As eight men gather behind closed doors in Scotland to discuss world poverty and thousands of protesters gather outside, many people in the global North were made aware of the G8 summit over the weekend during Live8, eight concerts held worldwide featuring stars like Madonna, the Dave Matthews Band, Pink Floyd, and yes, even Destiny’s Child.

While I’m of the opinion that if a star-studded lineup is what it takes to bring attention to what is going on in the world, than so be it…I also definitely hear Guardian journalist Madeleine Bunting when she says that event ended up smacking of imperialism:

An entire continent has been reduced to a "scar on the conscience of the world", stripped of its dignity…The images we saw of Africans at Live 8 on Saturday were the dying, the starving and the desperately impoverished. Postcolonialism in a globalising economy is proving even more humiliating for Africa than colonialism: its huge wealth in natural resources sequestered in secret bank accounts; its commodities commanding ever-smaller prices; its vicious wars with the exported arms of the industrial world; its government policies dictated from Washington and Geneva…To the partying Hyde Park crowd, Kofi Annan said "thank you". But for what?

For what is right. As organizations like MADRE point out, women in particular having been getting seriously fucked by Washington and Geneva dictated policies for decades now, and since women make up about 70 percent of the world’s poor, all this is obviously a “women’s issue.” As is the debt cancellation for Africa that is being considered at the G8 (which was also one of the main calls of the Live8).

Says Ritu Sharma of the Women’s Edge Coalition: "Women pay the heaviest price for national debts. When governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have to spend $12 billion a year servicing debt, they can't afford education, healthcare, AIDS prevention and clean water, and this hits women and girls the hardest.” Unfortunately, in addition to the imperialist nature of the Live 8 spectacle, there also was little talk of poverty and its specific affects on women, unless you consider Madonna’s photo-op with a young woman from Ethiopia not a reinforcement of Bunting’s point, but a call for women’s rights…

True, it does seem a tad overwhelming to think seriously about ending global poverty, but luckily for us there are tons of organizations—from both the global South and North—that have been working to do just that, and who focus specifically on women. So, while the big boys are hanging out in Scotland, check out: WEDO, AWID, and DAWN (to name just a few) and see what’s up.

Contributed by Gwendolyn Beetham

Ed. note: This post was written before the bombings in London this morning, which some are attributing to the start of the G8 Summit. For up-to-date info, see BBC News.