ActionAid’s Simon Wright gives an activist’s
view of the outcomes of the G8 summit
G8 summits come and go every year, but this one was always
going to be different. With the UK as host, it meant ordinary citizens and
organisations were much more aware of the event. Coming in the same year as
Britain’s presidency of the EU meant the UK was likely to be in a powerful
position to influence the international stage. When Tony Blair declared Africa
as one of his priorities (originally, he actually said HIV as well) it was
clear this was a major opportunity for Aids advocates to influence these governments.
Within ActionAid and the Stop Aids Campaign, there was much discussion about
how to focus our campaigning. Previous G8 summits have talked about HIV and
launched important vaccine initiatives as well as the Global Fund to Fight
Aids, TB and Malaria. As this is the year in which the ‘3 by 5’
WHO/UNAIDS target is supposed to be delivered, we felt it important that the
focus was on a commitment to universal access to treatment. When the Commission
for Africa announced 2010 as a likely date, followed by the Labour Party manifesto
committing Tony Blair to press for a target of 2010, we adopted that date
as our focus.
We worked to make sure messages about HIV were contained within the Make Poverty
History (MPH) campaign, alongside the main demands for debt relief, increased
and improved aid, and trade justice. The massive coalition that forms MPH
has always been a complicated alliance but the Stop Aids Campaign came to
be seen as one of the main networks within it, alongside those on debt, aid
and trade. Stop Aids Campaign manager, Kirsty McNeill, played a crucial role
by throwing herself into MPH and Anna Thomas of Christian Aid made sure that
HIV was at the centre of policy discussions.
After a year of planning, campaigning, lobbying meetings and issuing papers
and statements, we finally found ourselves on 2 July at the start of G8 week.
Stop Aids Campaign members and activists on the march in Edinburgh carried
giant eyeballs telling G8 leaders the world was watching them. Up to 225,000
people were on the Edinburgh march – more than at Live 8 the same afternoon,
although you would never have guessed from the media coverage. In the Meadows
after the march, people signed petitions and had photos of their eyes taken
for a giant eyeball petition that will be used later this year to tell the
world that we are watching for
delivery of plans and financing for treatment access.
On the Monday, I went to Gleneagles. The media centre was a huge operation,
separated from the Gleneagles Hotel by high security (we glimpsed the hotel
once through some trees), and filled with the world’s economics and
political journalists. Almost immediately there was a rumour that the HIV
treatment target was being dropped from the text. As well as issuing a press
release expressing alarm, we activated our networks, including a highly confidential
email list between activists in all the G8 countries, which led to pressure
being put on governments not to drop the target. Twenty-four hours later,
it was back in.
The Olympic news and the London bombings meant that the media’s attention
was, understandably, diverted. Back in Edinburgh the Stop Aids Campaign staged
the ‘eyeball’ photo opportunity on Thursday morning, with the
wonderful image of George Bush wobbling on his bicycle, being chased by
a giant, angry eyeball. For once, the world’s media all turned up, but
the image was not used, for obvious reasons. On the Friday we learned what
was in the communiqué: explicitly a commitment to become ‘as
close as possible to universal access to treatment for all those who need
it by 2010’ within a ‘package for HIV prevention, treatment and
care’. It included a commitment to meet the financing needs for HIV
and Aids, including the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB
and Malaria.
So, the verdict? Certainly a big success for the Stop Aids Campaign and all
the members that worked so hard. We got treatment on the agenda and have a
number of commitments that we must hold the G8 countries to. But the context
of the whole G8 communiqué is important. The analysis of Make Poverty
History is that this G8 did not lead to the kind of sea-change in international
development that was needed – and that Tony Blair said he was calling
for. The aid increase is not until 2010 and some of it includes money announced
years ago. The debt deal is very good for those countries involved but needed
to involve more. And there was very little on trade, which everyone agrees
is the long-term solution. So the campaign will go on. On Aids, we will wait
to see whether G8 countries change their position on the Global Fund, on generics
and other policies. For the wider anti-poverty agenda, we still have a long
way to go to Make Poverty History.
• www.actionaid.org
• www.stopaidscampain.org.uk
