As disappointing as the violent actions of a small group of people around the G20 meeting is the fact that there is almost no coverage of the G20 and G8 issues in both mainstream and alternative media. I’d really like to know what’s at stake in the decisions being made behind the G20 security fence and why 10,000 people came out to protest in the rain. Or, what happened at the G8 meeting? Who really knows … other than an announcement: $5 Billion for maternal health. Sounds good, but some say this is not enough — why? What would it really take to ensure that women and children don’t die preventable deaths? How would that number fit into our budget? And what about climate change? Poverty? Broken windows and masked rock throwers make “good news,” but the disproportionate focus on this angle of the events takes away from discussion of important issues.

That’s where I started my research this morning. I had to dig a bit but I found some articles I think would interest you. For example, did you see the statement that came out of the G8 Meeting (known as the Muskoka Declaration)?  I would really challenge the media and other organizations to do a proper analysis of this statement based on two angles: (1) What difference will this declaration make to the state of our world if implemented as worded? (2) Based on past promises and actions, what are the chances of that coming to pass? In the meantime, I have included the part about maternal health as this is of significant concern to many:

8. Progress towards MDG 5, improving maternal health, has been unacceptably slow. Although recent data suggests maternal mortality has been declining, hundreds of thousands of women still lose their lives every year, or suffer injury, from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Much of this could be prevented with better access to strengthened health systems, and sexual and reproductive health care and services, including voluntary family planning. Progress on MDG 4, reducing child mortality, is also too slow. Nearly 9 million children die each year before their fifth birthday. These deaths profoundly concern us and underscore the need for urgent collective action. We reaffirm our strong support to significantly reduce the number of maternal, newborn and under five child deaths as a matter of immediate humanitarian and development concern. Action is required on all factors that affect the health of women and children. This includes addressing gender inequality, ensuring women’s and children’s rights and improving education for women and girls.

9. G8 members already contribute over US$4.1 billion annually in international development assistance for maternal, newborn and under-five child health (MNCH). Today, we, the Leaders of the G8, working with other Governments, several Foundations and other entities engaged in promoting maternal and child health internationally[1] endorse and launch the Muskoka Initiative, a comprehensive and integrated approach to accelerate progress towards MDGs 4 and 5 that will significantly reduce the number of maternal, newborn and under five child deaths in developing countries. The scope of the Muskoka Initiative is specified in Annex I. Our collective undertaking will support strengthened country-led national health systems in developing countries, in order to enable delivery on key interventions along the continuum of care, i.e., pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, childbirth, infancy and early childhood.

10. To this end, the G8 undertake to mobilize as of today $5.0 billion of additional funding for disbursement over the next five years[2]. Support from the G8 is catalytic. We make our commitments with the objective of generating a greater collective effort by bilateral and multilateral donors, developing countries and other stakeholders to accelerate progress on MDGs 4 and 5. We therefore welcome the decisions by other governments and foundations to join the Muskoka Initiative. The Governments of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain and Switzerland, subject to their respective budgetary processes, and the Bill and Melinda Gates and UN Foundations have now or have recently committed to additional funding of $2.3 billion to be disbursed over the same period.

11. We fully anticipate that, over the period 2010-2015, subject to our respective budgetary processes, the Muskoka Initiative will mobilize significantly greater than $10 billion.

12. As a consequence of the commitments made today towards the Muskoka Initiative, this support, according to World Health Organization and World Bank estimates, will assist developing countries to: i) prevent 1.3 million deaths of children under five years of age; ii) prevent 64,000 maternal deaths; and iii) enable access to modern methods of family planning by an additional 12 million couples. These results will be achieved cumulatively between 2010-2015. We will track progress on delivering commitments through our accountability reporting, which, in 2011, will focus on health and food security. In line with the principle of mutual accountability, we expect these joint commitments will encourage developing countries to intensify their own efforts with regard to maternal and child health, leading to the saving of many more millions of lives of women, newborn and young children.

Here are some further articles to help put the G8 Muskoka Declaration in context and provide more information about the G20 meeting:

• G8 Muskoka Declaration: Recovery and New Beginnings – same as above but posted by the National Post
• Oxfam’s media briefing– what world leaders have done/need to do to alleviate poverty
• Government of Canada’s statement – $5 million for maternal health, with accountability framework
• Amnesty International — G20 countries’ record on human rights and their statement on the G8 meeting
• A statement on the protest by the Canadian Labour Congress
• Rabble.ca — “G20 coverage for the rest of us” and musings inside the G20 summit
• National Post reports G20 deficit reduction deal is near
• Toronto Star article about the G20 leaders not reaching consensus re: the economy
• Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo’s address to the crowd (video)