G20 leaders released a communiqué Thursdayon their goals, plans and promises to deal with the global economic crisis. Thatcommuniqué will be closely studied and analyzed to get a clear picture of theagreements reached by the G20 leaders
ClaireMelamed, head of policy for ActionAid, is attending the G20 summit in London, andspoke to VOA about the finalstatement.
"Oneof the things we're looking for are the big numbers. What are the amounts ofmoney that are going to be promised to developing countries to help themthrough this crisis. Now, it's going to be quite a difficult job to track downactually what is being promised. There are going to be lots of big numbers, youknow, in the hundreds of billions, flying about. But it's going to be quitedifficult to decipher from the communiqué what is new money and what is aidthat was previously promised and it's just being redirected. And how longdeveloping countries are going to have to wait for this money and what stringsare going to be attached. What they're going to have to do in return for themoney that's promised," she says.
Askedwhy it's difficult to distinguish new aid from old, Melamed says, "It's an oldtrick of governments. They like to make big promises. You know, you get a sortof competitive bidding process?where everyone likes to come up with the biggestnumber that they can to sort of showcase their generosity in front of the otherheads of state. But often this is money which in fact was already in the aidbudget and it's just now being promised to a slightly different fund ordifferent institution. But often it's not actually new money."
ActionAidwould consider the G20 summit a success if leaders ensured enough aid to helppoor countries weather the economic crisis. "What we think developing countriesneed is something over $300 billion a year for the duration of the crisis. Andthat is roughly the amount of growth that the IMF (International Monetary Fund)says developing countries are going to lose as a result of this crisis. So,effectively it means that just to stand still, just to stay in the same placeas they were before the crisis hit, developing countries are going to needcommitments from the international community of something around $300 billion ayear," she says.
There'sbeen much criticism of the IMF of late from those who say that it, along withthe World Bank, need to be reformed to deal with 21 Centuryproblems. The IMF has been accused of attaching too many conditions to itsloans, causing countries to seek financing elsewhere, such as China. Melamedsays that the idea of reform may not be far-fetched.
"Itis quite interesting. I've been in two press conferences this morning withmembers of the UK government and both of them have been talking quite openlyabout the stigma that's attached to getting funds from the IMF for developingcountries and really being quite critical of the IMF. Certainly more so thanI've heard before. So, that does give me some hope," she says.
Melamedsays that if the summit communiqué mentions IMF reforms, it will most likely bea "statement of intent" that there will be some reforms in the next two years.
The ActionAid policy chief views anysummit promises with a skeptical eye, saying that many promises may at the 2005G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland still have not been fulfilled.