to health, education and water are, sadly, not supported by adequate resources and a timeline commitment.  While the G8 pays lip service to the MDGs their commitments suggest that even these minimalist goals are seriously at risk of being achieved by 2015.

However, these characters still have time to show their mettle.

At a special meeting of the United Nations this September, world leaders, including the G8, will be measured against their commitments to halve world poverty by 2015.

Some have worked to meet their promises – but many have walked away hoping the world would forget. Now, the drive to meet the Millenium Development Goals is in jeopardy.

Watch this space. Keep coming back to our blog for updates on the next activism round: September, New York City.

Read GCAP's reaction to the G8's closing communiqués: G8 fiddles while world burns