GMC global partners World Vision International and Save the children put forward policy recommendations to the G8.
25 May 2011 - On the occasion of the G8 Summit taking place this week in Deauville, France, Global Movement for Children’s global partners Save the Children and World Vision International have issued policy briefings setting out priorities for the world leaders to adopt at the Summit.
‘Food security and nutrition’ is one of the top demands put forward by Save the Children and World Vision to be addressed at the G8 Summit. G8 countries are expected to:
- Fully fund the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative and invest in communities at highest risk of food insecurity and malnutrition (Save the Children, G8 Briefing)
- Align the G8 countries efforts towards reducing malnutrition behind the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Framework which sets out a two pronged approach: direct nutrition interventions and nutrition-sensitive development interventions through food security, agriculture and other critical sectors such as social protection (Save the Children, G8 Briefing)
- Increase investments in gender- and nutrition-sensitive agriculture, targeted to poor small scale farmers and geared to meeting both consumption and income needs to ensure long term food security (WVI,Policy Brief: Food Security)
- Ensure that small-holder farmers, the majority of whom are women, – and civil society more broadly – are integrated as full partners into country-level planning and food security programmes to diversify and increase agricultural productivity in a sustainable way – as well as to improve their incomes (WVI, Policy Brief: Food Security)
- Provide adequate humanitarian assistance and other social protection measures to meet the existing need and ensure that food assistance meets the nutritional needs of women and children (WVI, Policy Brief: Food Security)
Both Save the Children and World Vision International emphasize the responsibility of the richest countries towards aid delivery reaching poorest children and women and Official Development Assistance (ODA):
- The G8 should track its efforts to reach the poorest and most marginalised women and children as part of the Muskoka and L’Aquila initiatives and other related commitments. According to Save the Children’s G8 Briefing the targets could be achieved statistically whilst leaving the poorest and most vulnerable behind as has happened with the MDGs. The MDGs ‘mask inequality within and between countries’ says the briefing.
- G8 donor countries should identify the steps they will take to reach their international aid volume commitments – the UK Government may offer a useful model for other donors in this respect (WVI, Meeting G8 Financing Commitments)
- The G8 should also identify sources of alternative development financing to ensure that adequate resources are available to help developing countries achieve the MDGs and climate change needs (WVI, Meeting G8 Financing Commitments)
World Vision’s demand to include the ‘Child and Maternal’s Health’ in the Summit agenda goes in line with Save the Children’s request to address ‘Health workers’ and ‘Vaccines’ issues:
- G8 funding commitments for health should support national governments, among others, to:
- Reach the poorest and ensure that they overcome often substantial barriers to accessing healthcare (WVI, Policy Brief: Maternal, Newborn & Child Health)
- Address the major causes of child mortality and illness -– priority and resources must follow the burden of disease, too often major causes of child mortality such as pneumonia and diarrhea are underfunded (WVI, Policy Brief: Maternal, Newborn & Child Health)
- The G8 should commit to working with other governments, the private sector and international institutions to ensure a successful outcome of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) pledging conference, which takes place in London two weeks after the G8 summit (SC, G8 Briefing)
- The G8 should commit actions to close the 3.5 million health worker gap. A clear statement from G8 members on the critical role of health workers would be an important step to securing further political momentum to close the health worker gap (SC, G8 Briefing).