The $1.1 trillion verdict's out. But what does it mean for poor countries?

So the G20 verdict's out. Obama and the rest of the visitors have jetted off. And a full communiqué - dazzling with lines of 'restoring growth', 'financial supervision' and the (incomprehensibly ginormous) '$1.1 trillion cash injection' - arrived on the summit website late last night.

But what does it all mean?

35,000 people in Hyde Park last Saturday. A weekend of marching through the streets of London. The arrival of the new president and his five-hundred-strong security force. Add in the blanket coverage on the news and papers, and I'm not only trying to figure out where the last five days of my life went, but also wondering what victories Oxfam can claim.

I'll try to break down some of the announcements here (there's more detailed analysis from Duncan Green, our Head of Research, here).

Tax Havens
They're not only the hang-outs of flamboyant businessmen, tax havens also cause developing countries to miss out on up to $124 billion every year in lost income (to put that into perspective, $16bn a year would be sufficient to give every child in the world a school place).

According to one of Oxfam's G20 Voice bloggers (who questioned Gordon Brown directly and simultaneously made blogging history), the Prime Minister is making the right noises about clamping down on tax havens, and yesterday's final G20 communiqué says that "the era of banking secrecy is over".

A step in the right direction? Yes. But the next leap is for the G20 to put words into action.

The stories that have barely made the headlines since the global financial crisis began are those of job losses in poor countries and the impact on their economies.

Though we welcome yesterday's announcement of a $50 billion rescue package for poor countries, it pales into significance when you compare it to the proposed $8.4 trillion bailout of rich country financial institutions. And considering that the portion allocated is a fraction of the $1.1 trillion total - poor countries are hardly set to get an equal share of the global bailout pie.

Climate change
Distinctly lacking from the discussions was any progress on tackling climate change. The best we got was a vague plan to create "low carbon technologies and infrastructure". But quite what this means is anyone's guess.

A binding commitment to keeping global warming below 2°C? Missing. Money set aside to help poor countries adapt to rising sea levels and the effects of increased drought? Not even a mention.

Action on climate change has been delayed until later this year. Exactly the opposite of what we were calling for. (Though there might be some progress at the EU-US meetings happening this week - but more about that next week).

It's a mixed bag of results, but one victory that we can claim that wasn't in the communiqué is that the G20 has now well and truly arrived.

Though there's a long way to go before all the world's 192 countries are represented at such summits, the G20 is a move away from the elite decision making process associated with the G8 (where developing countries would normally only be invited for a press photo on the last day of negotiations).