What is the G8?

The “Group of Eight” otherwise known as the G8 is a forum of the leaders of eight of the richest and most powerful nations in the world - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. They meet annually to discuss global economic and political issues. Russia is the newest member, having joined in 1994, and it does not participate in all the economic and financial discussions. The G8 without Russia is referred to as the G7 and it first came together in 1976. The president of the European Commission has observer status at G8 summits and the heads of the UN, the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF also attend as observers.

The proceedings of their meetings are not made public, but the G8 usually issues communiqués at the close of their Summits, summarizing their discussions, which usually focus on economics. Although they discuss security and terrorism, the environment and global political issues, their underlying objective is to promote and sustain neoliberal globalization. [1]

Every year, in advance of the Summit, the Finance and Foreign ministers of the G8 nations meet and whatever they agree upon is discussed at the Summit. Each of the member nations of the G8, with the exception of Russia chairs the group for a year and this year’s chair is British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Mr Blair has said that the upcoming Summit, which will be held in June in Scotland, will prioritize climate change and Africa as topics for discussion.

What is the level of civil society engagement with the G8? [2]

Civil society engages with the G8 in two ways; some movements seeking to improve the performance of the G8 and influence its decisions and some movements seeking to discredit it. Encounters with the G8 have undergone several stages. In the 1970s and early 1980s the G7 and civil society more or less ignored each other, neither recognizing the relevance of the other to its own objectives. In 1984, civil society began to see the need to engage with the G7, both by lobbying it and by opposing it. Initially this engagement was not issue-specific. Civil society organizations (CSOs) would run an ‘alternative summit’ at the same time as the G7 Summit, complete with a counter-communiqué. Over the years however, CSOs began to adopt a more issue-specific approach, lobbying primarily around environmental issues and debt relief.

It was not until the Halifax Summit of 1995 that the G8, on the other hand, began to acknowledge civil society. That year’s communiqué recognized the importance of an active civil society and its role in promoting sustainable development and the reform of international financial institutions. In other Summits that followed, the G8 increasingly expressed its recognition of the vital role that CSOs play in economic and structural reform and good governance, and particularly expressed the need for the WTO to be responsive to civil society.

Why should civil society engage with the G8?

The G8 is not an implementing body of any sort. However its role in influencing global economic policy and practice is immense. The World Bank, IMF and the WTO are seen as the agencies through which G8 decisions are made operational, and it is said that nothing of real importance happens in these institutions without the endorsement of the G8. The countries that form the G8 also wield enormous power in the UN Security Council and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The G8 therefore effectively designs the global economic agenda, and implements it through international finance institutions and other international bodies.

The G8 has in the past made several commitments which have not been followed through; debt relief, fair trade terms for countries in the South, and the reform of the World Bank and the IMF have been the subject of several communiqués. The failure of the group’s governments to effectively implement these commitments has undermined its credibility. It is seen as a club that exists to maintain the economic and political status quo, enabling the rich nations to get richer at the expense of poor nations.

Civil society involvement in global economic policy and international trade issues has focussed less on the G8 as a forum than on the World Bank, IMF and WTO. The fact that the G8 Summits are closed meetings is one of the reasons for this. Although there are civil society initiatives targeting the group directly, both by lobbying and by discrediting it, there is a clear need for CSOs to intensify their focus on the G8.

Source:
Association for Women’s Rights in Development ©
http://www.awid.org
http://www.whrnet.org

[1] The term ‘architect and engine of neoliberal globalization” has been used to describe the G8 in “What is the G8?” Alberta Council for Global Cooperation http://www.web.ca/acgc p. 2

[2] The source of the information in this section is Hajnal, Peter I.: Partners or Adversaries? The G7/G8 Encounters Civil Society University of Toronto, 1998