Oxfam campaigns for increased aid and debt relief for developing countries.

This will allow them to improve their health and education systems, as well as other services that will benefit their poor populations. Many countries are forced to make debt repayments instead of meeting the needs of their citizens.

In Zambia, for example, the government is forced to divert desperately needed public sector funds to fill the pockets of international financial institutions. And Zambia is by no means alone: Indonesia and India, the two most indebted countries, both owe over $100 billion each.

Yet just as important as writing these unpayable debts off is making sure that countries in need receive improved aid. Rich countries have promised to pledge 0.7 per cent of their national income in foreign aid, but so far just four - Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Holland - have reached this target. It’s critical that, when aid does come through, it’s focused on basic needs such as healthcare, schooling and rural livelihoods - rather than conditional aid which puts pressure on poor countries to open up their markets to foreign exporters.

Oxfam works hard to encourage donor governments and international organisations to spend their aid effectively, genuinely targeting those most in need of help. Oxfam’s work on debt relief, supporting the Jubilee 2000 campaign and the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC), has also helped to ensure that this aid is spent on poverty reduction.

These efforts form part of a wider objective to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)– a set of targets agreed by world leaders in 2000 to halve poverty and ensure more poor people have access to education and health care, live in a cleaner environment and can exercise their rights. Make Poverty History is the UK coalition campaign in 2005 in support of these goals.