KYOTO — The United States' agenda for the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, emphasizes health and development issues, making sure previous agreements are carried out in a publicly accountable way and guaranteeing that developing nations are part of a post-Kyoto Protocol treaty, said the top U.S. official coordinating Washington's role at the G8.
"The issue of accountability in particular is very important to the U.S. It's one thing to make promises and declarations. It's another thing to do the hard work to fulfill that. We're encouraging the G8 to specify at this summit how they are fulfilling the commitments on HIV-AIDS, malaria, polio and tuberculosis," said Daniel Price, who serves as the U.S. "sherpa" to the G8.
The summit is widely seen among nongovernmental organizations as one where bold new initiatives on the environment, poverty and development are unlikely. For African NGOs, the major concern is that $60 billion promised by the G8 at last year's summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, for Africa has yet to materialize.