The G20 Summit agreed a $1 trillion package to tackle the current global crisis. But what will it mean for the world’s poor?

Progressio has given a cautious welcome to the G20 Summit’s plan to tackle the global economic crisis.

The leaders of the world’s largest 20 economies including the UK, US and China, met in London to thrash out an agreement to tackle the global financial crisis.

Under the agreement unveiled at the Excel Centre in East London, some $250 billion will be made available for cash-strapped developing and emerging nations as an overdraft. And some $100 billion will be given directly in loans to the world’s poorest nations.

The G20 leaders also re-committed themselves to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

Progressio hopes that this injection of cash will go some way to help the bottom billion people in the world who live on less than $1 per day.

‘It is more than we expected,’ said Progressio’s Advocacy Manager, Tim Aldred. ‘We are pleased to see specific provision for the poorest countries.’

But he added a note of caution. ‘We would have hoped that more of the $1 trillion would be explicitly targeted at the world’s poorest people.

This money will keep poor people where they are, but we are yet to be convinced that it will lift them out of poverty.’

The World Bank has claimed that some 53 million more people could be trapped in poverty as a result of the financial crisis.

In Malawi – where more than half the 14.3 million population lives below the poverty line – the G20’s announcement received a cautious welcome from aid workers.

Lloyd Simwaka, Progressio’s country representative in Malawi urged the G20 to act quickly to deliver the promised cash. Otherwise, he warned, ‘people will die in the meantime’.

‘For too long the G20 has been about rhetoric rather than real commitment to eradicating poverty,’ he said. ‘My message to the world’s leaders would be that they should find quick mechanisms of making this happen. They need to find practical ways of reaching out to poorer countries.’

Meanwhile, in Somaliland, the G20’s announcement has been called ‘irrelevant’. The self-declared republic, which has yet to receive international recognition, will not receive any money from the G20’s $1 trillion package.

Dr Adan Yousuf Abokor, Progressio’s country representative said, ‘The richer nations have caused the financial problems. We are worried about that now.

‘Gordon Brown and Barack Obama should not underestimate or underplay the support they give to the developing countries. Developing countries are struggling.’

Climate: not enough

The G20 committed itself to the post-Kyoto process, which should see a new plan to combat climate change drawn up in Copenhagen in December.

And in his closing statement, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, highlighted the need to ‘create green jobs on which our future prosperity depends.’

However, Progressio believes that the G20 did not go far enough in its announcements on climate change.

‘Despite saying that they are committed to tackling climate, there are not enough specific plans in this communiqué from the G20,’ said Tim Aldred. ‘We need to see more green jobs and a greater investment in renewable energy.’

Major world meetings in Italy in June and Denmark in December will see more detail announced on climate change.

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