A major Faith Leaders Summit will precede the G20 Summit of world leaders in Pittsburgh, United States, setting out a priority agenda for tackling poverty and environmental damage.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank should use their spring meetings to deliver the G20’s promise to protect the world’s poorest countries from economic devastation, development agency Oxfam says.

A pledge by world leaders to pump $1 trillion into the International Monetary Fund will help, “fails to go far enough”, international Catholic development agency Progressio says.

The anti-poverty charity War on Want today condemned Gordon Brown and other G20 leaders for throwing money at the global economic crisis rather than addressing its root causes.