Not A Watershed, But Progress At G20 In Cannes
CANNES – The end of the G20 summit in Cannes was a blur of activity as an army of reporters scoured through piles of official documents to make sense of the outcome. It was a scene made all the more surreal by the décor in the media center – fluorescent lime carpeting and rows of puce green tables.
Joining reporters trying to figure out the results were about 100-plus accredited NGOs, including InterAction. After days of rumors over what might be in the communiqué, we finally had something firm to respond to.
Dominated by the Greek debt crisis, this was not expected to be a watershed summit for development issues we care about. The diplomatic wording of communiqués is hardly fodder for concrete action. But with advocacy campaigns at stake, we most probably came to our conclusions with less professional detachment than our journalist colleagues.
Was the financial transfer tax, aimed at making a small surcharge to financial transactions, now truly alive thanks to its champion France and a potentially more neutral U.S. position? Or had it been passed out of the G20 to a “group of the willing” who would now need to wrestle with how to take it forward? The communiqué had one sentence for us to parse: "We acknowledge the initiative in some countries to tax the financial sector for various purposes, including a financial transaction tax, inter alia to support development." How would you interpret that statement? And what will happen going forward?
The G20 is all about growth. Promoting growth to create jobs and stabilizing crises to improve the possibility of growth. In Cannes, this meant that the summit was primarily about Greece and stemming the crisis in the eurozone. Whether that was accomplished, only time will tell, but many of the summit’s macroeconomic actions were essential.
Our passions for equity, human rights, a sustainable economy and better prospects for the world's poor all fell under this frame. Yet, while growth is essential, it must also be “inclusive” and not further marginalize the world’s poor.
I found myself applauding when Official Development Assistance (ODA) was championed as essential, and a new promise was made to keep previous pledges. In this time of budget austerity any statement to hold the line, and especially one made across the G20, sounds positive. We no longer live in the post-G8 Gleneagles world of large goals to advance the Millennium Development Goals through aid. Yet, even in this environment, small but real steps can be made. Tax havens, which siphon off billions, are now being publicly listed and 11 jurisdictions were in essence shamed.
Food security is now fully on the agenda and it is the development theme most likely to be addressed in the 2012 Mexico G20. An important emergency humanitarian food reserves process was established, with a pilot in West Africa. The G20 also wants to develop concrete measures to advance risk management in agricultural markets, including having the World Food Program define a risk-hedging strategy. In an effort to curb the excess volatility of commodity prices, it made commitments to increase transparency and supported the newly established Agriculture Market Information System that will help with stock levels and harvest forecasts. All these commitments will need to become a reality and many will require new resources.
If there was a sense of success from our community, it was the broad belief that development really is part of the ongoing G20 process. Maybe I was captured by the silver screen in Cannes while it rained outside, but I can’t help feeling that the summit did produce concrete results in areas that InterAction members care about. I know John, Sue and I did everything we could to get our message out, and that is why we came.
