From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

5 THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM AIDHOW CHANGE HAPPENS:THE 2005 GLENEAGLES AGREEMENTSAt their annual summit in 2005, the leaders of the Group of Eight (G8)countries promised a dramatic turnaround in the rich world’s willingnessto fund development. They agreed to increase global aid levels by around$50bn per year by 2010 and to write off the debts of up to 50 of theworld’s poorest countries. Though critics derided the commitments asinadequate, and collective backsliding subsequently removed much oftheir lustre, the promises at Gleneagles constituted a marked departurefrom past practice. If nothing else, leaders would pay a political price forreneging on their pledges. How did such a commitment come about?The months leading up to the Gleneagles Summit in Scotland saw anunprecedented combination of government and civil society activism.The British host government, keen to ensure that the event would beperceived as a success, championed development funding from the start,setting up a high level ‘Commission for Africa’ in 2004 which includedseveral African heads of government and musician/activist Bob Geldof,and which produced a well-argued and costed plan for how the extra aidshould be spent.Civil society groups, meanwhile, campaigned in 70 countries acrossthe globe, including all the G8 nations, as part of the Global Call to ActionAgainst Poverty, a campaign known in the UK and a number of othercountries as ‘Make Poverty History’.Nelson Mandela added his considerablemoral weight when G8 finance ministers met in February. Then celebritiesGeldof, Bono, and others organised a series of ‘Live 8’ concerts in most G8countries the week before the summit, which were watched by two billionpeople. The campaign culminated in a march of 225,000 people inEdinburgh to deliver a petition that carried an astonishing 38 millionsignatures.The combination of public pressure and the UK government’s astutemanoeuvering of the summit agenda strengthened the hand of pro-aidministers in G8 governments, weakened the resolve of blockers (USA,Japan, and Italy), and convinced those who could have swung either way(Canada and Germany). The first sign of movement came as early asCASE STUDY381