It's now been a good few day since the end of the G20 in London, and I think I've finally digested this past week's events enough to blog about it properly. From my perspective, there are a few key points I keep coming back to.

The first of which was Douglas Alexander talking about international trade development at the first briefing of the day. I was proud that one of our G20 Voice bloggers, Rowan Davies from Mumsnet (search for policywonk on the site), got the first question in regarding Millennium Development Goal number five. A little plug in here for the site, which very much reflects the aims and ethos of BitchBuzz. For those of you with kids or interested in women's issues, it's a fantastic resource with over 850,000 active readers. Anyway, back to the question. She asked about the goal, which aims to reduce maternal mortality by 75 per cent by 2015. The answer was, as Rowan says herself; 'pretty bluntly, that it's because maternal health is not a political priority for developed countries. Which I thought that was a rather brave admission.' 

I was in the briefing, and thought that it was a pretty good answer as well. Alexander made it clear that providing free universal healthcare to all (encompassing mothers as part of this) was a priority. One of the Mumsnet users referenced a very sobering statistic from one of the Red Nose Day videos on the MN forums, stating that when a mother dies in childbirth, the child is something near to 10 times more likely not to survive past the age 5. This for me combines both points above, and gives a bit of context to the need to reduce maternal mortality and its effect on so many more issues.

I could spend a lot longer referencing some of the points raised by Rowan and the Mumsnet readers, especially surrounding Afghanistan's new regulations that effectively forbid a woman from refusing a request for sex from her husband, and requiring permission from a male family member before visiting a doctor or similar. However, I feel like now is not the time and these are issues that Mumsnet are doing a great job of keeping visible and ensuring are being discussed in a constructive way.

The second part of Douglas' briefing (who I thought was the most responsive of all of the ministers involved in public briefings by the way) centred on the creation of a 'rapid response' social fund, which the UK will be donating $200 million to. This reflected one of the points that Steve Lawson raised on Twitter during Reuter's Zoellick session on Tuesday. 'Do we need a second 'social equity' bank, concerned with things more important than money, that the financial world bank becomes answerable to?'. Well, this fund doesn't provide that exactly, but signals to me that G20 are at least willing to invest in supporting activity based on this concept.

The next high profile briefing I sat in on was Ed Miliband. As he was due to focus on carbon and climate change, I put my Global Cool hat on and went in with an open mind. I wasn't expecting to hear structured plans, but at least something concrete. Unfortunately, after a four minute 'formal' opener consisting almost entirely of the words 'highly significant', I walked away none the wiser. Throughout the official Q&A question time, he deferred most questions by saying that 'we're expecting something in the communique to point towards an agreement in Copenhagen'. Although Mr Miliband did come and spend 15 minutes with the G20 Voice bloggers specifically (a fantasic coup for the group), he still didn't provide much insight.

Though it's positive that so many world leaders are on the same page, it did feel throughout the day that everyone was simply 'agreeing to agree'. My fears are that by the time decisions about climate change are made in Denmark, will funds have been properly assigned to action them? I asked him exactly that, and after an amusing repetition of the fact that yes, I do write for a blog with 'bitch' in the title, he agreed with me entirely. Actually, he agreed with what he decided to interpret I was asking, so as not to answer my actual question. His answer came back as; 'yes, we need to assign funds to help developing countries deal with the effects of climate change'. Right, yes, possibly a no-brainer there. Anyway, I respect him for staying with us long enough to answer lots of questions (much to the annoyance of his press officer) and think that he had his hands firmly tied with regards to telling us anything too detailed so as not to steal Brown's thunder.

Brown took centre stage as the communique was made public. Apart from adding an 's' to the end of the word billion every time he quoted a figure, he announced some seriously heavy figures without a hitch (though the definition between the $5 trillion worth of funding already in play and the extra $1 trillion decided on the day wasn't too clear). He mentioned that it had taken 15 years for the world to respond to the 1939 crash with a unified plan, and that the G20 leaders would not hestitate this time around.

In a landmark moment for the blogosphere, Richard Murphy became the first blogger to ever question a world leader at such a high profile event, probing Brown about the news that tax havens would cease to exist. A list of countries with non-compliant processes in place for sharing tax data was published on Thursday, and Richard wondered if this crack down would be implemented immediately, or whether this was a promise that wouldn't be rolled out for years to come. The response was that 'this is the beginning of the end', which is slightly non-commital, but Richard was still reletively pleased. I felt that the steps being taken to regulate international accountancy standards and credit rating systems was a good signal for increased financial transparency.  

Most of the journos and bloggers were waiting with baited breath for US President, Barack Obama, and he didn't fail to impress. The man was obviously tired, and had apparently been fighting illness all week. Despite this, he held the room like no speaker I've ever seen, spending the majority of his 45 minute session taking questions, and pushing for those with an international presence to step forward. I was impressed with the US' pledge to provide $448 million especially for aid, and that this should not be seen as charity since the countries in question are growth markets of the future for everyone. His continuing diplomacy even when being asked some difficult questions by the likes of the BBC was impressive, and I approved of the reference to his 'era of responsibility' concept not stopping at the borders of the US.,/p>

I mentioned the objectives of the G20 Voice bloggers in my post from Wednesday, and feel like real progress has been made in achieving those goals. In the key communique announcement, Brown said that 'now is not the time to walk away from those suffering', which was a direct corrleation to our attempt to ensure that those in need are not neglected in the face of economic downturn. $50 billion has been promised to support this goal.

Some of the G20 Voice group felt that their countries still hadn't been represented fairly, which is an important aspect to consider when involving bloggers in these political Summits in the future. A representative from Global Voices, a network that translates posts from various blogosphere microcosms across the world into different languages joined us for our analysis session. Jotman in particular (one of the first to cover the 2006 coup in Bangkok from the ground) mentioned that without GV, he wouldn't have been able to report back with the immediacy and reach that he has and continues to provide. Incorporating tools like this into the projects will allow G20 Voice and its offshoots to reach areas like Brazil and Japan as well as English-speaking nations.

For me, a large part of the day was not just about what was being said, but the experience of being there. Though many of the G20 Voice bloggers are extremely knowlegable in the areas of politics and economics, the majority of us weren't and still aren't experts. I was lucky to have found myself sitting next to Anthony Painter, a political blogger whom I was able to question and analyse the communique with. Lloyd Davis and I talked briefly yesterday about the need for additional layers between the hardcore pundits wheeled out to the press, and the G20Voice bloggers. As the group sat down yesterday to feed back to improve and secure blogger presence at future events, the need for these kinds of resources is vital to help us make the outcomes relevant and understandable to a mass audience.

Like many others,  I used the time in between briefings to talk to other bloggers and journalists, comparing experiences with other nationalities and sourcing the stories running below the surface. This was hugely beneficial, as it's provided me with a multiple of different opinions on Thursday's events. From my point of view, this is what G20 Voice was all about, as it was the diversity of the group that made the few days and coverage of it so rich. As for next steps, I've caught the bug and am now keen to continue covering many of the issues covered. I'll remain being involved with Oxfam and the Voice projects of the future, and believe that the most interesting analysis of the Summit is yet to come as we all take stock over the coming weeks.