Huffington Post Series Of Opinion Pieces Examines NGO Priorities For G8

The Huffington Post is running "a series of blogs by leading NGOs to call attention to a range of issues that should be raised at the G8 summit at Camp David in rural Maryland from May 18-19," according to the news service. The following summarizes some of the posts published over the past three days.

• Bob Carter, Huffington Post's "Impact Blog": "The G8 and other donor nations ... must follow through on commitments and enable the continued scaling up of access to diagnosis, care and treatment of people living with HIV and the expansion of prevention efforts, including behavior change," Carter, a missionary physician working in Kenya writes, adding, "And if they want more bang for their buck, they should include the faith-based sector as a strategic partner" (5/12).
• Mahamadou Issoufou, Huffington Post's "Impact Blog": "As President Obama prepares to host this year's G8, I hope he remembers the [agriculture] initiative he kicked off at L'Aquila and gets G8 leaders to step it up and deliver," Issoufou, executive director of the Federation of Unions of Farmers Groups, writes, adding, "If they can muster the courage to prioritize this extremely important issue, they not only can help us in Niger, but they have the chance to lift 50 million people out of hunger and poverty through agriculture" (5/11).
• Victoria Quinn, Huffington Post Blog: As G8 leaders "come together to address a range of economic, political and security issues, strategies for preventing malnutrition must be high on the agenda," Quinn, senior vice president of programs at Helen Keller International, writes, adding, "Only when children are well-nourished and growing to achieve their full human potential can we say our development efforts have been successful" (5/13).
• John Seffrin, Huffington Post's "Impact Blog": "This month, as government leaders gather for the G8 meeting in Camp David, we urge them to consider the looming health and economic costs of chronic diseases. [Non-communicable diseases (NCDs)] strike young and old alike and claim far too many of our most productive citizens," Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society, writes, adding, "The G8 group should acknowledge the profound human and economic toll of chronic diseases and support efforts to bring them under control swiftly" (5/12).
• Neil Watkins, Huffington Post Blog: "The optimist in me is hopeful that President Obama and other G8 leaders will rise to the occasion and do what it takes to make this G8 one that set the world on an irrevocable path to zero hunger," otherwise the meeting "could be remembered as just another summit filled with warm words and conventional wisdom that failed to deliver the change we need," Watkins, director of policy and campaigns at ActionAid USA, writes and lays out several steps the G8 can take (5/11).