What Happened?
During the last weekend in June, world economic leaders gathered in Muskoka and Toronto for the G8/G20 meetings to address some of the world’s problems including child and maternal health. World Vision teams took part by publicizing our messages and raising awareness about the need for action on child and maternal health issues.
G8 Summit Child and Maternal Health Outcomes
G8 governments along with other global leaders and foundations came together at the Summit to commit $5 billion over five years to the Muskoka Initiative – an initiative aimed at stopping preventable child and maternal deaths. The Canadian government showed significant leadership by pledging $1.1 billion of new money to this initiative. While the Canadian contribution was commendable, commitments made by other governments were disappointing.
WV Canada CEO, Dave Toycen commented on the initiative and said, “We applaud Canadian Prime Minister Harper for his strong leadership in putting the world’s children and mothers on the G8 agenda and offering new money. But overall, the Muskoka Initiative looks more like a small down payment than an adequate investment, and won’t reach as far as it must to stop needless early deaths.”
Sue Mbaya, WV's Advocacy Director in Africa, said: "Millions more children in countries with the highest child mortality rates in Africa are still waiting for international leadership to address their rights and needs."
On a positive note, the G8 agreed to launch an accountability initiative which will ensure that the group reports on their actions each year. The World Vision team was pleased to note that health and food security will be the subject of the first accountability reports next year.
Another positive outcome could be found in the G20 communique, which announced the creation of a G20 Working Group on Development. This Working Group will guide the future deliberations of the G20, particularly in the lead up to the next G20 meeting to be held in Seoul, Korea in November.
World Vision’s Involvement at the G8 Summit:
In addition to analyzing the policy announcements at the G8, World Vision teams were deeply engaged in Summit-related actions. Employing the message of “pregnant with promises,” both World Vision International and Canadian teams worked together to issue press releases, provide media interviews and populate social media venues with insights and commentary on the potential impact of decisions made at the G8 meetings on women and children around the world.
Playing on the “pregnant with promises” theme, a massive banner was erected along highway 400 en route to the G8 Summit that said,” Hey G8 leaders, 8.8 million children are dying to know – will you keep your child health promises?” At the same time, World Vision staff, volunteers and local artists gathered in Toronto and Huntsville to make a creative statement expressing our expectation of G8 leaders to deliver on their promises. At a busy downtown Toronto corner, larger than life stilt-dancing “pregnant” leaders were examined usi
ng a “promises ultrasound machine” that showed the many promises made to by the G8 to assist the world’s women and children.We also had a presence in Muskoka where the G8 meeting was taking place. Local volunteers and stilt-dancers acted out the process of the wheeling and dealing that takes place between leaders and their Ministers of Finance as they decide how much money they will allocate to various initiatives including child and maternal health.
Once we learned that not all promises would be honoured by the G8 leaders, we voiced our concerns again downtown Toronto by demonstrating that our leaders, with the exception of Stephen Harper, were still pregnant and had unfortunately not delivered on their promises.
People Power
The inroads we have made in the area of global child and maternal health can be attributed in part to the outpouring of support and actions taken by regular citizens who contributed to getting the issues of child and maternal health on the G8 agenda, and who pressed the government of Canada to make a substantial financial commitment to the initiative. The World Vision Five for5 campaign is demonstrative of what can be accomplished when a critical mass of concerned people take action for something they believe in.
Moving Forward
The G8 Summit may be over, but World Vision’s advocacy work continues. We will now be working hard to ensure that G8 leaders are held accountable for the commitments they made during the summit, and we will continue to advocate for child health at the Millennium Development Goals summit in September, and the G20 meeting in South Korea this November. You can be part of this effort by taking this action.
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