On the eve of the third G20 Summit since the global economic crisis began, Jubilee USA and the United Nations Millennium Campaign, hosted a blogger roundtable, Tuesday, June 22, to launch a new report entitled “Making the Grade? The Group of G20’s Commitments to the World’s Poorest”.

Melinda St. Louis, Deputy Director of Jubilee USA, outlined the 13 specific commitments made by the G20, which were individually graded based on two different methodologies: (1) “Is the G20 on track in delivering upon their commitments?” and, (2) “Are these commitments meeting the needs of the lowest-income countries?.”

Overall, the report gave G20 leaders a “D” grade based on findings that reveal little progress has been made since their last summit on development commitments. In fact, the G20 has delivered just $1.2 billion in new resources to the 2.7 billion residents of the 78 lowest-income countries – approximately the same amount the Canadian government will be spending on security alone as host of the 2010 G8 and G20 summits. Not only are commitments remaining unfulfilled, St. Louis called these commitments “woefully inadequate” in meeting the needs of the world’s poorest.

At the 2009 Pittsburgh summit, G20 leaders heralded the G20 as the premier forum for economic cooperation. St. Louis hopes this poor grade will serve as a “wake-up call” for leaders to live up to their self-proclaimed title and ensure the interests of those countries without a voice, specifically the lowest-income countries, are being looked after. Sering Falu Njie, Deputy Director of Policy for the United Nations Millennium Campaign, cited a “lack of political will” as the main obstacle in fulfilling the G20 commitments. Njie pointed out that Canada has mobilized as much money for the security tab of the upcoming summits as the entire G20 has over the course of a year. “It’s not about asking for new commitments,” Njie argued, “it’s about honoring commitments already made.” In order to ensure commitments are fulfilled, Njie called upon civil society to create pressure in order to build political will. St. Louis and Njie agree that while the G20 serves a purpose, the UN Millennium Development Goals Review Summit allows for a more inclusive forum by providing a voice to the countries that need it the most.

Click here to see the Report Card.