WORLD leaders should
"unleash a transparency revolution" when they meet for the G8 in
June, a new report by the One Foundation says.
The report, Summit in
Sight: The G8 and Africa from Gleneagles to Lough Erne, says
that agreements made at the G8 summit at Gleneagles in 2005 have
resulted in "major progress . . . in the fight against extreme
poverty".
When the G8 meets in
Lough Erne, in Northern Ireland, in June, it should "deliver a
package of targeted and mutually reinforcing transparency reforms",
the report says.
In a foreword to the
report, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi
Annan, writes: "If ambitious agreement can be reached on the trade,
tax, and transparency agenda . . . and agriculture and nutrition
commitments can be strengthened, then it [the G8 meeting] could be
transformative."
Writing in The
Observer on Sunday, Tony Blair said: "If the last decade of
development progress was defined by aid, the next will be defined
by governance and growth. By governance, I don't just mean
transparency, as important as that is, but also the ability of
governments in developing countries to get things done."
On Tuesday, Christian Aid
and Action Aid publicised a film that seeks to encourage young
people to participate in the campaign Enough Food for Everyone IF
(News, 25 January). "The colourful video shows young people covered
in powder paint congregating under a giant 'IF', while the modified
words of Rudyard Kipling's poem 'If' are read out by Rou Reynolds
of the band Enter Shikari," a statement from Christian Aid
said.
Last week, the World
Council of Churches' Poverty, Wealth, and Ecology programme
organised an event in Tanzania which assessed whether investment in
development projects by European Union countries, the United
States, and China had reduced poverty. The event was hosted by the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.
www.enoughfoodif.org/get-involved/youth