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Dozens of African women leaders arrived with GCAP hoping to have some influence on the proceedings.
"I came so that something will happen," declared Battu Beatrice Jambawai, a leader from Sierra Leone, leaning forward and smiling in her seat on the flight to Edinburgh. "I'm so excited to be a part of a vision of the whole world."
"Ultimately what we want now is a space, an enabling space for women, to determine our own agenda," said Jambawai, who is the Coordinator for the Social, Economic Justice and Women Program of the All Africa Conference of Churches.
In the following days, however, such a space never emerged. Women's voices were scarcely heard amid the cacophony of rock stars, heads of state, activists, and anarchists who jockeyed on stage, in fields, and at press conferences to speak on behalf of Africa's poor, the majority whom are women.
Although in the end they were overlooked and less than satisfied with the G8's final outcome, women from Africa managed to create their own stages and find avenues to speak their minds in Scotland. Now they are voyaging home as determined as ever to push ahead with their work.
W8 vs. G8
Two weeks earlier, in a move to bypass world leaders, African women had held their own, albeit underpublicized, summit.
Eight African women, known as the W8, convened in Edinburgh though video link to establish their urgent recommendations to eradicate poverty in an "Agenda for Change for Africa."
Deemed by Africawoman magazine as the eight women who could change the face of the continent given some time, support and decision making power - the W8 delegates included powerhouses like Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Mathaai; Graca Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela and former Education Minister of Mozambique; and Hauwa Ibrahim, the lawyer who secured the much-publicized release of a Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.
"Never mind the G8, let the real experts heal Africa," proclaimed Africawoman. "The W8 are representative of the hundreds of women activists praised by leaders but rarely backed with big cash programs. If money is ever to follow merit the G8 could spend half of their drinks budget on a committee composed of these women and then use their recommendations as a guide for spending at least half of the enlarged aid budget."
After deliberation, the W8's top recommendations included: guaranteed schooling for girls, full property and inheritance rights for women, local mobile health units, increased health information via community radio, mobile phones for traditional birth attendants, clean wells and local water pumps, filters for stoves to prevent respiratory diseases, and the exploration of solar and wave energy.
From their perspective on the frontlines of the HIV/AIDS epidemic (60 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS are women and girls) the summit urged funding for microbicide gel which women can discreetly use to protect themselves against infection, and cash support for community-based family structures in which children, old people and networks of friends can create new communities of care for the sick and orphaned.
The group also stressed the importance of supporting the natural talents of women entrepreneurs; the transfer of resources spent on weapons by African and Western leaders towards resolving disputes over land and water; and domestic-violence prevention.
Calls from the Stage
On the eve of the summit, Wangari Mathaai, one of the few women who made an appearance at the final Live 8 concert in Scotland's Murryfield Stadium, said, "Africa is not a poor continent. Africa is extremely rich, but it has been impoverished by injustice." Mathaai appealed for African leaders to play their part in ending corruption and oppression and said she hoped audiences at the rock concerts realized that some banks in wealthy nations were holding money looted by African rulers in the past.
Kumi Naidoo, the head of GCAP, admonished world leaders, "If you can find 300 billion dollars overnight for a war in Iraq, you can find 25 billion to eliminate poverty."
Symbolizing the groundswell spirit of the event, UK chanteuse Annie Lennox performed an aching rendition of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song," tore off her jacket to reveal a glittering shirt for "Sisters are Doing it For Themselves," and concluded with a personal statement.
"I am so pleased and so proud to tell our children that we took part in a campaign with a vision," Lennox said breathlessly as the rain clouds broke and a gentle late evening light fell upon the cheering crowd of 60,000.
"Together our voices will ring out across the world to tell politicians that millions of people dying of poverty is intolerable." To the politicians she cried: "Do nothing at your peril!"
Final Deal Falls Short
In the end the G8 agreed to increase aid to Africa, boosting annual development aid by $25 billion to $50 billion by 2010, and to cancel the debt of 18 of 58 heavily indebted nations. The outcome represented far less than anti-poverty activists had hoped for, which included 100% debt cancellation, trade justice, and immediate doubling of effective aid.
"What Africa needed from the G8 was a giant leap forward - all it got was tiny steps. We have some aid, but not enough; some debt relief, but not enough, and virtually nothing on trade," said Caroline Sande Mukulira, a representative from the NGO ActionAid's South Africa branch shortly after the final communiqué was issued.
There is little in the agreement targeted to women, and that is a mistake, according to Women's Edge Coalition, an economic advocacy group for impoverished women based in Washington DC. Women's Edge emphasizes that research has consistently shown that investing in poor women results in better educated, better fed, and healthier families and nations.
There are two main limitations to the G8 agreement according to Women's Edge Coalition. First, the amount of debt cancelled for a country will be taken off future aid support for that country; there will be a dollar for dollar reduction in aid from the International Development Association (IDA).
"What this deal gives with one hand, it literally takes away with the other," said Ritu Sharma, President of Women's Edge. "Aid will be cut by the exact same amount of the debt that is cancelled. That's a poor deal for poor women."
Second, there was no mention of changing unfair global trade rules that make it impossible for developing nations to compete, especially with the generous agricultural subsidies Western countries provide to agribusiness. Women produce 60 to 80 percent of the food in poor nations, and the vast majority are small farmers.
"The best chance of improving long-term economic development is to support women, who work 70 percent of the hours in the global economy," said Sharma.
Rejecting Excuses
The US administration proved the most hesitant to take bold steps for Africa, arguing that they had recently announced pledges to double aid to Africa by 2010, in the form of the Millennium Challenge Account and HIV-AIDS.initiatives. But relatively little of that commitment represents new money.
The US also revealed their overarching philosophy to resolving global poverty. "It is up to the developing world itself to take the lead on these issues," said John Simon, Director of Humanitarian Affairs for US Administration, addressing a group of American activists in Edinburgh. "Africa's future can only be determined by the African people alone, not by a group of people outside the country," he said. The corruption of African leaders was regularly cited as a main sticking point for withholding increased aid and debt relief.
Women leaders rebutted that there were other civil society channels through which effective aid could be delivered at low cost. Moreover, they argued that Western nations and corporations are implicated in much of the corruption in Africa and local groups were not standing by, but actively campaigning for government accountability.
"It is true that Africans must take the lead," said Patience Coleman, an 18-year-old youth leader from Liberia. "We are doing that as best we can, but all we are asking for is a fair chance, especially for women's education and empowerment, so that we can better take initiative."
Others indicated that G8 nations are having a crippling effect on the developing world because they are responsible for 84 percent of global arms exports to unstable countries like Sudan, Republic of Congo, Colombia, and Myanmar.
"How can G8 commitments to end poverty and injustice be taken seriously if some of the governments are undermining peace and stability by approving arms transfers to repressive regimes, regions of extreme conflict or countries who can ill afford them?," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
Spurred On
African leader Battu Beatrice Jambawai claims that she is only spurred on by the conclusion of the summit. "I am challenged to do more work when I get home and encourage civil society to influence our governments," she says. "I am living so that I can continually speak out. The courage, unity, sacrifice, and perseverance of our African communities is unbelievable. We are striving for a deeper level of advocacy and to tell our whole stories. We are the mustard seeds that will grow and spread."
"African women are no longer dying for Africa, but living for Africa!," declared the captivating Wahu Kaara, a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee from Kenya, who jumped atop seats during a press conference early on at London's Heathrow airport. Kaara brought tears to the eyes of many in the crowd, even though most of the television cameras had melted away following celebrity Live 8 founder Bob Geldof's speech to the group.
"We are witnessing a historical moment and building linkages with the people of the world, creatively and energetically. We are UNSTOPPABLE!"
One thing is certain, in the aftermath of the G8 meeting African women leaders will be anything but idle as they organize for additional opportunities to break through debates at the upcoming Millennium Development Summit in September and the World Trade Organization meeting in December.
And if those advocating for an end to poverty in Africa continue to ignore the advice of grassroots women leaders intimately familiar with extreme poverty, it will surely be difficult, if not impossible, to reach their own goals.
Reporting from Edinburgh, Scotland, Jensine Larsen is the Founding Editor of World Pulse Magazine: Women and children transforming our world.
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