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.

Dennis and Kelly worked hard at the G8 in Italy this week not only to make sure our voices had a presence at the G8 but also to help make sure that all of use that were not able to be in Italy for

by:  Gerry Barr, Chair, Make Poverty History
         and Dennis Howlett, Co-ordinator, Make Poverty History

How do we persuade Stephen Harper to do the right thing?

On Wednesday our Prime Minister joins seven other leaders of the world’s richest nations at the G8 in L’Aquila, Italy.   It seems eerily fitting that they will gather at the scene of a devastating earthquake in April.   The lives of millions of the world’s poorest have been devastated as well, by a tsunami of economic forces not of their making.   We have all been affected by this very man-made crisis, but the poor bear the brunt.    Rising food and fuel costs, cataclysmic climate change and the global downturn have meant 100 million more have swollen the ranks of those who go to bed hungry to a record one billion.  And we may be about to add to their misery.