The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, had planned to use his
leadership of the G20 this year to highlight some of the needs
of the developing world. Instead, the focus of G20 summit in
Cannes has been on the threat of a Greek default and
destabilization of the eurozone. Europe’s financial crisis
affects more than the 27 members of the European Union. “There
is a direct relationship between the crisis in Europe and flows
of resources to Africa and development efforts around the
world,” says Sam Worthington of InterAction, the largest U.S.
coalition of non-profit organizations devoted to debt relief and
development. “Europe is one of the biggest centers of
remittances around the world,” he explained. “As Europe gets
poorer, those remittances begin to dry up. European banks have a
large presence in Africa, bank credits will also continue to dry
up. And as European countries begin to try to deal with their
own fiscal crises, one of the first areas where we fear we will
see cuts is in official development assi