Dear G8 Leaders, don’t lie about your aid

The Leaders of the top eight economies in the world are coming to the G8 Summit in Deauville, France this year with a lot of explaining to do.

In 2005, the heads of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States made a $50 billion aid promise to the world’s poor by 2015. But Oxfam and others have discovered that they are severely off track and have fallen $19 billion short. Of the promised $25 billion promised to Africa, only $11 billion has really been delivered.

The G8’s cover-up attempt

Worse still, we found out that the G8 is using creative accounting to cover its lack of progress. In the report they put out this week, just before the Summit, the G8 members claimed to have delivered almost $18 billion more than they actually have done. This is a scandal.

So as G8 leaders gather next week to focus on the global issues that affect us all, we must seize the moment and bring their focus back to the 925 million people who suffer from hunger. Their promises mean life or death for the world’s poorest.

Twitter action

Now is the time to call out the missed opportunities, and get the G8 back on track. Before and during the Summit, Oxfam will be calling on world leaders to re-commit to their promises, but we need your voice to make our message louder!

Help us keep the G8 honest by adding your voice on Twitter: Send a message to the leaders of the G8 by using #DearG8 and #G8!

We’ll be pushing for recommitments on aid, with a strong focus on the nearly 1 billion people living in poverty, and an investment in agriculture to solve the problems that plague us today. Here are some ideas for powerful tweets to the G8 leaders, but we want to see you get creative!

#DearG8, now is the time to recommit and help feed our growing planet! #G8
#DearG8, cooking the book won’t feed anyone! Don’t lie about your #aid. #G8
#DearG8, food security is global security! Your #aid saves lives. #G8
#DearG8, your #aid promises could have gotten every child in school. Don’t fail them again. #G8

What you can do: