Friday, July 11, 2008

One at G8

ONE has been on the ground in Hokkaido, Japan, making sure leaders of the G8 heard your voice as they gathered for their annual summit this week. The result has been mixed...

Before the summit, the Financial Times leaked that the G8 may backtrack on their 2005 Gleneagles commitments to the world's poorest. But thanks in no small part to a massive outcry from around the world—over a million people in 190 countries, including nearly 200,000 ONE members—they reaffirmed their promises.

Unfortunately, reaffirming their promises doesn’t address the fact that their commitments are not being backed up by money. Germany, the UK, and the US are doing well in delivering their part, but the other countries are lagging behind, and dragging down the group as a whole.

To learn more, check out the analysis from the G8 summit on the ONE Blog:
http://www.one.org/blog/2008/07/10/1963?id=400-3959200-ay8rHbx&t=1

We’ve helped stop the G8 from slipping back, and encouraged them to take some small steps forward. But they didn’t meet our request to deliver on their promises, nor did they set a timeline for spending $10 billion in pledged agricultural aid.

The G8 still have the chance to hit the targets they set for themselves, and we’ll have more opportunities to pressure them to do so in the coming months.

Thank you for your voice,

Josh Peck, ONE.org

P.S. There is one piece of unequivocal good news today. PEPFAR, America’s aggressive five-year plan to prevent and treat global AIDS, malaria and TB, is about to take a big step forward. This bill has been held up by a handful of senators for months. But yesterday, Senator Reid responded to the calls of ONE members and our allies in Congress, by demonstrating leadership and taking action to get PEPFAR moving. Learn more on the ONE Blog: http://www.one.org/r?r=50&id=400-3959200-ay8rHbx&t=2

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