Civil G8 calls for new global governance
One of the main proposals put forward by the Civil G8 Dialogue conference, which closed in Rome on 5 May, is for a development model founded on a new economic and financial structure, with a greater awareness of responsibilities for the environment and the fundamental rights of all people. Nearly 260 delegates from more than forty countries, representing 100 million people, participated in the two days of discussions.
The meeting was organised by the City of Rome in accordance with the Prime Minister’s office and in collaboration with the Foreign Ministry and the Italian Coalition of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP). The final document, given to the Sherpas from the Group of Eight, lists the issues the Civil G8 wants raised at the July Summit in L’Aquila.
The document covers five different topics; basic necessities, climate change and the environment, food and agriculture sovereignty, global governance and labour. The appeal for “new governance” is central to the document and proposes decision making processes that include developing nations and representatives of civil societies from the north and south of the globe.
The Summit in July, said Italian Sherpa Ambassador Giampiero Massolo, speaking during the conference, “will take place under the banner of inclusiveness as well as responsibility and sustainability”. The Group of Eight will consult with emerging economies and less developed countries to find shared solutions to the problems on the table and ''extend areas of global consensus''. The ambassador also explained that the Sherpas are studying the ways in which civil society could participate in the Summit in L’Aquila. The dialogue with civil society will continue and the Foreign Minister Franco Frattini is already considering involving the Civil G8 in the G8 Development Ministers Meeting scheduled in Rome on June 11 and 12.
Massolo underlined the important contribution NGOs can make to the Summit and praised the work that had been accomplished in a “fruitful” meeting. Especially, he said, in light of the current situation characterised by the many crises in the world from the ''economic-financial tsunami'' to the recent flu pandemic.
The ambassador pointed out that some of the items at the top of the agenda for the L’Aquila Summit - like the crisis, problems in underdeveloped countries, the fight against climate change on the eve of the Climate Conference in Copenhagen, and the dossier on food security and global health - cannot be tackled if the countries directly concerned are not involved in the discussions. It is no accident, he added, that the Summit includes a forum on emerging economies chaired by U.S. President Barak Obama and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the current G8 duty president.
Discussing the format of the meetings, Massolo repeated that the G8 and the G20 are not in “competition with each other, the G20 leaders will be meeting to resolve contingent emergencies”, he explained, “while the G8 Summit adopts a more structural approach directed at global governance. Sometimes things will overlap, but there is no competition”.
Contributed by ANSA.
