Getting The NGO Message Heard By President Sarkozy

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy was clearly in his element as he pointed a finger at the French NGO leader:  "You and I understand each other,” he said.

NGO leaders representing civil society from the North and South, met the French president on Wednesday to discuss core development priorities ahead of the two-day G20 summit in Cannes, which starts today (Thursday). A team of InterAction staff is at the G20 in  Cannes, seeking to get our issues heard and the meeting with President Sarkozy is part of that mission.

Gone were the tense exchanges that French NGO leaders experienced in earlier visits. NGOs pushed and prodded as Sarkozy explained at length why he felt he was on the (good) side of history as a leader committed to human rights and an essential universal approach to social protection. 

We were assigned seats around a large oval table in the splendor of the Elysee Palace. Many of my international NGO colleagues – from Europe, India, Brazil, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere – took pictures with telephone cameras as we waited under a large crystal chandelier for the president to arrive.

Coordination Sud, InterAction's counterpart in France, had organized the meeting and selected a handful of topics for us to discuss. I was asked to tackle corruption. Although fluent in French, this was not an easy task. I found myself nervously checking my vocabulary: "mettre en application un cadre juridique pour le recouvrement d'avoir," or "implement a legal framework for asset recovery," isn't a phrase that flows easily off the tongue.

"France, France, France," Sarkozy told us, was the only country pushing for a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). But when pressed, he made it clear that France will not act alone and the “coalition of the willing” would most likely take shape through consensus via Brussels. But any FTT process in Brussels would likely take a year, well beyond the election of a new French President.  Sarkozy noted he had asked the United States to give him space and his sharpest comments were directed at the U.K., where France is clearly locking horns with Prime Minister David Cameron, who is committed to protecting the financial "city" in London.

More G20 progress is possible in the area of food security, Sarkozy told us. French policies align with strong U.S. leadership since the G8 L’Aquila Summit in Italy in 2009 where $22 billion was ultimately pledged for food and agricultural assistance. He said a new consensus to reinvest in agriculture was strong with goals focused on both the amount and the quality of food.

Underscoring the difficulties in the G20 process, Sarkozy noted that the “Sherpa” was negotiating until after 3 a.m. and progress on establishing food reserves in West Africa was only accepted by the Obama administration's team after the reserves were designated as solely for humanitarian use and not as food stocks. Many of us felt Sarkozy's answers on food security somewhat missed the emphasis NGOs wanted on small shareholder farmers and the critical role of nutrition for children.

Thankfully I didn't mangle anti-money laundering (le blanchiment d'argent) and made it through my comments. As the meeting wound to a close after 90 minutes, I asked:  "What can we, as NGOs, do for you?"

After some nervous laughter, the French president made it clear that governments and civil society are not always on the same page, but international public opinion only changes when we work together.

Look out for more blogs by InterAction staff as the G20 meetings unfold in Cannes.