U.K. recommits its promises to the poor

Andrew Mitchell

This week leaders from around the globe are meeting in New York for the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit. The actions they take over these three days could hold the key to creating a stable, successful future for millions of the world's poorest people.

The MDGs were agreed 10 years ago with a palpable sense of urgency. Something needed to be done to save the lives of mothers dying needlessly in childbirth, to get the millions of children missing out on an education into school, to fight the spread of killer diseases and first and foremost to halve the number of people living in poverty across the world.

Those leaders, a decade ago, set themselves a deadline of 2015 to achieve the goals. So with the clock ticking down to 2015, now is the time to take stock, review progress and press hard on the accelerator pedal to speed up in the areas which need the most urgent attention.

The economic climate

The Summit takes place in the tailwind of the global financial meltdown. In this difficult economic climate the temptation is for nations to pull back from the international commitments they have made. It is a temptation that the U.K. government is determined to resist. The new coalition government has been clear — we will keep the promises made to the world's poorest people, and maintain our commitment to reducing poverty around the world.

India is critical to success in meeting the MDGs both because of its global influence and through the pace of growth and poverty reduction in India itself. The Indian Government has already made impressive progress in some areas, notably on primary education (MDG 2). As the U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said during his visit to India in July, the U.K. wants to renew and relaunch the relationship between India and the U.K. We remain committed both to working in partnership with India to achieve global progress and to supporting India's own development goals. We are in close touch with the Government of India on how we can best help do that in the future.

The way out

But aid is only part of the story. Trade and investment are the engines of economic growth, offering the only sustainable way out of the grinding poverty that afflicts nearly a billion people across the globe. Boosting private investment and enterprise has the potential to help us meet every single one of the MDGs. People with secure jobs and fair wages have the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty. India has a vibrant private sector and Indian businesses are already contributing to better education, health and livelihoods across India.

The U.K. goes to the Summit with the intention of putting women and girls and tackling malaria at the forefront of our efforts. Investing in them will reap dividends.

How can countries propel themselves towards sustainable economic growth when 50 per cent of its talent are not given the opportunity to make a contribution? Every day about 1,400 women die in pregnancy or childbirth, nearly all of them in the developing world. There are the 2,000 deaths a day — mostly children, the vast majority preventable — from malaria. This cannot be allowed to continue. The U.K. will be making a huge effort at the Summit to bring an end to this daily tragedy. By improving the quality of health services we can start to ensure that pregnancy is no longer a life threatening condition.

Every one of us has an interest in meeting the MDGs, but they can only be met with the determination of governments, charities and businesses, civil societies and citizens. The U.K. is committed to making this Summit a success. We hope others attending the Summit will join the U.K. in agreeing a course of action that will meet the MDGs by 2015, setting us on the path to eradicating poverty once and for all.

( Andrew Mitchell is the U.K. Cabinet Minister for International Development.)