For All! Good News
All too often we spend our time dwelling on the huge mountain that needs to be climbed to create a fair world, without poverty. Yet progress is possible, and is happening! Here are a few of the success stories achieved thanks to millions of people who, like you, have mobilized to demand justice.
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Canada Unties Its Development Aid
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September 2008 – In order to increase the effectiveness of international aid, the Government of Canada has pledged to untie all of its development aid funding by 2012-2013. This announcement follows Canada’s decision, in April, to untie food aid. By untying aid, Canada ends a long-standing practice that would force recipient countries to buy Canadian goods and services in exchange for the aid they received. The new measures will allow developing countries to foster the economic growth of their local markets.
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Canada Adopts Bill C-293 on Foreign Aid
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May 2008 – Canada has adopted Bill C-293, which aims to improve the provision of official development assistance abroad. Under the new law, international aid must focus exclusively on poverty reduction, take into account the priorities of the people living in poverty and be consistent with Canada’s international human rights obligations.
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UN Launches Maternal Health Fund
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 February 2008 - A new fund for maternal health has been created to boost global efforts to reduce the number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth. The fund, established in partnership with governments, United Nations organizations, and other international partners will focus on supporting 75 countries with the greatest need. The goal is to raise $465 million during 2008-2011. This initiative will contribute to speeding up the achievement of Millennium Development Goal number 5, which aims to improve maternal health and reduce maternal deaths. |
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Free Secondary Schools For Kenya
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February 2008 - Kenya has introduced a free secondary schooling education program, with a target of raising student enrolment to 1.4 million by the end of 2008. President Mwai Kibaki said the government will pay tuition fees for students while parents will meet boarding costs and buy uniforms.The government has released about $41 million to pay for the first phase of the program.
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Number of Children Out Of School Falls to 72 Millions
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November 2007 - The number of children out of school fell from 76 million in 2006 to 72 million in 2007. This number was 120 million when the Millenium Development Goals where adopted in the year 2000. |
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Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria
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October 2007 - The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, set up at the Japanese G8 in 2000 has now distributed $8.6 billion in grants to 136 countries. It has got 1.1 million people on treatment for HIV/AIDS. For instance, in Malawi, over 130 000 are now accessing treatment, up from virtually none just five years ago. The Global Fund is able to do this in part due to its use of cheap generic medicines.
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Mosquito Nets Save Lives
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May 2007 - The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria has also distributed 30 million insect treated bed nets. These alone can save 210 000 children’s lives. This year the number of children dying before the age of 5 fell below 10 million for the first time (to 9.7 million), down from 11 million just 3 years ago. |
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Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
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In 2007, Sub-Saharan Africa experienced growth of over 5% for the fourth year running, and inflation of less than 10%, even after discounting oil-exporting countries. Per capita growth has lagged behind, but is still consistently above 4% a year. This is an amazing turnaround compared to earlier in the decade. For developing countries and emerging markets the figure is 8.1%. Only 10 years ago, none of us would have believed these figures.
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An Increase in Investments
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In the UK, the government set a timetable to steadily increase its aid to 0.7% of GNI, putting it on course to be a bigger donor than the US by 2010. In Germany, the government agreed to increase aid by 3 billion Euros over the next 4 years. In India, the government has increased the health budget by 33%. These decisions will have a positive impact on the lives of hundreds of millions of poor women and men, and are the result of increased populare pressure all over the world. |
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Debt Cancellation Bears Fruit
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Debt cancellation agreed at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005 is translating into greater spending to fight poverty across the world. It is paying for new teachers and health workers in Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and many other countries. Since 1999, poor countries receiving debt cancellation have more than doubled the amount they are spending on fighting poverty.
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