The G8 Summit and the ONE Campaign

Sandra F. Joireman

About a week and a half before the G8 summit in Gleneagles Scotland, I received a call from the area representative of Bread for the World, asking me if I would go to Scotland on behalf of Bread for the World during the summit. In the past I had worked with both Bread for the World and DATA to raise awareness regarding the issue of AIDS in Africa as well as addressing other impediments to development, such as structural inequalities in trade. In addition, I co-chair the DuPage Glocal AIDS Action Network. My participation through Bread for the World, along with the efforts of other charitable organizations such as Oxfam, DATA, World Vision and Mercy Corps, were a result of the ONE Campaign. The ONE Campaign is an effort underwritten by the Gates Foundation to get charitable organizations concerned about Africa to work together in both advocacy and action. Just a week later I left Chicago and went to Philadelphia where, after attending the Live 8 concert with the other representatives of the ONE Campaign, I attended meetings briefing me on my role in Scotland.

I had two primary goals while I was in Scotland, the first was to involve Chicago area media in covering the summit and in recognizing that debt, foreign aid and international trade are issues of concern to people in the Chicago area. My second goal was to meet with activists from the US and the 70 other countries from around the world who sent representatives. Virtually every one of us was involved in grassroots organizing or advocacy in some way. Meetings designed to help us network with one another were both very helpful and tremendously encouraging. It was exciting to see that my interests in African development were shared by a mechanical engineer from Milwaukee, a stay at home mom from Texas as well as religious leaders from Africa.

I first arrived in the UK on a flight from New York to Heathrow with Sir Richard Branson himself on board our Virgin Atlantic flight.  He is a big supporter of the ONE Campaign.  When we arrived in Heathrow there was a major press conference. Richard Branson was there and Bob Geldof made an appearance to give us some words of encouragement and to emphasize how important the G8 was.  This was mostly for the benefit of the US press traveling with us, but it was quite fun to be a part of it.  I was asked to be part of one of the photo ops for the press corps and had my picture taken on the stairs to the plane with Bob Geldof and Richard Branson standing next to me!  In London we were joined by a few of the 70 other international delegations coming to the G8 to participate in the Make Poverty History Campaign. I was able to engage in conversations with some very interesting people, including a Zambian representative who was the Program Director for the World Council of Churches in his country.  

Later that day I arrived in Edinburgh which was full of people and police.  Several of the streets were shut down because of demonstrations by anarchists and anti-capitalists. You could tell when the demonstrators got out of control because 20 police vans would rush by in a line with sirens blasting.  When we checked into our hotel the first question we were asked was if we were anarchists.  Luckily, none of us were.

The hard work of meetings and interviews with local and international press began the following day.  We were well-prepared to sell the message of debt relief, change in the structure of trade and an increase in foreign aid.  Interestingly, we were also encouraged to let the international press know that individual Americans are concerned about these issues to combat perceptions that Americans do not care what happens in Africa.  I care, so this was easy for me. Poverty in Africa is not an abstract concept to me, it has names and faces. I also think that as Christians we should be especially concerned with what happens in Africa as that is where the church is increasingly concentrated demographically. What happens to Africa is then what happens to our brothers and sisters in the Lord and we ought to have a special concern for their well-being.

There was pressure at the G8 meeting for the US to increase foreign aid because we give less as a percentage of our GDP than any industrialized country but Italy.  If the US does increase foreign aid, our government should be very careful in its allocation so as to avoid the pitfalls of corruption and undermining state capacity. It would be even better for the US to eliminate some of the structural inequalities in the trading system that make it so difficult for African farmers to export their products to the US and other developed countries. We had a briefing with some of the White House staffers who had come to Gleneagles with the president.  When asked explicitly what the US might do to create a better trading system with fewer restrictions on the sale and consumption of African agricultural products they had no new ideas or initiatives.  This is unfortunate as trade is better than foreign aid in terms of building both commercial and government capacity as well as creating jobs linked to the production and export of products. No progress has been made on this issue because it is so politically difficult to begin dismantling the system of agricultural subsidies in the US and in Europe that distorts trade.

I was on my way back home from Edinburgh to London and then the US when the terrorist attacks occurred.  In addition to the anger which naturally comes in these situations, I was frustrated by the fact that this act moved the focus of world attention from the 'Africa Summit' and the problems of extreme poverty to the issue of terrorism.  This is certainly a pity and demonstrates the disregard the terrorists have for any efforts for change within the system of world governance that we have. The terrorist attacks were a sad note on which to end what was an incredible experience.

updated 7/21/2005