Joseph Powell from the ONE UK Office reports from a panel at St. Paul’s Cathedral earlier this week:

A panel including UK Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander and Director of the Millennium Development Campaign Salil Shetty assembled at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on Tuesday evening to discuss the hope for ending global poverty in this generation.

Alexander told the audience that the top priority now was to agree to a global deal on climate change at Copenhagen in December, suggesting that it could have an even greater impact than the Gleneagles aid commitments of 2005. The UK position is that the developed world must commit to substantial emissions cuts and provide genuinely new and additional sources of finance. He also stressed the need to conclude a Doha trade agreement and talked powerfully about the role that individuals and NGOs can play in pressuring governments to meet their commitments to international development.

“It’s not the banking system that’s too big to fail, but the Millennium Development Goals” Shetty told the audience to applause. 2010 will see the UN General Assembly meet to come up with ideas on how to accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) so that the 2015 target looks more realistic. ONE has committed itself to be part of this push for a new MDG plan of action and it was encouraging to see that so many of the audience members had this on their minds.

Paul Vallely, associate editor of The Independent, looked at what lessons could be learned from the Gleneagles G8 Summit negotiations in 2005 and suggested that closer cooperation between environmental and development NGOs is essential to influencing the political process. This was backed up by Alexander who extolled the benefits of a united NGO front entering Copenhagen. Vallely also offered praise for the way high profile individuals such as Bono and Bob Geldof can raise awareness on development, and play a key role in the lobbying of political figures.

The event concluded with a reminder that change ultimately comes not from government or other leaders, but from the people themselves. It is through millions of individual actions, like the remarkable demonstration of solidarity in the Stand Up Against Poverty day, that the hope of a world free of extreme poverty can be kept alive.