Shelving Promises: World Vision’s Response to Communiqué
World Vision’s review of the Deauville communique was far from glowing. Echoing the observations of many other civil society groups, World Vision criticized the G8 for failing to make progress at previous summit commitments on development, such as the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative created in 2009. The failure to move forward on food security is especially troubling given the rising food prices that are threatening to push millions of people into poverty. Robert Zachritz, government relations director in the USA, had the follow summarizing comments:
“The Deauville G8 seeks to inspire us with the universal values of freedom and democracy; however it needed to be stronger on humanitarian values. Much more urgency was required around global hunger and preventable child deaths.
“These summits set the course for critical decisions affecting what priorities world leaders will address and which they’ll set aside – in Deauville, they set aside development, health and hunger assistance for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable children and mothers.”