This year the G8 is meeting in L'Aquilla, Italy. The world economy, climate change, Africa and development and the hunger crisis are all on the agenda, yet the world's poorest are excluded.

That's where ActionAid comes in. We have daily contact with people going hungry,  villages threatened by climate change related droughts and floods, and workers losing their jobs in the global recession. We will be there to bring the needs of the communities we work with front and centre.

2 + 2 = 5 09/07/09

The Preliminary Accountability Report is the G8’s big attempt to convince the world they are on track to keep their aid promises...

Hot and cold on Obama 09/07/09

The most excitement in the press corps I’ve seen at the G8 summit so far was the rush to get into Obama’s press conference...

The global and the local 08/07/09

Today started at the Pizza del Populo for a photo stunt by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. This international coalition...

Travel Travails 07/07/09

I can’t believe how long it took to get to Rome. I left my house at 8:30 and didn’t check into the hotel until 7:30. That’s only 6:30 UK time, but still!

Making a fuss about aid and development 06/07/09

It was leaks central in the aid and development world this weekend. The Independent reported from Kabul that Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) was...

Meet the press  01/07/09

As part of our preparations for the G8, Asha and I are meeting a few key journalists this week. The aim is to get them excited about development issues so that the needs...

Sherpas, Ministers, meetings about meetings  29/06/09

The G8 is actually a lot more involved than you might think. There isn’t just one meeting in July; there is a whole calendar full of meetings. A whole cast of characters is involved...

Doing strange things with my hands 01/07/09

The G8 is just weeks away, and a whole team is involved in our preparations. Meeting politicians, preparing briefing papers, making travel arrangements: lots of people are hard...