International
ONE Vote 2010
New UK Government lays out coalition priorities
ONE welcomes the new UK Government’s commitment to show global leadership in the fight against extreme poverty in the coalition agreement that has launched the new government’s agenda.
Building on the leadership of the previous government, both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister were very clear in their videos for ONE Vote 2010 that this is a priority for them. Having made these promises in both the International Development and EU sections of the coalition document, we’ll be watching next Tuesday’s Queen’s Speech closely for indications of how these important words are translated into action.
Here are some excerpts from the document. On International Development it says:
The Government believes that even in these difficult economic times, the UK has a moral responsibility to help the poorest people in the world. We will honour our aid commitments, but at the same time will ensure much greater transparency and scrutiny of aid spending to deliver value for money for British taxpayers and to maximise the impact of our aid budget.
- We will honour our commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on overseas aid from 2013, and to enshrine this commitment in law.
- We will encourage other countries to fulfil their aid commitments.
- We will support actions to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. In particular, we will prioritise aid spending on programmes to ensure that everyone has access to clean water, sanitation, healthcare and education; to reduce maternal and infant mortality; and to restrict the spread of major diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. We will recognise the vital role of women in development, promote gender equality and focus on the rights of women, children and disabled people to access services.
- We will use the aid budget to support the development of local democratic institutions, civil society groups, the media and enterprise; and support efforts to tackle corruption.
- We will introduce full transparency in aid and publish details of all UK aid spending online. We will push for similarly high levels of transparency internationally.
- We will create new mechanisms to give British people a direct say in how an element of the aid budget is spent.
- We will keep aid untied from commercial interests, and will maintain DfID as an independent department focused on poverty reduction.
- We will stick to the rules laid down by the OECD about what spending counts as aid.
- We will push hard in 2010 to make greater progress in tackling maternal and infant mortality.
- We will work to accelerate the process of relieving Heavily Indebted Poor Countries of their debt.
- We will support efforts to establish an International Arms Trade Treaty to limit the sales of arms to dangerous regimes.
- We will support pro-development trade deals, including the proposed Pan-African Free Trade Area.
- We will support innovative and effective smaller British non-governmental organisations that are committed to tackling poverty.
- We will explore ways of helping the very poorest developing countries to take part in international climate change negotiations.
- We will ensure that UK Trade and Investment and the Export Credits Guarantee Department become champions for British companies that develop and export innovative green technologies around the world, instead of supporting investment in dirty fossil-fuel energy production.
- We will provide a more integrated approach to post-conflict reconstruction where the British military is involved – building on the Stabilisation Unit in Whitehall and creating a new Stabilisation and Reconstruction Force to bridge the gap between the military and the reconstruction effort.
- We will review what action can be taken against ‘vulture funds’.
- We will support reform of global financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in order to increase the involvement of developing nations.
..and on Europe it says:
- We will ensure that the British Government is a positive participant in the European Union, playing a strong and positive role with our partners, with the goal of ensuring that all the nations of Europe are equipped to face the challenges of the 21st century: global competitiveness, global warming and global poverty.
A new UK Government starts work
After several gripping days of negotiations, we finally have a new Government in the UK, which is a coalition of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.
How the coalition will work in practice remains to be seen, but as the new Prime Minister David Cameron said in his video for our ONE Vote 2010 campaign:
“…the major political parties do have major differences but we are agreed on this: Britain has a moral responsibility to help the world’s poorest people. This is about the kind of country we want to be”.
Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats who also recorded a message for our campaign, becomes Deputy Prime Minister.
ONE is glad to see the inclusion in the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition agreement that “the target of spending 0.7% of GNI on overseas aid will also remain in place”. We will be asking that the commitment in each party’s manifesto to introduce legislation to make this promise legally binding, including a timeline for reaching 0.7 by 2013, be included in the new Government’s Queen’s Speech.
ONE also congratulates Andrew Mitchell on his appointment as Secretary of State for International Development and looks forward to working with him and his team in the future.
Over the last 13 years the previous Labour Government, and particularly former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, led the world in raising the fight against extreme poverty up the political agenda. This achievement should be built on by the new Government – by improving aid effectiveness and transparency; strengthening governance and accountability; making progress in international trade and climate change negotiations and keeping our aid promises to the world’s poor.
Election day in the UK
After weeks of campaigning, the UK General Election is finally here and people up and down the country are going to the polls, in what looks like one of the closest contests in years.
Regardless of who wins the election, we want to be sure the next British government continues the UK’s tradition of global leadership on international development. So like the rest of the country we’ll be glued to our TV sets throughout the night as the results start to come in.
Today also brings to a close our ONE Vote 2010 campaign. The campaign has been more successful than we could have hoped, and it’s thanks to you – the thousands of ONE members around the UK who have done everything from signing the On the Record petition to chasing down local candidates.
But the day isn’t over yet! So if you live in the UK, and haven’t voted, here a few links to help you:
About My Vote is a great site that will walk you through the process of voting, and give you the contact information of your local election authority if you don’t know where to vote.
Our On the Record page has the most detailed information available about what the parties will do to reduce extreme poverty – and that’s just the written answers. The videos of the Brown, Cameron, and Clegg really give you an idea of what each would do, and will be great for holding them to account after the election.
The BBC election website has a list of candidates standing in your constituency, and the parties’ positions on some issues. They don’t cover international development through, so take a gander at On the Record for that.
On the ONE Vote 2010 campaign trail
It’s been a busy few weeks for ONE Vote 2010 volunteers in the UK, though I’m guessing it’s been a bit busier for the party leaders and all the parliamentary candidates across the country! Here’s a quick rundown of all the great work ONE volunteers are doing to get our manifesto out there to parliamentary candidates:
ONE members Caroline Calvillo, Alan Riegler and Martin Drake were able to attend “Gordon Brown: On the Road”, a speech by the Labour leader in Milton Keynes about international issues for Global Poverty Day. Martin was also able to ask a question, and Alan Riegler publicly thanked the Prime Minister for going ‘on the record’ and recording a video message about his plans to reduce poverty.
Alessandro Gardini and Alan Riegler sat down with candidates in their constituencies to chat one-on-one. Keith Angus, Liberal Democrat candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington confirmed his party’s commitment ring fence 0.7% of Gross National Income for overseas aid, while Mark Coote, Conservative candidate for Cheltenham said international development reflected Britain’s historic philanthropic tradition. Alan also met with Martin Horwood, current MP for Cheltenham.
ONE member Jen Crago was invited to be a special guest at a filming of the Politics Show on the BBC, where she was personally able to handover our manifesto to Vince Cable, Shadow Chancellor for the Liberal Democrats and ask him ONE member’s most pressing question:
“What would you do to secure a global climate deal that helps people living in poverty and would you ensure that climate finance is additional to current and promised aid flows?”
With only a week to go before election day on 6 May we’ve got ONE member lined up to attend election events in Trafford, Nuneaton, Cheltenham, Walthamstow and Cardiff. So stay tuned for more news from the campaign!
UK party leaders go ‘On the Record’
This week in London we officially unveiled the ‘On the record’ responses from the political parties in the UK as part of our ONE Vote 2010 campaign.
Each party answered the questions put to them by ONE, based on our manifesto.
The leaders of Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also recorded a personal video message, which together with their written answers gives the public a chance to compare and contrast each party’s plans ahead of next week’s leaders’ debate on foreign affairs:
ONE Vote 2010 is about raising the profile of international development in the election campaign and beyond. Getting our leaders ‘On the Record’ allows the electorate to hold them accountable for what they’ve promised, whoever wins the election.
Weldon Kennedy, Campaigns Manager here in the UK, was involved in the award winning ONE Vote ’08 campaign in the US and spoke at the launch:
“Candidates were talking about our issues, going ‘On the Record’, taking positions. This had never happened before. It helped make candidates realise this is an issue voters really care and made a real difference in helping put development at the forefront of the election debate”.
ONE Vote ‘08 had Obama, Clinton and McCain we have Brown, Cameron and Clegg – the political context may be different but we hope that ONE Vote 2010 will have a similar impact here in the UK. Regardless of who wins the election next month, we need to be sure that development is at the heart of the UK’s international policies, and that the next British government continues our proud tradition of global leadership in the fight against extreme poverty.
With just 4 weeks to go before polling day it’s a busy time here for the ONE team in the UK. If you want to get involved there’s a lot you can do:
- Forward or retweet the videos to your friend
- Vote for the issue you think is most important
- Contact your candidate or find out more the Global Poverty Project who we are partnering with
Please spread the word, your help can really make a difference.
Result!
We got them. The 3 UK party leaders are now On the Record about their plans to fight extreme poverty. Thousands of you asked them to do it, and here are the results:
Gordon Brown
David Cameron
Nick Clegg
Now that we’ve got the answers, it’s time to make them really count. Please take the time to go through the results and compare the parties’ positions.
And, most importantly, click the little Twitter and Facebook share buttons next to each of the party leader videos. We need to get the word out there about where the UK parties stand on the fight against extreme poverty, and this is our best chance.
And it’s thanks to you.
Thank you for making a difference!
3 deliveries down
Yesterday afternoon, we delivered our On the Record petition, with around 7,000 signatures, for the last time.
ONE volunteers Caroline and Alessandro joined us on the short trip to Downing Street, where Alessandro (in the centre of the picture above) descried the scene:
There was a strange atmosphere, as I was expecting lots of people to be out there asking to “be received”. Instead, there was nobody there except for us.
After the routine controls we headed to the black door and Caroline knocked. As soon as the policeman opened the door I started thinking about the many things I could say. Somehow, I wanted to let the person at the door know about the importance of this petition. I thought he should make sure that Gordon Brown reads it. The petition is too important to let it collect dust under a pile of other petitions. It must not be ignored.
Last week Alexander, the ONEr on the left in the picture below, handed over the petition to representatives of the Liberal Democrats (seen below) and Conservatives a few days before.
If you haven’t taken a look yet, you’ll note that the parties have already responded, giving us written answers to key questions concerning sustainable international development but we’re hoping for even more soon!
We are looking for your voice
One of the great things about working for ONE is hearing amazing stories from ONE members around the world who are individually and collectively making such a difference. One such person is Jen Crago from London, who took some time recently to tell us about how she first got involved and why she feels it is so important.
As Jen says:
I believe in ‘speaking up’. Speaking up to world leaders and telling them that it is not OK that children are dying simply because of the lack of an immunisation. That it is not OK that there are children who are not guaranteed a primary school education. And that there it is no justice, no logic in the fact that I get to wake up in the safety and security of West London whilst others are suffering. Speaking up, alongside each other, and joining together as ONE.
I have witnessed the impact that our voices have had, and that our leaders have paid attention. Policies have been changed, child death rates have decreased (in some countries quite significantly) and in the developing world more children, even girls, are now receiving a primary school education. Therefore, I will keep on raising my voice, and I urge you to do the same.
Here in the UK we are now gearing up to a General Election, which will take place on 6 May, and it’s more important than ever for ONE members to get involved. Regardless of who wins the election, we want to be sure the British government continues the UK’s tradition of global leadership on international development.
So we hope you’ll join Jen and our ONE Vote 2010 campaign and vote against extreme poverty.
The big election question
The UK election is finally upon us and it’s time for the parties to be clear about their commitments, including their plans to fight extreme poverty.
A new twist in this election will be the televised leaders’ debates, one of which will be focused on foreign policy – this is the perfect moment for us to put them on the spot.
They are accepting questions from the public for the debate, and our plan for getting a question in there is this:
Step one: First, cast a vote on the question on which you think we should focus.
We’ll leave the voting open for 48 hours, then let you know the winning question.
Step two: We’ll all submit a version of the question and hope that the debate moderators see just how much public interest there is for Britain to lead the world in fighting extreme poverty.
The debates are a new opportunity to make a difference, so let’s jump in there and make them count.
Thank you for taking part,
P.S. This effort comes on the back of our “On the Record” campaign, during which more than 7,500 ONE members around the UK signed our petition asking the parties and party leaders to give us detailed plans on how they’d fight extreme poverty. Thanks to all of you, we’re already starting to get answers from them. I’ll let you know when we’ve got them all, but you can see some of them on the new ONE Vote 2010 website – check it out after you’ve voted.
Help Grill the Would-be Chancellors
This Monday, March 29 Channel 4 will be hosting a live debate between the prospective chancellors for Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats: Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable, respectively.
In the run-up to the debate, Channel 4 is running a contest asking the UK public to submit their questions to the candidates to help voters make decisions. We think this a vital opportunity to ensure that amid the questions about the economy, cuts and spending that global poverty is not forgotten.
Please tweet or email the following question to Channel 4:
How will you lead the UK in the fight against global poverty & meet aid commitments of 0.7% of GNI?
If you don’t have Twitter (or even if you do), you can find an additional 5 questions we’ve already posed to leaders here. Simply copy them into an email and send it to chancellorsdebate@channel4.com
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About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
TAGS: ONE Vote 2010, UK