The report, Beyond the London Summit, considers how well the UK government has done against the 12-point manifesto released by Put People First ahead of the G20 London Summit.

It finds that the UK government missed a chance at the G20 summit to put issues of fundamental economic reform at the centre of the international agenda.

While some small steps were taken on the 12 points, the G20 leaders legitimised and strengthened the existing institutions which have been responsible for overseeing the failed policies.

In particular, it finds:

• Reforms to the way the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are governed have been brought forward, but without commitments on accountability and transparency
• The IMF has been given a large increase in resources in order to counteract the crisis in developing countries, but this will come with damaging conditions attached for most countries and will not sufficiently fund social protection systems
• Action still needs to be taken to cancel illegitimate and unpayable debts

The report calls on the UK government to recognise that the financial crisis is not just a banking or a regulation crisis, but a crisis of the entire economic model. It urges the Government not to miss the chance of fundamental reform again at a string of upcoming opportunities – including the UN financial crisis conference in June, the G20 leaders and finance ministers meetings in the autumn, and the Copenhagen climate summit in December.

It makes a series of amended recommendations, including:

• A clearer signal from the UK Government of a break with the past
• Explicit support from the UK Government for the UN’s role in negotiating a new global deal, as the most inclusive and transparent of the international processes, rather than the G8 or G20.
• Publicly push for reforms to the World Bank and IMF to be completed ahead of schedule, and a fundamental shift in the transparency and accountability of these institutions
• Demand that international institutions such as the EU, World Bank and the WTO end the imposition of liberalisation and privatisation models at a global level
• Take a leadership role at upcoming UN, G8, EU and G20 meetings to push countries to provide sufficient grant-based resources for developing countries.
• Demand an end to the IMF’s practice of forcing damaging economic policy conditions on developing countries
• Take a lead internationally in establishing a new way of dealing with international debt, in the form of a fair and transparent debt arbitration mechanism
• Cancelling remaining unpayable debts, and auditing UK debts with a view to cancelling those deemed illegitimate due to irresponsible lending

The report was written by 36 member organisations of the Put People First platform, including Jubilee Debt Campaign.

>> Download the full Beyond the London Summit (June 2009) report

>> Read the original Put People First manifesto (March 2009)

>> TAKE ACTION: Tell the UK to clean up global finance