The largest alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) believes the communiqué issued by the Group of 8 this weekend in Huntsville, Ontario delivered a mixed bag of outcomes. On one hand, the Muskoka Accountability Report and Muskoka Initiative for Maternal and Child Health (MCH) were significant step forward for the group. On the other, no mentions were made of the commitments made at Gleneagles in 2005 that had been specifically reaffirmed during each of the past four G8 Summits.
With the official 2010 review of the Millennium Development Goals just three months away, only official reference was made to them in the communiqué. It reaffimed the G8's commitment to achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015 which would give an estimated 12 million couples access to family planning.
Other items of note included the G8's reaffirmation of the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI), which agreed to mobilize $22 billion for sustainable agriculture development over three years and maintain its strong commitment to emergency food aid, and a number of climate change concerns.
Read the complete G8 Communiqué
