Small change: An assessment of G8 action on trade justice, debt cancellation, more and better aid, 1 year on from Gleneagles

Where were you in July 2005?

Whether you sent a postcard, lobbied your MP, joined the march in Edinburgh or sat at home and watched a pop concert, it was hard not to know that 8 of the World’s most powerful leaders were meeting in Gleneagles and the public was demanding action on poverty. And the Group of 8 – Russia, USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and the UK – did respond. But was the response adequate and have these governments lived up to their promises?

The Make Poverty History (MPH) Campaign set a range of challenges to the G8 summit in Gleneagles on aid, debt and trade. Critically, the campaign was not confined to asking simply for more aid money to help the world’s poor but was challenging the economic agenda that keeps people poor; the free market and free trade policies that have crippled developing countries across the world.

What follows is an analysis of G8 commitments on the main MPH demands and a brief assessment of what has happened since. The conclusion we reach is that while the G8 summit produced a useful step on debt cancellation and small steps on aid, not only are these inadequate but also no action has been taken to change the economic policies that will undermine this aid provision in the long term.