By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News
On Wednesday 8 July world leaders will gather in the earthquake-devastated town
of L'Aquila in Italy for the G8 summit hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlesconi.
He will be joined by US President Barack Obama, who is also visiting Moscow and
will be flying on to Ghana for his first trip to Africa since becoming
President.
The development of Africa is a key part of the G8 summit agenda, following
pledges by world leaders at Glenagles in Scotland in 2005 to increase aid,
which were reaffirmed at the G20 London summit in April
President Obama is expected to reveal a major initiative to boost agricultural
development and prevent hunger in Africa, worth perhaps $3bn ( 1.8bn) to $5bn,
at the summit.
In a report, the charity Action Aid says that a billion people are still hungry
in the world today, and that despite the drop in food prices it is still a key
issue for many developing countries.
And it says that the percentage of foreign aid spent on agriculture has "been
in freefall" in the last 25 years and the remainder is "poorly targeted and
coordinated".
It cites calculations from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, based in
Rome, which suggests that another $30bn in additional investment will be needed
to get smallholder agriculture working again on a sustainable basis.
Financial crisis
Action Aid says that only $5bn of the $10bn pledged at the last G8 summit for
the food crisis has been disbursed, and warns that it could worsen in the next
two years, as the financial crisis pushes another 200 million people into
poverty.
Italy has come under particular fire from anti-poverty campaign group One, set
up by the artist and campaigner Bono after the Gleneagles summit, for missing
its aid targets.
The global response to the financial crisis will also form a key part of the G8
deliberations, although many key decisions may be postponed until the next G20
summit in Pittsburgh in the US in September.
But Professor John Kirton of the University of Toronto, who tracks the G8
summits, argues that "crises tend to bring the best out of G8s".
The issues to be discussed include detailed plans on how to reform the banks so
as to prevent the next crash, and more details of how toxic assets will be
cleaned up from the sector - especially in Europe, which has not published its
"stress tests" that would reveal which banks need more capital.
The US is also likely to renew its call for more fiscal stimulus by Europe,
particularly in 2010, when the recession may be deeper in the EU than in the
US.
And there may be more talk of how to strengthen the role of the new Financial
Stability Board, and further calls for reform of the so-called Bretton Woods
institutions, the World Bank and the IMF.
In a Chatham House briefing paper, Eric Helleiner has suggested that the G8
summit should consider how to reduce the over-representation of European
nations in the voting structure of the IMF, which is the key obstacle to giving
a bigger role to developing countries in those institutions.
China - which will attend the meeting as an observer - is also expected to
renew its call for an international currency to replace the dollar's dominance
in world markets.
Meeting earlier, G8 finance ministers said they detected some hopeful signs in
the world economy, and there also likely to be a vigorous discussion on how to
unwind the massive financial interventions and reduce the huge budget deficits
that have been caused by the downturn.
Climate change
Another major topic on the summit agenda is climate change, ahead of the key
meeting at Copenhagen in December which will decide on what sort of climate
change treaty will replace the Kyoto agreement which expires in 2012.
A key object of the negotiations is to bring on board both the US and the major
emerging market countries China and India into any new agreement.
The Obama administration has taken a very different line from its predecessor
and is now actively engaged in the negotiations, although its climate change
bill was watered down in Congress and now only has a modest 17% target for
reduced emissions by 2020.
Gordon Brown has proposed that the world should provide a $60bn fund to help
developing countries adopt green technology, although campaigners suggest the
fund should be at least $150bn to have a chance of convincing them to join the
new treaty.
With a number of developing countries attending the summit, it will be a chance
for some informal negotiations on this issue, where the US and developing
countries still appear to be deadlocked.
Foreign affairs
The summit is not just about the economy.
Key foreign policy challenges, and in particular maintaining a united front in
relation to Iran and the recent elections, will also play an important part of
the proceedings.
And the meeting will encompass a wider group of world leaders than ever before.
Not to be outdone by the G20 summit, Silvio Berlusconi says the summit will
encompass leaders representing 90% of the global economy, with 40 countries and
international organisations expected to attend.
These include not only the big developing countries which have traditionally
been invited, such as Brazil, India, China, South Africa and Mexico, but also a
number of leaders from Africa, including Nigeria and Egypt, and the leaders of
some smaller European countries such as Spain. Denmark, Sweden and the
Netherlands.
And it could lead to a permanent change in the format.
"The summit in L'Aquila will make clear that the G8 format is no longer
adequate," according to German chancellor Angela Merkel.
The G20 summit may have begun an informal process of widening the scope of
global government.
If the G8 summits are not to lose their relevance, it is clear at least to the
Italians that they also have to continue that trend.
The G8 countries are the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, France, Canada and
Russia.