ABSTRACT
The G8 summit at Gleneagles was preceded by unprecedented popular culture rhetoric (the Live 8 concerts and the Make Poverty History wristband campaign) and also by the release of two major research syntheses on the topic. The United Nations Millennium Project was established in 2002 as an advisory body to the UN secretary general, under the directorship of economist Jeffrey Sachs, to explore policy options for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (Sachs and McArthur 2005; UN Millennium Project 2005). The Commission for Africa was established and chaired by Britain’s prime minister Tony Blair in support of an African development focus for the summit (see Commission for Africa 2005). 1 Nevertheless, the author of the August/September 2005 cover story in African Business wondered: ‘So, after the sound and fury of Gleneagles, what are we left with? Have there been any decisive policy changes that will ultimately lead most of Africa out of poverty?’ (Versi 2005). The conclusion: ‘One must say, reluctantly given the well-meaning intentions, that there were not.’
