Fatal Indifference: The G8, Africa, and Global Health

A very welcome and important contribution to understanding the rapidly changing policy environment surrounding global health.... A highly recommended read.
— Kelley Lee (Chair, WHO Scientific Resource Group on Globalization, Trade and Health)

The G8 (the United States, England, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia, the European Union, and Canada) represents the major political driver of contemporary globalization. It is also the most powerful political force behind the multilateral institutions that are shaping global economic practice and governance.  The aid, trade, and investment policies and practices of G8 member nations largely shape the development possibilities of poorer countries around the world.

This book provides a “report card” of commitments over the past three G8 summits (1999, 2000, and 2001) with a preliminary assessment of the most recent 2002 summit in Kananaskis, Canada. It presents findings from the G8 Research Centre at the University of Toronto (Canada), which has been tracking compliance on G8 commitments for a number of years. Based on research funded by IDRC, the book extends these assessments of compliance to an examination of how adequate G8 commitments are to global development needs.

The authors

Ronald Labonte is Director of the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit and Professor at the Universities of Saskatchewan and Regina in Canada.

Ted Schrecker is Associate Scientist with the Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario, Canada.

David Sanders is Professor and Director of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.

Wilma Meeus is Research Associate at the School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.