Campaign launched to commit UK to spending 0.7% of income on development aid

Brexit & Foreign Policy

The Global Poverty Promise campaign today asks people to support a new law that would commit the UK to spend 0.7% of national income on development assistance.

Davina McCall, Mariella Frostrup, Annie Lennox, Richard Wilson and Meera Syal were among the big names launching a new poverty campaign today, the fifth anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s Make Poverty History speech in Trafalgar Square.


In a campaign video released today – shown for the first time at the Labour Campaign for International Development’s launch on Monday – people are invited to show their support for a new law that would commit the UK to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on development assistance.

People can do this by signing up to the Global Poverty Promise.

The video (see right) highlights just how small 0.7 per cent is – yet how much of a difference it will make to lives in the developing world.

Mariella Frostrup said:

  

“Forty years ago the UK made a promise to the world’s poor – to spend just 0.7 per cent of our national income on helping poor countries develop. We now have a chance to make that promise a reality, not just for today but for future generations.

“GlobalPovertyPromise.com is our opportunity to show that we keep our promises, even during difficult times. Whether it’s helping Haiti through a disaster or participating in the long term development of Africa the British public has a proud tradition of looking out for those less fortunate, let’s keep it up.”

Five years ago Nelson Mandela’s speech in London ahead of the Gleneagles summit launched the Make Poverty History campaign; today the Department for International Development is publishing an update of the progress the UK has made against the targets set.

Labour has tripled the UK’s aid budget and is committed to spending 0.7% of the UK’s Gross National Income on aid from 2013, with the Overseas Development Bill which was introduced to Parliament last month, while the Conservatives have refused to say they would introduce such a law.

Aid groups are concerned that Tory plans for international development could mean large sums will be diverted from tackling poverty.

• Sign up to the Gobal Poverty Promise and show your support.

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30 Responses to “Campaign launched to commit UK to spending 0.7% of income on development aid”

  1. Jenni Jackson

    RT @leftfootfwd: Campaign to commit Britain to spending 0.7% of income on development aid: http://is.gd/7CSRN

  2. simon

    What do you want to do with the money? Send mugabe and grace on another shopping trip to Dubai? Just get out of Africa and leave it to the Africans to run their own affairs. And if you have all this spare cash, why not help some of the old people in my village who have lost their post office, can’t afford to heat their homes and have to sell the only thing that they have in this world to be able to afford to go into a home.

  3. Tyler

    How about spending 0.7% of our income reducing the huge deficit Gordon Brown and Labour have wracked up?

  4. David Taylor

    @ Fony Blair et al.

    DfID’s aid is independently monitored and is accountable. It’s not going into anyone’s pockets.

    On Cameron’s pledge on 0.7% how can the Tories pledge on 0.7% be trusted when the slashed the aid budget when they were last in power? They should put their money where their mouth is and back the bill, and promise they won’t divert the aid budget to climate change or MoD.

    https://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/01/analysing-the-tories-claims-about-the-commonwealth/

  5. Liz McShane

    Tories – same old nasty party then….

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