Our Generation's Choice

On the eve of the G-20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Melbourne, the worldwide movement of men, women and children committed to eradicating extreme poverty continues to gain momentum. While their efforts in recent years have secured unprecedented action from world leaders, progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals continues to lag. Urgent action is now required at the G-20 meeting to get progress back on track.

Download a PDF file (177K) of the full paper

Sommaire en Francais (82K PDF file) Resumen en Espanol (102K PDF file)

Summary

Our generation faces a challenge. It is a challenge that arises from the actions of human beings and can be overcome by the actions of human beings. It is the challenge of extreme poverty in a world of plenty – the kind of poverty which causes the unnecessary deaths of millions of women, men and children every year. It keeps children out of school, entrenches gender inequality, and harms our shared environment.

In the lead up to the G-20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Melbourne, this paper examines recent efforts to combat global poverty. It considers how effective these efforts have been and analyzes some of the criticisms that have been made about them. Crucially, it looks to the future, identifying urgent action required at the G-20 meeting and beyond.

The paper has a particular focus on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the eight, time-bound goals agreed by the international community in 2000. While the goals have received some criticism, the paper concludes that even the most meritorious criticisms provide no reason to abandon them; rather they provide compelling reasons to build on the goals and improve their effectiveness. Acknowledging accountability challenges, the paper highlights the crucial role which citizens must play in holding their governments to account for the achievement of the goals. The paper also examines the cost of achieving the MDGs and finds that it is eminently affordable. Indeed, the cost of failure would be far-reaching and should not be contemplated.

In recent years, as the global community has become increasingly aware of extreme poverty and its devastating effects, the political will to combat such poverty has grown significantly. A number of international meetings have provided a focus for unprecedented civil society campaigns to pressure world leaders to eradicate poverty. In particular, the G8 Summit at Gleneagles, the 2005 World Summit in New York, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) Conference in Hong Kong each provided a pivotal opportunity for action. The Live8 concerts, the marches, and the now iconic white band worn by millions around the world, symbolised the birth of this movement, rather than its climax.

The worldwide movement of men, women and children committed to eradicating extreme poverty continues to grow and gain momentum. This was demonstrated clearly when, in October 2006, more than 23 million people from all over the world stood in unity to demand further action from world leaders.

These demonstrations of public will have contributed to some important gains – most notably the debt relief deal and aid increase announced at Gleneagles. But ultimately the potential of these three key opportunities to combat poverty in 2005 was only partially fulfilled and the promises that were made may now be dishonored by complacent leaders. Deeply entrenched structures of power and the self-interest of rich countries have proven formidable obstacles, as illustrated by the recent stalling of the Doha round of trade negotiations.

On the eve of the G-20 meeting in Melbourne, this paper argues that urgent action must be taken by the group to ensure the Millennium Development Goals are achieved. Specifically, the group should:

• extend debt cancellation to countries which require it to meet the Millennium Development Goals and, as a first step, commit to debt cancellation for all countries which are eligible only for concessional loans from the International Development Association of the World Bank;

• agree to abandon the harmful conditions which have applied to previous debt relief initiatives;

• commit to new funding for debt cancellation rather than including this in aid budgets, as has been common practice in recent years;

• commit to increase aid to 0.7 per cent of national income by 2015, at the latest, and provide detailed timetables for achieving this increase;

• support national development strategies designed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and ensure that long-term, predictable and flexible aid is provided to implement these strategies;

• use the meeting as an opportunity to pressure the United States of America (USA) and European Union (EU) to cut their most harmful agricultural subsidies and give poorer countries better access to their markets as a crucial step to getting the Doha round of trade negotiations back on track; and

• press towards true democratic reform of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund so that poor countries can actively participate in decisions regarding their development.

The paper presents a choice for the G-20 Finance Ministers and a choice for the entire international community. But, most importantly, it presents a choice for each and every one of us as citizens about the kind of world we want to bequeath to our children.

Date of original publication: November 2006