G8 Campaigning - from the Universal Access Road Map

In July 2008 the G8 summit will take place in Toyako, Hokkiado. Early signals suggest that it will be a challenge to get AIDS fully on the agenda. In 2009, Italy will take over the chair of the G8 followed by Canada in 2010.

Before AIDS campaigning starts once again in earnest in 2008, it would be well worth campaigners reviewing what has worked and what has not. Getting a shared body of information on this could guide future efforts already coming together with the early organisation of the Japanese NGO forum on AIDS. There is already a good shared understanding of the importance of joint messaging, common actions, and mobilisation at the national level, including in heavily burdened countries. Yet how to organise this work better, and how to work more effectively together is seldom discussed among those leading on such efforts.

One aim to work towards with G8 AIDS campaigning is for national campaigns to start working on developing their messaging for the G8 early, and in partnership. A concerted national and international campaign would be orchestrated for maximum effect. Ideally, each national message would relate to some shared common messaging so the G8 leaders, officials and developing country representatives hear the same message over and over again, with different local nuances. A similar approach was attempted at the 2007 German G8 summit, with civil society asks being grouped together under a few categories of demand, ranging from intellectual property rights through to strengthening health systems.

There are normally a number of southern heads of state that attend G8 meetings. These heads of state are key conduits of information from south to north. An orchestrated campaign targeting each of these heads of state could ensure, for example, that the contributions of southern delegations to the G8 resonate and enforce what global civil society is petitioning for. Working at the national capitals of the leaders in the North and the South that participate in the G8 process gives best effect.
Campaigners can benefit from early intelligence. For example we already know a little about what might happen in Toyako next year. Preceding the G8 the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) will take place around April/ May 2008 in Jokohama – which recurs every 5 years. At this conference it is expected that the Japanese Prime Minister may make a financial pledge for the Global Fund, and campaigners will be suggesting that they should.

For the G8 summits in 2009 and 2010, understanding what is going to happen in relation to other global agenda items can give campaigners a sense on how to intervene. Any climate change conferences or policy documents are likely to compete for AIDS attention at the G8, and advanced planning is necessary.

There is a new shared website for G8 AIDS campaigning but national campaigns have so far failed to share information on this site with other country efforts. And the site itself is fairly unattractive and managed with the minimum of staff capacity. Looking at how to bolster this site, or invest in new sites could be useful now.

Identifying now who would be the best allies in each of the forthcoming G8 countries: Japan, Italy and Canada would be beneficial, as well as starting early talks about how each can be supported in helping organise efforts. In Japan this is already happening. If each of these country campaigns could participate in some measure of documenting what works and what does not in the G8 campaigning efforts then the future work would be more strategic. Identifying now who would be involved in these discussions, and how they could be organised would all be useful steps if the capacity and the will to take things forward is there.

At a practical level, there is a considerable NGO lobby that attends G8 meetings. Yet this lobby is often not representative of broader civil society, and not able to relay information to and from the actual G8 meeting. In 2007 many campaigners were occasionally frustrated with the lack of information coming out of the G8 from their colleagues inside the meeting. Meanwhile those inside the meeting probably felt that the community beyond were slow in the uptake and dissemination of their breaking news. Particularly imperative is to ensure that there is a joint media and advocacy strategy on some of the key common AIDS advocacy points at the G8. If civil society all prioritise health systems reform, for example, then the media messaging around this should be orchestrated and effective, building on the various documents, petitions and other materials that each group is generating.

Identifying which organisations have the advocacy and policy capacity best placed to advise on G8 campaigning would be useful. Already there are established leaders in some key areas, for example on gender, new prevention technologies and intellectual property rights. Listing and connecting these groups could help, while finding out who can lead on some of the other broader issues would also be beneficial.

Click here to see the full Road Map