Civil society organisations from Asia, Africa and most of the G8 countries gathered in Tokyo from 29 to 30 October for the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) G8 working group meeting. They reviewed the recent progress in G8 countries and built strategies for activities before the next summit to be held in Japan.
(Bangkok, 4 December 2007) About 50 representatives of civil society organisations from Asia, Africa and most of the G8 countries gathered in Tokyo from 29 to 30 October for the meeting of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) G8 working group. They reviewed the recent progress in G8 countries and built strategies for activities before the next summit to be held in Japan.
They agreed that this year’s summit in Germany was “extremely disappointing, despite high quality coordinated campaigning”, according to their communiqué released on 27 November. For the next G8 summit, they agreed to develop joint lobby platforms targeted at the staff of G8 and politicians, and to plan “sustainable campaign strategies” that can maintain its influence.
The G8 Summit is an annual forum for the governments of the world’s biggest economies -Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK, US and European Union. The next G8 summit will be held in Tokyo in the Hokkaido prefecture, Japan, from 7 to 9 July 2008. As Japan will act as the chair of the G8 next year, the group examined the roles the country played in fighting global poverty.
They noted that the Japanese government showed its willingness in 2005 and 2007 to work for global development. “All this, combined with increasing civil society coherence in Japan, set the scene for potential progress at the 2008 Summit”, said the communiqué.
Through their campaign, starting in January 2008, the group will expect the next G8 to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and to clearly acknowledge the link between climate change and global poverty.
GCAP is an alliance of civil society organisations calling for the end of poverty in the world. There are more than 100 countries that have country-based coalitions of the alliance.
