The GMC signs on for a Global Leaders Forum

1st April 2010, Barcelona – Together with a number of international, regional and national organisations the Global Movement for Children has signed up today for the Halifax Initiative-led proposal to establish a new Global Leaders Forum that includes low-income countries.

This iniciative aims at transforming the current G-20 into an international body which includes the representantion of low-income countries, many of which are suffering disporportionate impacts arising from the current world economic crisis. Immediate inclusion of the African Union, followed by other regional bodies, is the first step it considers essential to build a more comprehensive constituency-based system.

Focused around equity, economic and social justice, human rights, and environmental sustainability of international economic and financial system, the initiative gathers frontline international NGOs to pressure G-20 Summit - taking place this year in Toronto - to ensure effective participation of low income countries in a global, democratic governance.

The Halifax Initiative was founded in 1994 by Canadian NGOs to ensure that demands for fundamental reform of the international financial institutions (IFIs), namely the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, were high on the agenda of the Group of Seven's (G7) Halifax Summit.