So Gordon’s been telling us all about what’s in the final communique. They look like they’ve had a good day. The PM’s in fine booming drone, Sarkozy’s still in the house and - despite very poor loo facilities at the ExCel Centre - Obama’s looking unruffled.
But this united front of bonhomie and job-done, is not borne out by the substance of the decisions made. Brown rolled his mouth round words like “poverty” and “greater voice” but I can’t see the real action behind his rhetoric.
The G20 has pledged $750bn to struggling economies, but that’s not only for developing countries. There’s only £50bn ring-fenced for the poorest, and they’ll need double that next year if they’re going to pull themselves out of the economic devastation of commodity flatlining.
And what about the strings attached to all monies that flow into developing countries? Gordon said nothing about cutting those.
CAFOD’s Zambian partner Father Joe Komakoma has detailed how his country has been suffering in the economic downturn.
When 3,000 people lost their mining jobs in the Copper Belt town of Luanshya last month, they didn’t just lose their livelihoods - they lost education facilities, healthcare and social infrastructure as cash was sucked out of the area.
There are 60,000 residents dependent on the mine. Without a welfare system to cushion them, those who lose their jobs, and the families that depend on them, are immediately at risk of hardcore poverty.
I was born in Roan Antelope Copper Mine Hospital in Luanshya. Father Joe told me it closed a few weeks ago.
The economic systems that are pushing more and more Zambians below the national poverty line now, are the same systems and structures that didn’t let ordinary Zambians benefit from the copper boom years.
This is because pressure from rich nations pushed the government into allowing the country’s foreign exchange laws to sanction direct retention of profits by exporters, rather than ensuring the purchase of the Zambian Kwacha.
So what did Gordon say about reforming these structures that embed poverty and siphon off developing countries’ money?
He claimed with enthusiasm the G20 was on the road to reform, and that market fundamentalism was dead. But I didn’t see world leaders dancing on its grave.
The changes in global economic governance signalled by the
London Summit communiqué are limited to say the least.
There is no passionate embrace of a new economic architecture that puts people first; that is underpinned by equality and justice; that is framed by the ethics and urgency of both environmental and human sustainability.
CAFOD asked the G20 to recognise that it is no longer business as usual. We asked for progress on a low carbon economy. We asked for the poorest to be treated justly.
These are big asks. But these are important times. The fact that the G20 didn’t step up squarely to the plate smacks of a lack of desire to break with decades of greed and selfish individualism.
We offer three words of advice for world leaders as they move beyond the London Summit:
PutPeopleFirst.Read the rest of CAFOD's G20 blogs here: http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2009/04/02/g20-a-sad-lack-of-desire/