Linked with The World Development Movement WDM.
Linked also with Mohau Pheko – South Africa, with The WDM Death Counter, with The International Gender and Trade Network IGTN, and with New social justice movements in a changing reality.
Peter Hardstaff is the Head of Policy, World Development Movement (WDM). As Head of Policy, Peter Hardstaff is responsible for facilitating development of policy, research and advocacy work to support WDM’s campaigns. Prior to joining WDM in April 2002, Peter spent three years leading research and advocacy work on international trade policy issues at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Before joining the RSPB he was a consultant, researching, writing and designing a web site on international trade issues for Friends of the Earth, where he had previously worked for 5 years on forests and wildlife issues. Peter has a degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia and a first class Masters degree in Natural Resource Management from Edinburgh University. (Radical Statistics Issue 89).
He says (about G8 2005): ” »The final communique is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of campaigners who listened in good faith to the world leaders’ claim that they were willing to seriously address poverty in Africa. More importantly it is a disaster for the world’s poor. The agreements on trade, debt, aid and climate change are nowhere near sufficient to tackle the global poverty and environmental crisis we face » … and: « The G8’s approach on trade seems to be ‘Ask not what we can do for the poor, but what the poor can do for us,' ». (full text).
Peter Hardstaff – England
Read: Peter Hardstaff (2000), The Biosafety Protocol, An Analysis.
And he says: « We are tired of world leaders heaping praise on Make Poverty History while simultaneously stabbing us in the back by breaking their promises. » (full text).
Read: Press release: our world is not for sale!
He said also, responding to the outcome of the G8 summit, World Development Movement (WDM) Head of Policy: « The final communique is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of campaigners who listened in good faith to the world leaders’ claim that they were willing to seriously address poverty in Africa. More importantly it is a disaster for the world’s poor.
The agreements on trade, debt, aid and climate change are nowhere near sufficient to tackle the global poverty and environmental crisis we face. We are furious, but not surprised. Calling on the G8 to Make Poverty History this year was always a brave attempt to put aside 30 years of knowledge of G8 failures and suspend our disbelief at the notion that the countries responsible for causing so much poverty could become the solution. A historic breakthrough was promised, instead we saw a tiny step. The deals on debt and aid fall way short of what is needed to achieve global poverty reduction targets and on trade it’s business as usual as the G8 attempt to bulldoze more liberalisation out of the poor. These tiny sums of money are nothing more than a sticking plaster over the deep wounds the G8 are inflicting by forcing failed economic policies such as privatisation, free trade and corporate deregulation, on Africa. Add the lack of anything meaningful on climate change and this once again proves that the G8 is not a legitimate body to be tackling these urgent global problems, this should be the last G8. The minor moves on aid and debt need to be taken forward in other institutions such as the UN where the G8 can’t backtrack on them. The campaign to secure justice for the worlds poor is far from over. » (full text).
He writes about the Cancun 2003 Event: ‘I decided to watch the ceremony on one of the large TV screens placed around the first floor – where NGOs and the media are to be confined for the duration of the Conference – as I needed to work with Dave Timms, WDM’s Press Officer, on our latest press release about the significance of the new developing country coalition on agriculture including India, China and Brazil’.(full text).
Read: Market forces stir up water debate.
Read: Trade talks head for autumn of discontent.
Read: Leaks Reveal G8 Debt Deal Faces Funding Shortfall.
And he said: « By offering such unwarranted praise for the dismal deal signed by world leaders [Geldof] has done a disservice to the hundreds of thousands of people who marched in Edinburgh, » (full text).
Read in german: « Nieder mit der WTO« .
links:
This press release July 24, 2006;
World Development Movement WDM;