Oxfam Canada

Canada in 2010 is a date with fate. When the G8 leaders meet in Muskoka next June they come face to face with a long list of commitments – on aid, on Africa, on health and education, water and sanitation, on women and children, on AIDS, on climate change and now, on support for small farmers.

Just to show it's not over 'til it's over - and underline the power of targeted advocacy - the final communiqué on food security from the G8 leaders caught everyone by surprise by boosting the pledge for support to agriculture to US$20 billion.

It may not have been our critique that moved the leaders to set a more ambitious goal but our strong message to governments - and through the media to their citizens - can't have hurt in moving the bar.

Day Two and the focus shifts from the G8 (which in the end met as a group for only several hours) to an ever larger group of world leaders – including all the big producers of green house gases, north and south.
 
Climate change has received more attention in l'Aquila than at any previous summit. And with Obama in the White House the logjam that has blocked even the most modest progress has been broken.
 

We've now seen what they've agreed to and it isn't pretty. On aid and Africa, there's nothing new. And on the economic crisis, well, let's just say the impact on the poor in the global South wasn't top of mind for G8 leaders.

When you speak to journalists about this stark reality they ask: "But where's the news? Every year we hear the same thing."

Pulling together the logistics for a G8 is no simple task. With an ever-growing number of world leaders, hundreds of journalists, and groups working to influence the outcome from around the world, the security, communications, transport and accommodation issues are almost endless.
 
On the eve of the Summit, the Italian hosts have done a great job on the food and facilities but such basics as internet access to the Media Center remain a problem.
 

As photo ops go, it doesn’t get much better. A beautiful Rome morning. The ruins of Nero’s palace on the horizon. A backdrop of leaping flames augmented by fire breathers. And the heads of the G8 countries cavorting about in togas, fiddling while Africa burns.