Response on World Vision’s “UK must fulfil its G8 promises” campaign

June 2008

I would like to take this opportunity to respond to matters you have raised in your recent campaign letter about the G8, and thank you for your interest in, and support of, the work of the UK Government in tackling global poverty.

At the Gleneagles Summit in 2005, the G8 committed to work with other donors to increase global official development assistance (ODA) by $50 billion, to $130 billion by 2010. Significant progress has been made and annual global ODA has risen by $20 billion since 2004. While this is welcome, the donor community will need to do more if we are to increase annual ODA by a further $30 billion by 2010.

The UK is leading by example. In the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review the UK set out how we plan to reach an ODA/GNI ratio of 0.56% by 2010, and we are on track to reach 0.7% by 2013, two years ahead of the EU target date. We have clearly laid out our plans and we are encouraging our partners to do likewise.

We do not promote a global target of a particular proportion of ODA for health or health systems, but in 2006/07 15% of the Department for International Development’s (DFID) programme was spent on health.

At Gleneagles, the UK led efforts to secure the commitment of the G8 to the goal of Universal Access to treatment by 2010. Through our Presidency of the European Union, we pushed for international commitment to this goal at the Millennium Summit in 2005. We also led efforts to broaden this goal to include prevention, treatment, care and support at the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting in June 2006.

The UK remains fully committed to the international goal of Universal Access to comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. On 2 June we launched our updated AIDS strategy “Achieving Universal Access – the UK’s strategy for halting and reversing the spread of HIV in the developing world”(4 mb). The strategy sets out action the UK will take to help achieve Universal Access. 

The UK has committed £6 billion on strengthening health systems and services over seven years to 2015. The UK has also committed to spend £200 million on social protection over 3 years to support the most vulnerable households, including orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The UK will also increase by at least 50% its funding for research and development of AIDS vaccines and microbicides over 2008-2013.

The UK remains firmly committed to meeting the needs and rights of OVC, and taking action to reduce their vulnerability to HIV, including through prevention of mother to child transmission and social protection programmes. We are committed to intensify international efforts to increase to 80% by 2010 the percentage of HIV-positive pregnant women who receive antiretroviral treatment, to reduce the risk of mother to child transmission, both in low income and high prevalence countries.

The UK has made a 20-year committed to the international drugs purchase facility, UNITAID, including £90 million from 2008-2011, which will help increase access to paediatric treatment. A UK supported trial in Zambia has shown that providing a cheap antibiotic (cotrimoxazole) to children with HIV reduced mortality by as much as 43%. The UK will continue its support for scaling-up the use of this antibiotic in children living with HIV.

In 2007, the G8 committed to scale up their efforts to achieve Universal Access, including providing with other donors a projected $60 billion over the coming years. The UK is pushing G8 colleagues to ensure that fulfilling and implementing previous Summit commitments is a priority at the G8 Leaders’ Summit in July this year. We will be pressing G8 and other colleagues to contribute their share towards the goal of Universal Access.

The UK is leading the international effort to deliver the Millennium Development Goals. The Prime Minister launched the Call to Action in 2007 to encourage not just governments but private sector and civil society to undertake actions to accelerate progress on the MDGs. The G8 is crucial to this process and we hope the G8 will agree how it will contribute to an action plan to come out of the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Meeting on the MDGs in New York on September 25. I hope this is helpful.

Gillian Merron
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development

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