Imagine this:  in a few months, the heads of most of the biggest and most important countries will get together for a couple of days.  A few leaders from developing countries will tag along.  The media will cover the event in detail because…well, because why not?  And for a few hours, a lot of the world’s power and attention will be focused in a single place.

What if I told you that the agenda for the meeting isn’t set, and that the outcomes of the meeting have not yet been decided?  Do you think you might have some ideas?

This is the G8 summit, a traveling carnival that reappears every year.  Leaders of some of the most powerful countries gather to discuss weighty topics.  Sometimes they make big promises.  Sometimes they don’t.

For anti-poverty campaigners, this combination of factors is absolutely irresistible.  Or it might be better to say that ignoring such an opportunity would be absolutely irresponsible.  If you believe in making a difference, advancing a cause, having an impact, changing policies and the world, you really must try to take advantage of the G8 summit—and it’s supporting processes and negotiations—for your mission.

Despite some significant and measurable achievements, the G8 and campaigners at the summit have come under some criticism in recent years.  The argument is that while it’s an enormous public relations event, it has a declining value as a negotiating venue and achievements are only symbolic.  Some argue that a better target is the G20.  Others argue that these summits are all losing (or have long lost) their significance.

But if the G8 and the G20 didn’t exist, would anti-poverty campaigners have to invent them?  There’s just no bigger and better way to get these global issues onto a world stage and put pressure on critical leaders to make commitments and then follow them up.  Done.

On Wednesday a coalition of UK groups, including Oxfam, launched the “Enough food for everyone IF” campaign.  The goal is to push Prime Minister David Cameron “relentlessly and every which way” to take action on hunger with the G8.  The campaign has a platform that includes promoting more foreign assistance, clamping down on tax dodging by big companies, stopping land-grabs, and increasing transparency.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi38ZtG4NhM&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

I like this effort.  It’s positive without being pandering.  There are some real asks that aren’t easy, but aren’t completely unreasonable.  It has focus, but there’s enough room for a broad coalition.  (For additional commentary about the campaign, see these posts from Duncan Green of Oxfam UK, David Harewood of Cafod, David McNair of Save the Children UK, Lawrence Haddad of IDS, and Leni Wild of ODI and Sarah Mulley of IPPR.)

What many seem to miss is that if the campaign and this year’s G8 will be a success, the US will have to step up and take a lead.  The issue of food security and agriculture has actually been championed more by the US than other G8 members in the past.  President Obama managed a modest coup by pulling a significant agriculture and food security initiative out of the otherwise embarrassingly disorganized G8 in 2009, hosted by Silvio Berlusconi.

But what can President Obama deliver this time round?  For now, the newly re-inaugurated President is putting together his team.  Senator Kerry at State Department and Jack Lew at Treasury will both have a hand in the G8 discussions, assuming they are confirmed by the Senate.  President Obama’s key staffer on the G8, National Security Council aide Michael Froman, is strongly rumored to be moving into a new job as the US Trade Representative.  So there’s a lot of uncertainty and movement.

Let’s hope President Obama gets his team in place and his game-plan organized, so we can make something big out of this year’s G8.

Judy Beals is the Campaigns Director at Oxfam America.

In the past six weeks, world leaders met not once, not twice, but three times to discuss and deliver global solutions to global challenges. The G8, the G20 and Rio+20 received scant media attention during this election year dominated by domestic issues. And while global summits generally deliver more snooze than sizzle, they continue to matter, bringing together heads of state to discuss and, at least potentially, to bring global attention, resources and commitment to the world’s poorest.

With nearly a billion people hungry (including 18 million people in West Africa facing a massive unfolding food crisis), increasingly erratic weather, and a weak global economy, the need for shared solutions to shared problems could not be greater. But world leaders failed to rise to the challenge.

Oxfam stunt before the G8

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G8 Leaders look lost looking for food security—signs for shortcuts and silver bullets distract them from the path. Photo: Oxfam America.

As host to the G8—or Group of 8—the US was perhaps best positioned to deliver substantial commitments, especially since President Obama had put global food security squarely on the agenda. But meeting in the secluded Camp David, Maryland, the world’s largest industrialized economies passed the buck. Instead, the G8 tried to fill the gap of their broken promises with a private sector initiative that simply cannot tackle the complex challenges of food insecurity. Only the US recommitted itself to an important initiative started three years ago at the G8 Summit in L’Aquila. On the bright side, some commitments were made to replenish the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a multi-donor plan that invests in developing country agriculture.

The G20—the group of the world’s 20 major economies—arguably delivered even less. Still relatively new, the G20 has been meeting at the head of state level since 2008 to discuss key issues in the global economy and to promote “strong, sustainable and balanced growth.” Despite opportunities this year to address drivers of food crises—including commodity price volatility and increased demand for biofuels—G20 leaders assembled in Los Cabos, Mexico were unable to move beyond internal disagreement over how to fix the Eurozone. The one bright spot was movement plugging the leak on hundreds of millions of dollars that drain out of poor countries into tax havens every year.

Coming 20 years after the first Earth Summit, Rio+20s ambitions were high to tackle ending poverty and achieving prosperity for all while living within the earth’s limits of fresh water, clean air, and fertile land. While the verdict on action by heads of state at Rio is rightly dismal—there too, at least if you looked hard enough, were glimmers of hope. UN General Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Zero Hunger Challenge was a welcome ray of hope. Even business leaders produced at least a few positive initiatives at the Corporate Sustainability Forum and the Business Action for Sustainable Development.

Overall, shockingly inadequate outcomes, given the scale and urgency of the challenges? Yes. But I bring a different view. We know that solutions DO exist—to bring about a small-scale agricultural revolution that can feed the 9 billion people who will inhabit this earth by 2050 without destroying the planet; to bring about a green energy revolution; to bring about a more just and sustainable global economy that benefits all of us.

What we face is something we CAN change: political will. And while there wasn’t anywhere near enough of it at Camp David, Los Cabos, or Rio, the growing insistence of civil society, north and south, especially young people, was undeniable.

Our supporters were there. People signed the G8 petition we delivered to President Obama, urging him to launch an ambitious food security partnership with small-scale farmers. Nearly half a million supporters tuned in for our G8 Twitter Town Hall, #G8chat . Before the G20 summit Oxfam supporters helped spread the word about what was at stake.Throughout the summits, our Twitter followers tweeted and retweeted via #DearG8, #TweetG20, and #Rioplus20 about progress (or lack thereof) that leaders were making on our key issues.

Our supporters became part of something that is gaining steam—a new awakening to citizen power—standing up, speaking loudly and clearly for our future. Social media is part of it, but members of our Oxfamily went further—holding events, signing petitions, making phone calls, speaking directly with elected officials, and insisting that their voices be heard.

And that’s exactly what we need to keep doing—building political will—holding leaders accountable and making sure the glitz of summits is matched by real commitments for poor people. GROWing a movement in the present, for now and for the future, like no other the world has ever seen. You can help us do that—by asking your friends, families and social networks to join our GROW campaign—by continuing to stand up, take action, and make your voices heard.

So here’s to summits attempted and at least partially scaled. We have mountains still to climb. Looking forward to our journey together.

This year’s G20 Summit in Mexico just wrapped up with hugely disappointing results on the issues that Oxfam cares about, including food security and price volatility, innovative financing, and reducing inequality. G20 leaders were fixated on the ongoing European financial crisis and managed to barely skim the surface on critical environment and development issues. It’s a shame, given that there was a real opportunity to link these issues and associated outcomes to the ongoing Rio+20 conference on sustainable development in Brazil.

We originally held out some hope that the Mexican presidency would make progress on identifying innovative sources of climate finance as they established a study group on the issue chaired by France. But all that made it into the final communiqué was the reassertion of a commitment to the UNFCCC outcomes in Cancun and Durban, neither of which identified new sources of finance to meet the goal of $100 billion per year to be delivered to developing countries.

The G20 Summit failed to identify any new sources of climate finance.

One promising source of climate finance is the international shipping sector. Last month, Oxfam participated in an event at the Brookings Institution that featured new analysis, soon to be released by Brookings, finding that the economic impacts of a market-based mechanism (levy or emissions trading scheme) in the sector will likely have minimal impacts on price and demand for US imports and exports.

The G20 should take note of these findings and identify the shipping sector as a key source of innovative finance. The US economic analysis mirrors similar analyses conducted at the international level on the price impacts of a global shipping mechanism.

Funding to support vulnerable communities in developing countries as they struggle to prepare for and respond to a changing climate has to come from somewhere. The shipping sector is a source that makes sense. Its emissions are some of the fastest growing on the planet and the sector has been let off the hook for too long in delivering meaningful greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

The study group will continue its work until November 2012 when Mexico turns over the G20 Presidency to Russia. There is potential for the group to make progress on identifying sources of innovative finance as France and South Africa, co-chairs of the group, have expressed support for sources like shipping in the past.

Let’s hope that countries step up the pressure on the G20 to deliver something meaningful on innovative climate finance in the coming months.

Victoria Marzilli is Oxfam America’s new media specialist. This blog was originally published on the Oxfam International’s GROW blog channel.

What is the G20?

The G20—or group of 20—started as a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 major economies (it’s actually 19 countries, plus the European Union) that gather annually to discuss key issues in the global economy. Since 2008, the G20 has met at the head of state level. Collectively, the G20 economies account for two thirds of the world population and more than 80 percent of the gross world product (GWP). The G20 has declared itself to be the world’s premier forum for economic development, setting high expectations.

Since 2008, there have been important commitments on development made at the G20 Summit, and it’s up to us to hold our leaders accountable. In 2009, the G20 launched a framework for “strong, sustainable and balanced growth.” To pull this off, they said they would clamp down on tax havens, meet their aid commitments, and make sure the world’s poorest people got food, fuel, and finance. But so far, there has been precious little action.

What’s on the agenda?

This year, the G20 Summit is being hosted by the Mexican government in Los Cabos, Mexico on June 18 and 19. As the chair of the summit, they’ve outlined an ambitious agenda to catalyze the discussion:

1. Economic stabilization and structural reforms as foundations for growth and employment;

2. Strengthening the financial system and fostering financial inclusion to promote economic growth;

3. Improving the international financial architecture in an interconnected world;

4. Enhancing food security and addressing commodity price volatility;

5. Promoting sustainable development, green growth, and the fight against climate change.

Overwhelmed already? It’s no question that G20 leaders are facing tough challenges, along with everyone affected by the global economic crisis. But the people hit hardest are those caught in the cycle of hunger and poverty. Right now, one in seven people go to bed hungry every night; that’s nearly one billion people worldwide. And as global markets spiral and our climate becomes more erratic, food prices are along for the ride, preventing millions from escaping poverty.

It’s critical that we take advantage of this opportunity to instill fair and sustainable development practices, and respond swiftly to the crises that affect us now.

What can we do?

While our policy team is working behind the scenes to advocate for G20 policies that work towards ending poverty and hunger, we really need you to help us out. Tweet your message to the G20 with #tweetG20. We’ll bring your tweets to the Summit in Los Cabos! Choose one of our tweets from the list below, or write your own!

Tweet #tweetG20: Tonight, 1 in 7 people will go to bed hungry. #G20 must act now to fix the broken food system.

Tweet #tweetG20: Brazil lowered #hunger rates by one third from 2000 to 2007; #G20 countries can & should make ending hunger a priority.

Tweet #tweetG20: In 14 of 18 #G20 countries, inequality is on the rise.

Tweet #tweetG20: More than half of the 1.3 billion people who live on less than $1.25/day are in #G20 countries.

Tweet #tweetG20: #G20 must invest in farmers: agriculture generates 15% of exports and employs 70% of West African workers. #Sahel2012

We can all make a difference. Add your voice today.

This blog post was written by Paul O’Brien, Vice President for Policy and Campaigns at Oxfam America.

You’ve heard the old line about how a “rising tide lifts all boats”? In fact, the evidence shows that the “rising tide” of global economic growth is in fact lifting mostly yachts; meanwhile, a lot of people are getting dumped in the water.

Today Oxfam released new research that shows how people’s incomes are becoming more unequal in the world’s largest economies. Oxfam focused on the G20 countries because they are the self-appointed leaders of the global economy and, indeed, constitute more than 70 percent of the world’s GDP. A survey of the G20 countries shows that only four have made progress since 1990 in reducing inequality; sixteen have seen the income gap grow, slowing or stopping progress to reduce poverty. Not only is economic growth in those countries failing to “trickle down” to ordinary people, but the G20 economies are rapidly exhausting the natural resources they need to support our health and prosperity. That ecological burden falls most on the poor, who by and large lack the resources to cope with the resulting environmental degradation, particularly climate change.

Entire families, often with many young children, live alongside their livestock of sheep and cattle in filthy hovels, often only meters away from the gleaming wedding halls and other 'signs' of wealth and progress. Photo Jason P. Howe/Oxfam Great Britain

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