After Gleneagles – What’s Next?
Gleneagles has set the agenda for the rest of the year. But Gleneagles is only the start and we need to do more. It was only the first of three big meetings in 2005. The
UN Millennium Review Summit in September and the
World Trade Organisation
meeting in December are both just as important. Africa priorities are
also being taken forward through the UK's
Presidency of the EU. On Climate Change our efforts will be focussed on the
success of the Montreal UK Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
meetings. All of these offer real opportunities to continue the work started at
Gleneagles.
The Millennium Review Summit
In March of this year, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, released a report called‘In Larger Freedom.’ This report shows that if we want a world that is free from want, where people can live in dignity and where people are free from fear, then we need to work together and simultaneously on development, security and human rights. The Millennium Review Summit (MRS) is a special meeting at the United Nations where world leaders will, among other things, agree on how to make much faster progress to towards meeting theMillennium Development Goals
and how we can reform the UN to help us to get there.
On development in particular, the UK wants the MRS to make real progress on several fronts. A successful Summit will have an agreement on more and better aid, on debt relief and trade to deliver much faster progress towards the MDGs. It will establish a new ‘Peacebuilding Commission’ to help countries emerging from conflict. It will develop a new international framework for tackling climate change. And it will improve the UN’s response to humanitarian crises and start a process to radically reform the way the UN works, including who sits on the UN Security Council. That, for the UK, is what success will look like. But we have a long way to go before we achieve it.
The World Trade Organisation Ministerial
The World Trade Organization
(WTO) is where the rules of trade between nations are negotiated and agreed. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers around the world conduct their business.
In recent years, developing countries have become considerably more active in WTO negotiations, especially agriculture talks. Developing countries have successfully challenged some actions taken by developed countries in the WTO’s dispute settlement procedure. Without the WTO, these smaller countries would have been powerless to act against their more powerful trading partners.
It is vital that we use the next WTO ministerial meeting in December to make real progress towards a fairer trade system. A system that enables Africa and the rest of the developing world to make the most trade and the incredible benefits that it can bring in terms of prosperity and jobs.
Monitoring Our Commitments
Implementing the agreements made at Gleneagles is critical to progress. The partnership between the G8 and Africa has been strengthened, with clear commitments on each sides as to how to reduce poverty, increase economic growth, increase investment in health and education, tackle AIDS, promote good governance and democracy, and to work for peace and stability.
The G8 also agreed to work with Africa to monitor these commitments. The G8 agreed to strengthen the Africa Partnership Forum (APF) as the main way to implement and monitor donor and African commitments to reducing poverty.
A strengthened APF will review progress being made in Africa and consider new policy initiatives. It will offer advice to leaders and highlight areas that require urgent attention. For the Forum to be effective in this role it must be strengthened. This includes agreeing a joint plan of action for the Forum to monitor; securing the participation of senior people at APF meetings; and ensuring that effective follow-up work is undertaken between those meetings. These issues will be discussed at the next meeting of the Africa Partnership Forum in London in October, which will be co-chaired by the UK and Nigeria.
Now We Need To Deliver
If we are truly committed to helping the people of Africa then we need to do more to get aid to those who need it sooner rather than later. We have agreed a significant debt relief package but we want to go further. We have agreed the importance of trade to reducing poverty and to ending export subsidies but we need to deliver.
The G8 Summit at Gleneagles has been a great success but we need more if, in
2005, we really can start toMake
Poverty History
