A poor Indian beggar girl eating watermelon.

The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations have failed the world’s poor and missed an opportunity to stand up for the most vulnerable children, global charities.

International aid agency Oxfam said that although G7 leaders meeting in Germany made some progress on the issue of climate change they “copped out of delivering any real change” for one billion people living in poverty.

“They are offering a smattering of largely unfunded initiatives to tackle the huge global challenges of hunger, inequality, and disease,” Jorn Kalinski, Oxfam’s G7 spokes-man, said in a statement. “This is a slap in the face for millions of people who don’t have enough to eat or who can’t afford to pay for vital healthcare.”

Oxfam criticised a G7 pledge to lift 500 million people out of hunger and malnutrition, saying it wasn’t backed up with a commitment to provide funds or deliver on target.

Many aid agencies were using the June 7-8 meeting to lobby the G7 leaders for resources in a critical year for development as new international development goals covering the next 15 years are due to be adopted by the UN in September.

World Vision, a global children’s charity, said the two-day summit in Bavaria did not deliver on its agenda that could have had an impact for the world’s most vulnerablechildren, especially those living in conflict.

“We came into this year’s meeting calling for tangible commitments for the world’s most vulnerable children and despite addressing issues like hunger and immunisation, it was nowhere near as ambitious as we would have hoped for,” said Geeta Bandi-Phillips of World Vision UK. “The G7 leaders missed an opportunity to lead the way for the future of children, especially those living with the effects of war and conflicts, and dying from easily preventable causes.”

World Vision said that G7 actions were nothing more than “putting band-aids on symptoms”.

The G7 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US. The summit discussed issues ranging from sanctions on Russia to carbon emissions.