• What is the Group of Eight Summit?
• How does the fight against corruption relate to the Summit?
• TI assesses progress on G8 commitments
• Holding leaders to account on their commitments: Civil society at the Summit
• TI anti-corruption advocacy in the run-up to the Summit
• Selected links
• News coverage
• Media contacts

The annual summit of the Group of Eight (G8) is an international forum where leaders of eight of the world's most influential industrialised nations get together to address global political, social and economic challenges. The G8 countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the USA. In the last few years emerging economies have been increasingly involved into the debate and decision making process, namely China, Mexico, India, Brazil and South Africa, also known as the Outreach Five (O5). African or Latin American countries are not members of the core group yet, although African leaders, and the AU presidency, are often invited for a half-day session on the specific challenges facing the continent.

The G8 Summit aims to address major global challenges, such as the emerging oil and food crisis, environmental degradation and the stability of the world economy. However, efforts to reduce poverty, combat climate change and promote equitable and sustainable development are undermined where corruption and poor governance flourish.

The 2007 Heiligendamm Summit included the most powerful formulation of a global anti-corruption strategy to-date, recognising the importance of fighting foreign bribery, promoting international anti-corruption conventions as well as transparency in the oil and gas sectors.

Yet, despite the 2007 recognition by the G8 that fighting corruption was one of their “most important tasks”, it has been frustratingly difficult to track measurable outcomes, with key commitments such as ratification of the UN Convention against Corruption, remaining unfulfilled by three of the G8 countries four years on. This year it is up to the Japanese G8 presidency to ensure that this is the summit of action in the global fight against corruption.

TI national chapters in the G8 countries and around the world, have increasingly been scrutinising the leaders’ pledges. They have called on the G8 member states to live up their anti-corruption commitments seriously and, since 2007, have been demanding that they report back on progress made. Fighting corruption and improving governance is the golden thread linking the different issues on the table at the summit and without collective action, the G8’s broader agenda remains threatened.

TI's 2008 G8 Progress Report concludes that more needs to be done in order to effectively tackle corruption and fight poverty, identifying areas where individual member countries have fallen short. It emphasises the leadership role of the G8 in these efforts and demands that they be fully accountable for the commitments they have made.

The four key issues of the report:

Addressing global economic, political and social challenges requires the joint efforts and coordinated action of the entire international community. Civil society plays a vital role in influencing the agenda of the G8. More importantly, civil society is there to demand accountability from leaders about the implementation of the commitments made.

A series of events throughout the year seek to develop common agenda items and advocacy strategies as well as to evaluate long-term progress of the group of eight on key social and environmental issues.

To ensure inclusion of anti-corruption issues on the G8 and civil society agendas , TI Secretariat Managing Director, Cobus de Swardt, took part in the Civil G8 Dialogue, hosted in Kyoto, Japan by the 2008 G8 Summit NGO Forum in April. In a speech delivered there he pointed out that anti-corruption measures are integral to fighting both poverty and climate change and that weak institutions, poor governance practices and the excessive influence of private interests undermine efforts to promote equitable and sustainable human development. He also referred to the special role of the leaders at the summit:

Read Cobus de Swardt's full speech.

Transparency International’s G8 National Chapter Working Group engaged in a programme of targeted advocacy through a series of letters seeking to present the organisations key recommendations to various actors in the development of the Group of Eight agenda. The campaign kicked off with a letter to the G8 sherpas, government representatives that form the operational core of the G8 process and who ‘lead’ their respective heads of state to the Summit. During the first half of 2008, further letters were sent targeting the so-called ministerial meetings which bring together, for instance, development, finance and environmental ministers or directors from the eight countries to develop subject-specific agenda items.

The TI G8 working group also joined forces with 13 African countries to hammer home the importance of mutual accountability across the income divide, and to address the corruption-poverty cycle that perpetuates the suffering of so many on the continent.

• TI 2008 G8 Progress Report: Assessment of the G8's Fight Against Corruption - Time for Accountability (3 July 2008)
• TI 2008 Progress Report on OECD Anti-Bribery Convention Enforcement
• TI 2008 Report on Revenue Transparency of Oil and Gas Companies

TI press releases:

• Lack of action on corruption threatens poverty (7 July 2008)
• G8 falling short on keeping commitments to fight corruption (3 July 2008) (also in Japanese)

Also on the TI website:

• TI Global Corruption Report 2008 on Corruption in the Water Sector (25 June 2008)
• TI OECD Convention Enforcement Progress Report (23 June 2008)
• In Focus: OECD Convention (23 June 2008)
• In Focus: 2007 G8 summit
• In Focus: Promoting Revenue Transparency (28 April 2008)
• Global priorities: Lobbying G8 meetings

Other sites:

• Extensive research on the G8: University of Toronto website: www.g7.utoronto.ca/
• Official G8 website: www.g8summit.go.jp/eng/
• 2008 G8 NGO Forum website: www.g8ngoforum.org/english/

• G8 must fulfill all promises
  The Citizen, Tanzania, 9 July 2008
• G8: Leaders Produce More Than NGOs Expected
  Inter Press Service (IPS), 9 July 2008
• Interview with Jesse Garcia
  Russia Today, July 8 2008
• Group says G8 anti-corruption efforts slow
  United Press International, 7 July 2008
• G8 under fire for 'failure' to tackle bribery
  Financial Times, 4 July 2008
• The Japan G8 in 2008: A New Year's Resolution for delivery on the big questions?
  ODI blog, 20 December 2007