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UN meeting on poverty exceeds all expectations
26 September 2008
$16 billion of new commitments as broadest ever alliance assembles to fight for common goal
On Thursday 25 September the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, hosted an historic event in New York aimed at accelerating global progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The event, attended by representatives of over 140 countries plus business, faith and charity leaders and celebrities, was part of a week of action at the UN. During the week over 40 partnership events took place, involving an unprecedented range of stakeholders.
The Secretary-General said $16 billion of announcements had been made, including $4.5 billion for education and $3 billion for malaria. To keep track of progress, an MDGs Review Summit was called for 2010.
Key commitments
In our priority areas of malaria, education, health and food, $11.5 billion of announcements were made:
Malaria
- Malaria Action Plan launched to point the way towards universal coverage of bed-nets by 2010, and achieving near zero malaria deaths by 2015.
- To make this a reality, $3 billion will be provided by a multi-stakeholder partnership that includes the UK, Malaria No More, Roll Back Malaria, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UN.
- The UK is providing 20 million bed nets by 2010, increasing funding for research and development of up to £5 million by 2010, and committing £40 million to make sure the poorest have access to the latest and best anti-malarial drugs. Read more
Health
To ensure that by 2010, 4 million more children’s lives are saved and 33 million more births are attended by skilled health workers through announcements including:
- £450 million from the UK over the next three years to support the International Health Partnership in eight of the poorest countries. Read more
- The Global Campaign for Health will aim to mobilise an extra $30 billion by 2015 (in addition to the UK's £450 million commitment, this includes: $1 billion from Norway between 2000 and 2015 for vaccinating children in poor countries and a further $1 billion from Norway over ten years to reduce child and maternal mortality; $250 million from Australia over the next four years to improve women and children's health in Asia-Pacific countries).
- A new taskforce on Innovative Financing for Health, launched by the UK, Norway, the World Bank and others, will help towards funding over 1 million health workers, saving 10 million lives by 2015, and will report to the G8 next year.
- A further £50 million from the UK for Neglected Tropical Diseases. Read more
Education
To get 25 million children into school by 2010 as a milestone towards
universal primary education by 2015, we have launched a
"Class
of 2015" partnership, alongside $4.5 billion of announcements including:
- £50 million from the UK for the Education Fast-Track Initiative, as part of the UK's commitment to give £8.5 billion over ten years up to 2015 towards education.
- $3 billion from the World Bank to support education in 30 countries.
- Donations from across the globe including $500 million from Saudi Arabia, $450 million from Australia, $270 million from Spain and $205 million from Norway.
- Comic Relief and the UK Government will announce a new £10 million partnership through which school children in the UK will raise money for schools in Africa, and UK and African children will work together on how the money should be spent.
- Pledges from FIFA that the enduring legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be every African child in school and that they will mobilise support for education from 30 million fans watching the 2010 South African World Cup. Read more
Food
To halve the number of people going hungry by 2015, and to tackle the
immediate food crisis reverberating around the world and especially the Horn of
Africa, we have come together to take action, including:
- Emergency assistance of $80 million from the UK Government, which is part of UK measures (totalling around £800 million so far) to tackle the recent food crisis. Read more
- In addition, the UK has already announced ongoing commitments of over £1 billion, through which we will continue to support agriculture, food security and livelihoods in key priority countries.
- Emergency food aid worth $1.75 billion to stop starvation in the Horn of Africa, and for the rapid distribution of support, including seeds and fertilizers, to 30 priority countries in time for the next planting season (this includes $1.5 billion from the EC, $30 million from China for the FAO, $50 million from Turkey and $15 million from the Netherlands).
Looking to the future, we are working with partners to forge a new Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food to mobilise and coordinate resources for food security, making sure that pledges are honoured - including the G8 commitment of over $10 billion since January 2008 and the pledges made this week at the UN.
Following up
The UK's three main objectives following the event will be:
- Tracking the implementation of all the actions announced during the week
- Encouraging the UN to produce better analysis of where the MDGs remain off-track and what needs to be done to get them back on track
- Maintaining a high-level, political focus on accelerating progress on the MDGs