International development
Eliminating poverty around the world is at the heart of UK government policy. We have increased our official development assistance (ODA) to £6.9 billion in 2006 and we are on track to reach the UN target of 0.7% by 2013.
Our aid has helped to change the lives of millions of people around the world. We have assisted 6 million children in Ethiopia and 17 million in Bangladesh to go to primary school; helped treat HIV and AIDS sufferers in Africa; funded mosquito bednets for 170,000 children in Kenya; brought clean water to nearly 2 million people in India and funded the abolition of primary school fees in Tanzania.
But there is much more to do. Over 10 million children every a year still die before their fifth birthday. Over a billion people do not have access to safe water and 2.6 billion are without basic sanitation. The world must face up to difficult questions. How can developing countries deal with climate change? How can we reduce conflict and help countries to recover? How can we improve the international system? And how can we improve governance in developing countries to ensure that politics works in the interests of poor people?
