Women form the vast majority of the 1.2 billion people living on less than US$1 a day; they work 70% of the hours in the global economy and produce 60 to 80% of the food in economically poorer countries.

They will be the biggest winners if the G8 increases aid by US$48 billion by 2010 and cancels US$40 billion worth of debt as recently promised.

The 18 countries whose debt will be cancelled will save an average of US$1 billion a year in debt service payments for the next 10 years.

Properly invested, this could mean major improvements in the lives of women, and research shows that investing in economically poor women results in better educated, better fed and healthier families.

However, there is no guarantee that these new aid commitments will be met or that the increased aid and debt cancellation will actually be new money.

The amount of debt cancelled for a country, for example, could be taken off future aid support for that country in the form of a dollar-for-dollar reduction in other aid from the World Bank.