Think again, G20 sceptics—The world's leaders can give Pittsburgh a truly global vision – if…

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/sep/24/g20-pittsburgh-imf-poverty-climate

Think again, G20 sceptics

The world's leaders can give Pittsburgh a truly global vision – if they address four key issues

Kofi Annan, Amartya Sen, Michel Camdessus
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 24 September 2009 22.30 BST

Almost six months ago, at a moment of great alarm about the global financial and economic crisis, G20 leaders met for a http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/01/g20-summit-barack-obama-arrives">historic summit in London. Their collective commitments to stimulate, regulate and restructure global economic activity helped to calm nerves around the world.

Many of the problems that spurred that summit remain real. Anxiety levels may have come down in boardrooms and stock markets, but the daily drama for survival continues. Indeed, for many in the world's least developed countries it has deepened – particularly in Africa.

The United Nations and the World Bank predict that the direct and indirect effects of the economic meltdown will be felt in the developing world for a long time to come. Jobs have gone, incomes have been lost and opportunities foregone. Tens of millions of people have been added to the hundreds of millions already below the poverty line, reversing progress toward attaining the world's Millennium Development Goals.

The London meeting recognised that the poorest countries and people should not be penalised by a crisis for which they were not responsible. With this in mind, the G20 leaders set out an ambitious agenda for an inclusive and wide-ranging response. If the Pittsburgh summit is not to be an anticlimactic end to the G20's ascendancy as a forum for decisive action, the momentum generated must be maintained. Four issues provide the opportunity to do so.

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