Just been on a global poverty webchat with Development Minister Shahid Malik, a fine way to spend a lunch hour in my opinion. As we’re busy making lots of promises about the Millennium Development Goals this week, I asked him how these promises will be kept on track, and how countries will keep each other accountable:
“Hi Jeremy. Your question is of course crucial to the success of the MDGs. I think people like you actually have a key role to play in pushing us even further. Through the Call to Action that was initiated by Gordon Brown last year, we managed to get world leaders, heads of multinationals, international NGOs and faith communities all coming together with one single objective – to refocus and redouble the world’s efforts in a bid to get the MDGs back on track and change the world for the better.
But the UK is also uniquely placed, as the largest contributor to the World Bank this year, to influence what is regarded by many as the most effective aid agency in the world. In a bid to achieve our anti-poverty objective for the world in these difficult economic times, it is more crucial now than ever before to honour our pledges and keep the MDGs on track. In this interdependant world, if we do not succeed we shall not just fail the people of the developing world but we shall be failing ourselves.”
The Earthbound Report 