World leaders meet for Millennium Development Goals Summit
20 September 2010

World leaders met between 20-22 September in New York, at the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit. At the event, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg agreed to prioritise maternal and child health and malaria at the summit. The eight Millennium Development Goals range from halving extreme poverty to reducing maternal mortality, and eradicating extreme hunger and poverty. They form a blueprint agreed to by all of the world’s countries and the world’s leading development institutions.The New York Summit is designed to speed progress towards delivery of all MDGs by 2015.

The UK will push for the summit to deliver a clear agenda setting out a path towards the achievement of the 2015 target, and will highlight its focus on women, girls and maternal health and combating malaria (MDGs 5 and 6). In line with the Government's results-based focus, the UK will commit to doubling the number of lives of women and babies saved through UK aid by 2015. The British Government believes that, as a result of UK efforts, at least 50,000 more women and 250,000 babies will survive and 10 million more couples will get access to family planning. The UK will also use the summit to highlight its commitment to reduce malaria in heavily affected countries.

Failing to meet the MDGs will have immense consequences. Over 8 million children will continue to die before the age of five each year. Over a third of a million women will continue to lose their lives in childbirth. 72 million children will continue to miss out on primary education. In Africa, a child will continue to die of malaria every 40 seconds.

In a recent speech to the Royal College of Defence Studies, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell also outlined that the Millennium Development Goals would not be met without more being done to improve the situation in states judged to be fragile or in conflict. Twenty-two of the thirty-four countries furthest from reaching the MDGs are in the midst of or emerging from violent conflict. They have higher levels of child mortality and under-nourishment than other developing countries.

Oxfam: 'Governments should fight poverty and climate change'

Phil Bloomer, Oxfam Director of Campaigns and Policy, said: “Oxfam welcomes Nick Clegg’s announcement to double aid for maternal and child health and his commitment that the target of spending 0.7% of national income on aid by 2013 will be met and that this will be enshrined in law.

Despite our financial problems at home Great Britain is still remembering those living in desperate poverty around the world and still pushing others to make ending poverty a reality. Unfortunately other countries failed to pick up the gauntlet and the UK cannot do this alone.

Leaders failed to acknowledge their collective failure to meet existing aid commitments, which puts the lives of women and children at risk daily. With five short years to the MDGs deadline, another global summit has passed and the world’s poor are still waiting for when they will see a difference in their lives. World leaders must follow the UK’s example to build a secure, prosperous and just world.

The UK must ensure that money to help poor people adapt to the harmful effects of climate change is additional to the 0.7 pledge. Otherwise poor countries may be forced to choose between schools and flood defences, undermining progress to the MDGs.

In these times of austerity governments should also raise billions from new sources, like the Robin Hood Tax, to fight poverty and climate change. France and Spain called for a tax on the financial sector to raise money for development and the UK should make sure it doesn’t miss the opportunity to implement a Robin Hood Tax.”