| About the issues
The gap between the world’s rich and poor has never been wider. But poverty isn’t natural; it’s man-made and sustained by an unfair global trade system, enormous financial debts that can’t be repaid, and insufficient and ineffective aid. For these reasons, trade, aid and debt were the three key demands of the Make Poverty History campaign.
Click the buttons below to find out more about the issues. They include a simplified version of the G8 Summit’s main outcomes, Make Poverty History's analysis of the impact that these outcomes will have on poor countries, and information about the UN's eight Millennium Development Goals.
Drop the Debt
Organisations such as Oxfam have been demanding debt relief for poor countries for many years now. You may remember the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which first brought the issue into the public consciousness. Many young people were switched on by Jubilee 2000, with its high-profile endorsement from Bono and other celebrities. More than 24 million people worldwide signed a petition demanding the cancellation of unpayable debts.
Crippling debts mean poor countries need to divert funds away from providing basic services for their people in order to repay what they owe. In some cases, the amount a country repays in debts per year is more than the amount of aid it receives. Cancelling poor countries’ debts is an effective way to enable poor countries to spend more money on providing for their citizens.
> Download the Debt and Education fact sheet (84 KB pdf)
> Read more about debt on the official Make Poverty History website (external link)
> Read more about debt on the Oxfam GB website
> Get teaching about Make Poverty History |
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