Marshall, Alison

Marshall, Alison

Alison Marshall

Did the G8 deliver in Genoa?

1 September 2001News Alison Marshall

“Ultimately these Summits must be judged by the benefits they deliver to the world's poor. The result this year was an anti-poor trade plan, nothing on debt and a feeble fund.” Jessica Woodroffe, Head of Policy at the World Development Movement

On third world debt we hoped the G8 would call on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to cancel 100% of the debts of the highly indebted poor countries (HIPC). Even if we didn't get this “new deal on debt” we hoped for reform of the HIPC Initiative to give more debt relief, to more countries, more quickly. At the least we hoped for assistance for indebted countries suffering from oil price shocks. However we were shocked to find that the G8's final communique promised nothing new…