For International Development

1. Reaction to the G8 agreement

    

   Responding to the G8 agreement on tax, Sally Copley, Enough Food For Everyone IF spokesperson, said:

   "Today’s G8 tax deal is a step in the right direction, but it also leaves major unfinished business.

   "Although the G8 has set out the right ambition on information exchange, poor countries battling hunger can’t afford to wait to be included.

   "It’s progress that more tax authorities will know who owns phantom firms so they can crack down on them, but a summit focused on transparency can’t justify keeping this information secret.

   "The public argument for a crackdown on tax dodging has been won, but the political battle remains. Future G8s and G20s must urgently finish the job."

   G8 leaders also made agreements on trade and transparency, adopting an Open Data Charter and committing to IATI, the International Aid Transparency Initiative.

   Bond members Development Initiatives and Publish What You Fund welcomed the move, saying that "The G8 is finally delivering on aid transparency promises with all countries committing to full and timely implementation. IATI will enable governments, parliaments and citizens in both developing and donor countries to follow the money and make sure that aid delivers results, increasing accountability and effectiveness."

   David Cameron acknowledged the key asks of the IF Campaign when he said that "We will continue to work with the poorest countries to help lift people out of poverty by keeping our aid promises and being accountable to the public for them. We will accelerate efforts to tackle the under-nutrition that blights millions of lives."

   Read the IF Campaign's full press release and the G8 Leaders' Communiqué.

2. Beginning of the end for tax havens?

    

   On 15 June, the UK Government hosted a high-level pre-G8 summit Open for Growth focusing on trade, tax and transparency.

   David Cameron welcomed an agreement by the UK's Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies to sign up to a tax evasion clampdown. Further plans were announced that will require all UK companies to register full details of their beneficial owners, including offshore subsidiaries.

   Melanie Ward, spokesperson for the Enough For Everyone IF campaign, said: "The acid test of the Prime Minister's efforts will be whether he delivers a G8 deal that clamps down on tax haven secrecy and phantom companies and will help poor countries collect the money they need to end the scandal that sees 1 in 8 people go to bed hungry."

   Open data was also on the agenda with Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude highlighting some of the main challenges ahead. 

   To show the government’s own commitment it has launched data.gov.uk and the Development Tracker (beta version) – providing a wider range of its data and information making it more accessible to the public.

3. 1.4 million messages to the Prime Minister

    

   1.4 million messages from people calling on the G8 to tackle hunger were handed to the Prime Minister ahead of the formal opening of the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland by Ben Jackson, Bond’s CEO and Chair of the IF campaign, and representatives from the campaign, including Senegalese singer Baaba Maal.

   Ben Jackson said: "The Prime Minister told us that the support of thousands of campaigners had really made a difference in pushing issues like greater tax transparency to help developing countries to the top of the G8 agenda. We welcomed the agreements on escalating global efforts to tackle under-nutrition and ensure UK-linked tax havens open up. But we also strongly stressed the need for the UK to secure concrete commitments from the G8 to close international tax loopholes and stop land grabs."

   Read more:

   IF Campaign live blog from the G8

   Kofi Annan on G8 tax and transparency

   G8 must not freeze out poor countries

4. Big IF Belfast rally draws thousands

    

   On Saturday, two days before the start of the crucial G8 summit at Lough Erne Northern Ireland, thousands of people braved the bad weather to attend the Big IF Belfast rally in the city's Botanic Gardens. The crowds made a massive noise to tell world leaders that it's time to tackle the scandal that sees one in eight people go to bed hungry every night. The rally featured a great line up of musicians and speakers including Two Door Cinema Club, award-winning actor Jim Broadbent, Frank and Mwajuma two teenage campaigners from Tanzania, the Belfast Community Gospel Choir amongst others.

   Follow @Bondngo and @EnoughFoodIF for regular updates from the G8 summit today and tomorrow.

5. Crackdown on tax dodging could end hunger

    

   Poor countries could eliminate hunger by 2025 with just a quarter of the money they currently lose to tax dodging by multinational companies, the Enough Food IF campaign said today.

   This weekend, David Cameron will host the Open for Growth: Tax, Trade and Transparency Summit, where G8 representatives have the chance to lay the groundwork towards an ambitious tax reform deal at the G8 Summit (17-18 June). But the IF campaign warned there is ‘a grave danger’ that any deal could exclude poor countries. 

   IF spokesperson, Melanie Ward, said: “Tax dodging is immoral and indefensible wherever it takes place, but in the poorest states in the world it has a particularly high human cost. To allow billions to be drained out of poor countries and into tax havens, while millions of people still go hungry is scandalous."

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