Activists slam G8's aid shell game

The G8 bloc of wealthy nations promised five billion dollars Saturday for health and nutrition programs that benefit women and children in developing countries. The five-year Muskoka initiative announced at the annual G8 meeting, this year outside of Toronto, is intended to help prevent the deaths of hundreds of thousands of women and babies who currently die during childbirth each year. Nearly eight million children, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, die before they reach the age of five. Flavia Bustreo, director of the Geneva-based Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, which represents more than 300 global and national organizations, welcomed the world's richest countries' focus on maternal and child health, which is a historical first, she said. However, she told IPS from Geneva, "The glass is half-full when it comes to their financial commitment." Oxfam and other NGOs also charge that G8 donor nations have been playing a shell game - making multi-billion-dollar commitments at such meetings but without increasing their overall spending on overseas development aid.