- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday July 5 2005 12.15 BST
Hundreds of schoolchildren will conclude their part in the G8 debate today when they present a communique to ministers.
Today is Make Poverty History children's day and both the C8 conference, run by Unicef in Dunblane and the J8 conference, which is the Department for Education and Skills' conference for schoolchildren, will wrap up their talks on what they want the G8 leaders to achieve in Gleneagles this week.
One of the Make Poverty History charities involved in the children's day, Plan International, released the findings of a survey today which revealed that 72% of the 10 to 17 year-olds think world leaders could do more to tackle poverty worldwide and 61% said they did not think politicians were doing enough to reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
Shuena Mohamad, from Langdon school in Newham, east London, who is taking part in both conferences today, said last night that the children had developed a plan for how the UK could pay to improve the education system in Uganda. She said: "I would say to him [Tony Blair] that in 1997 when he started his election he focused on education. If he can offer us education and he has the chance to offer the kids in Africa education then I think he should do something about it."
Shuena will be part of the J8 delegation to go to take part in a ceremony at the Scottish parliament today attended by the Scottish first minister, Jack McConnell, and the English schools minister, Jacqui Smith, to present their ideas on how to tackle poverty in Africa and climate change.
Over 100 pupils from around the UK and some in other G8 countries have taken part in the conference after winning a national competition which saw them draw up manifestos for change to tackle either climate change or poverty.
Mr McConnell will also visit the final day of the C8 summit, which has seen young people from some of the poorest countries in the world, including Bhutan and Sierra Leone, meet with children from the G8 countries.
They have discussed issues such as poverty, HIV/Aids and education with youngsters from Britain, France, Germany and Italy for three days. The 16 youngsters, aged from 11 to 18, will produce a manifesto to be presented to world leaders when they arrive for the G8 summit at nearby Gleneagles in Perthshire.
Plan International, which works with families in Africa on development projects, released its survey to mark a project called the Young People's Commission for Africa, which it has been running in the lead-up to G8. The project brought hundreds of 11 to 17-year-olds together from 52 schools in Africa and the UK to discuss challenges facing young people in Africa, where nearly 50% of the population is aged between five and 24.
