So far, the U8 has had one summit every year. While the first two summits were clearly aiming to be global summits bringing the entire U8 network together, the following ones focussed on the UK/Europe region, which became necessary due to the expansion of the network.

• Cambridge University 2006
• Warwick University 2007
• SOAS University 2008
• Cambridge University 2009

Inaugural Summit, March 2006, Cambridge, UK

The first summit had the theme “Inequality” and was held in March 2006. 80 students representing 17 different nationalities were split into four content teams to conduct research focussing on one of social, income, gender or global inequality. Each team spent time further investigating and discussing questions related to the theme of inequality taken from the DfID White Paper consultation, before coming together at the U8 Summit to discuss their research and opinions in person and to produce an outcome document. This document was then presented to the Permanent Secretary of DfID for input into the DfID White Paper consultation process.

In addition, the summit also featured some development professionals with differing perspectives to debate the topic ''After 2005: Development Challenges and Perspectives”. The debate was mediated by Benny Dembitzer, International Development Consultant, Ethical Events Ltd., and had the following speakers:

Ø Masood Ahmed; (Director General of the Policy and International Department for International Development)

Ø Barbara Stocking; (Director of Oxfam)

Ø Danny Quah; (Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics)

Ø Kurt Hoffman; Director of the Shell Foundation)

Ø Nkosano Moyo; (Managing Partner of ACTIS, former Minister of Industry and International Trade, Zimbabwe)

Second Summit, March 2007, Warwick University, UK

Over 140 students from 20 universities attended this summit for three days of discussions and events. Again, the summit was focussed around research topics and the content team members spent most of Saturday finishing their research and producing the outcome documents. The speaker event on Sunday, entitled “To what extent do developing countries have a say in the policies that affect them?” attracted over 500 people, and was chaired again by Benny Dembitzer of Ethical Events Ltd. It featured:

Ø Salil Shetty, Director of the UN Millennium Campaign;

Ø Kingsley Moghalu Director and Head of Global Partnerships and Resource Mobilization at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria;

Ø HE Dr Kuban Mambetaliev the Kyrgyz Ambassador to the UK;

Ø Professor Franklyn Lisk of the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick

In addition the U8 held a roundtable meeting on development awareness and education with representatives from 12 charities, which aimed to bring together like-minded organisations to share views and perspectives for increasing awareness and understanding of development issues. From the meeting it appeared that each organisation was operating along a scale of promoting active global citizenship. Many bilateral partnerships were generated through the event.

Strategic Reorientation of the Summits

The U8 very much started its activity with groups in Europe. However, as the organisation expanded to become a global network it became increasingly more difficult to organise summits for the organisation as a whole. The Warwick summit in particular highlighted these problems, with a group of students from Ethiopia having problems getting their visas and other groups having to spend a lot of effort with fundraising in order to be able to afford flights. It was therefore decided that each region should try and organise their own summit – thus cutting travel costs and visa problems. However, this has not been easy to put this concept into practice. The U8 started by taking part in several conferences in other regions, such as in the Balkans and in India. However, organising U8-branded conferences outside of Europe has so far been unsuccessful despite our best efforts, since most groups lack the resources to organise a big conference. Within Europe, however, we continue to hold regional conferences as we feel that the face to face interaction is crucial to maintaining the tangibility of U8 activity.

London Summit, March 2008, SOAS, London, UK

The London Summit was organised by the SOAS U8 group under the direction of Anni Leppänen. The two day summit started early on Saturday with a motivating speech by Mr David Woollcombe, President of the Peace Child International. The day progressed with a series of “World Cafés” – an opportunity for U8 members to exchange ideas on a variety of topics and skills workshops. In the evening, a competition was held in Dragon’s Den style in order to find the best ideas for new U8 activities.

On Sunday, further discussion groups, skills workshops and action planning sessions followed, as well as a networking session for U8 groups to meet and exchange ideas, as well as best practice.

Cambridge International Development Summit, May 2009, Cambridge, UK

In the 2008/09 year the U8 Directorate was particularly geographically spread and locally focussed activity was difficult to organise as a result. The Cambridge International Development Summit (CIDS) was the first attempt of the U8 to work together with a different organisation to hold a joint Summit. CIDS was a collaborative effort of the U8, represented by its Cambridge Group CUID (Cambridge University International Development) and the Humanitarian Centre, a local Cambridge international development umbrella organisation.

On Friday the Summit kicked off with DfID Head of Human Development Peter Colenso giving the opening speech on the new DfID White Paper “Eliminating World Poverty - Assuring our Common Future”.

Saturday was a day featuring a full programme of lectures and workshops divided into five themed strands: Economics, fragile earth, gender, education and conflict. In the evening, the Global Poverty Project had its UK wide opening ceremony which was accompanied by entertainment acts and was met with great enthusiasm by the U8 members.

Sunday featured some U8 members presenting their research projects, some skills workshops for research and society management skills, as well as a discussion round. The members considered questions such as how students can best influence policy, what should be done as a result of the conference and which topics the U8 should prioritise in its future work.

Photos of the summit, further information and the outcome document can be viewed on www.cids2009.org.uk.