G8 leaders taking baby steps in the right direction

The 2010 G8 Summit will be remembered, in part, for the launch of the Canadian government led Muskoka Initiative – a strong agenda for stopping preventable child and maternal deaths. Sadly, the 2010 G8 Summit may also be remembered for not providing this Initiative with enough financial resources and an agreement to act on this global problem quickly.

These eight powerful countries supported the need for strong action on child and maternal health but their support for the idea did not translate into strong financial commitments for the Muskoka Initiative. The Canadian government agreed to make a significant financial investment in child and maternal health by committing $1.1 billion dollars in new money (not moving money from one issue to another) to the Initiative. Other G8 government’s, agreed to providing some new financial support to the Initiative but not enough to make the difference that is so urgently needed in the lives of children and their mothers.

In total, 5 billion dollars over a five year period was committed to the Muskoka Initiative by G8 governments. As a point of reference for this commitment, here are some other significant financial commitments:
- the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has a budget of just under $20 billion. This Fund is for addressing the needs adults and children and it has been in existence since 2002;
- the cost of the G8 and G20 Summits for the Canadian government will be just over $1 billion.

In the meeting Communique – the Summit’s final report - all the G8 leaders promised to save 1.3 million children and recognized the importance of taking concrete and coordinated action to support child and maternal health. They also agreed to important steps to ensure that all G8 countries will be held accountable for not fulfilling the promises they have made at G8 Summits.

However, the reality is that 8.8 million children died last year mostly from preventable illnesses. Preventing the deaths of 1.3 million children will certainly contribute to decreasing the death rates of children under-five; unfortunately, it doesn’t meet the promise of reducing child deaths by 2/3rd – roughly 6 million - by 2015.

To reach this 2015 goal, the G8 governments will need to take their understanding of what can be done to stop preventable child and maternal deaths to other governments in forums such as the United Nations General Assembly in September 2010 and to the G20 Summit in South Korea in November 2010. At each of these meetings, governments can make concrete commitments to support the Muskoka Initiative. With this kind of increased support, decreasing the number of preventable child and maternal deaths by 2/3rd might be within reach in 2015.