G8 Parliamentarians' Conference in Tokyo, July 2-3 2008

A week before the G8 Summit takes place on the Hokkaido island in Japan, the third annual G8-Parliamentarians’ Conference was held in Tokyo on July 2nd and 3^rd.

The main topics which were discussed are Global Health, Climate Change and Food Security. The 50 participants from the G8-countries, as well as from Africa and Asia were holding speeches and discussed the different subjects.

As this conference was a subsequent event to the G8-Parliamentarian’s Conference 2007 in Berlin, the process which has been made so far was addressed.

Five members of the development and health committees of the German Bundestag were taking part in the conference in Tokyo. With this the German delegation provided the biggest number of G8 parliamentarians.

Ms. Sibylle Pfeiffer, chairperson of DSW ´s Parliamentary Advisory Committee (PAC) was holding a speech concerning the outcome of the G8-Summit 2007 in Heiligendamm and the actions, which have been undertaken by the PAC in this matter. Another member of the DSW´s  PAC, Dr. Sascha Raabe,  was participating at a panel discussion on ways to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

In the end of the conference, which was supported by DSW, a final appeal to G8- members to call their attention on the above mentioned topics was presented. The G8 Summit 2008 will mainly focus on the future of Africa, climate change and new energy resources. Furthermore, Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda announced that child and maternal health will be a topic of importance for the summit.

The Parliamentary Appeal to G8 Heads of State and Governments can be downloaded here.

Read the conference background paper.

Please click here to download the programme of the conference.

More information on the G8 Parliamentarians’ Conference in Berlin 2007 is available here.