G20

As the G8 Summit comes to a close, international agency Oxfam criticized the leaders for their failure to deliver on their promises and for trying to divert attention by cobbling together a small initiative for maternal and child health.

On the eve of the G8 Summit in Canada, international agency Oxfam warned that G8 aid promises due in 2010 have been missed by as much as $20 billion dollars – twice the gap admitted by world leaders. The G8 must deliver on their promises to poor people and invest in their future.

Oxfam cautioned that the maternal and child health effort announced on Friday seems yet another empty G8 promise, given that the overall aid pie is shrinking.

Joint agency release: It is a global scandal that millions of women and newborn babies die or suffer severe injury during childbirth every year – despite the fact that the vast majority of these injuries and deaths are preventable.

A global bank tax to help poor countries survive the economic crisis must be urgently agreed, Oxfam said today ahead of the G20 meeting of finance ministers in Busan, South Korea.

Jim Kerr and Martha Wainwright have re-invented the iconic 80s hit Promised You A Miracle, to call on world leaders to keep the promises they have made on overseas aid and save the lives of mothers in poor countries.

G20 finance ministers met in St. Andrews, Scotland, on 7 November 2009. Oxfam reacts to their communiqué.

The worst flooding the Philippines has seen in decades highlights the urgent need for US leadership to push UN climate change negotiations in Bangkok forward to help ensure the best chance of securing a global climate treaty in Copenhagen.

The G20 should take urgent action to protect poor countries from economic crisis that is forcing 100 people-a-minute into poverty, Oxfam said today. Developing countries across the globe are struggling to respond to the global recession.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 nations met in London on Saturday, as a preparatory session for the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh later this month, and to lay the groundwork for the Copenhagen climate talks in December.