Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate said: “Poverty does not belong in a civilized human society. Its proper place is in a museum. That’s where it will be. When schoolchildren go with their teachers and tour the poverty museums, they will be horrified to see the misery and indignity of human beings. They will blame their forefathers for tolerating this inhumane condition and for allowing it to continue in such a large segment of population until the early part of the twenty-first century.”

Like the campaigns to end slavery, apartheid, racism and sexism, a tipping point did not come until there was a critical mass of people who knew about, and were willing to take action (together) on, the issues.

Canada will need to offer global leadership as host of G8 in 2010 to deliver results on unfinished business from this year's G8. This year’s G8, while there was some progress,  didn’t fully deliver on promises to the world’s poorest, in part because of weak leadership by Italy, the host nation.

Host countries of G8 meetings have a lot of say in setting the tone of each meeting. That means Canadians will have to push the government to do more for the poor next year when we host the G8.

Weak leadership by the Italian host, Prime Minister Berlusconi, has resulted in very few concrete new initiatives for the world's poor at the G8 Summit that ended today. Having cut its aid spending by 56% this year, Italy lacked the moral authority or will to address the challenges posed by the economic, climate change and food crises.

These crises threaten to reverse the progress that has been made in reducing global poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. This is a shame because the change in the U.S. administration and President Obama's personal interest in global poverty issues had opened up new possibilities for the G8 to deliver more. We need to work to ensure that next year, when Canada hosts the G8, that our government provides strong leadership on initiatives to help the world’s poor.

Well, I thought the last day of the G8 Summit might be ending on just a slightly brighter note than the first.  The buzz all week was that the leaders of the rich world would ante up $15 billion in food security and development money. Then a few hours before the final wrap, we heard it was $20 billion...still short of the $30 B the FAO says is needed, but the news certainly went down well amongst the civil society people here. But when the actual statement came out, it was yet another indigestible fudge. The bold italics below are textbook examples of how to look good without actually doing anything...yet. 

I was on the CPAC show "Primetime Politics" yesterday, analyzing how the latest G20 meeting will impact the world's poorest. You can check out the interview here on YouTube or on the CPAC website here.

The G20 meeting of the leaders of the world's largest economies responded to pressure from people around the world and agreed to give billions more to help poor countries affected by the global economic crisis.

But they will deliver these new resources mostly through existing International Financial Institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank and regional development banks, who have in the past insisted on failed policies of globalization as a condition for poor countries getting their help.