G8

In light of today’s announcement by Christine Lagarde of her candidacy for the top IMF post ahead of the G8 Summit, as well as the ongoing debates on the quality of the selection process fo

In their Deauville Accountability Report, the G8 has massaged the figures, claiming to have delivered almost US$49 billion of the promised $50 billion. But according to the OECD, responsible for measuring the official aid figures, the G8 have delivered just $31 billion.

Faltering overseas aid figures announced today are depriving poor countries of a massive $18bn worth of life-saving aid, at a time when 64 million more people globally have been pushed into poverty by the financial crisis.

Growth is necessary but not sufficient to lift poor people out of poverty, international agency Oxfam said today as it published a briefing paper calling on the G20 to agree an historic new Seoul development consensus to help the world’s poorest.

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.