UK election

Its Budget Day in the UK

Mar 24th, 2010 4:50 PM UTC
By Brie O'Keefe

The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling today delivered his final budget before the election and there was good news for development. The Department for International Development (DFID) will have £7.8billion to spend in the next financial year, up from £6.3billion in 2009-10. This £1.5 billion increase will provide vital additional funds to help reduce extreme poverty in Africa.

The budget was also explicit on the UK’s plan to meet the target of spending 0.7% of GNI by 2013:

“spending on international development will continue to rise in the next Spending Review period to meet the Government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment in 2013 as planned.”

To keep this commitment on track the Government will need to spend £1.3 billion on Overseas Development Assistance from departments other than DFID in the next financial year, something ONE will watch very closely.

Today, though, we offer our congratulations to the UK Government for continuing their impressive record on helping the world’s poor at a time when this help is needed more than ever.

ONE’s European Director Oliver Buston had this to say about the budget:

“ONE welcomes the Chancellor’s commitment to meet the target of spending 0.7% of national income on international development. This is not a vast amount of money when compared to other departments but it’s a vital lifeline to millions of people in poor countries.

“Britain leads the world in the quality of its overseas aid.  It has made a valuable contribution to the successes of the past decade: more than 40 million African children in school and more than three million people in Africa on AIDS treatment. It’s also increasingly supporting dynamic people in the developing world to hold their governments to account and improve their own countries.

“It’s vital that whichever party comes into power at the general election Britain’s record of excellence in international development continues. Not only is it the right thing to do for moral reasons, it is the sensible thing to do because growth and development in the world’s poorest countries benefits us all.”

What ONErs want

Mar 9th, 2010 9:49 AM UTC
By Weldon Kennedy

The ONE Vote 2010 campaign is rolling along. We have over 6,300 signatures on our petition to the party leaders asking them to go ‘On the Record’ with their plans for fighting extreme poverty, and now we’re flipping the question around and giving you a chance to tell politicians what you would like them to do.

So take a second to answer the question: “In the next five years, what would you like to see the government do to help improve the lives of people living in extreme poverty?” We’ll then take some the best answers, have them professionally illustrated, and deliver them to key decision makers ahead of the elections and new MPs after the election.

ONE member Alan Riegler kicked of this section of the campaign off with an email to some of the most active members in the UK, and gave his answer:

In the next five years our government needs to provide incentives for ethical UK business to get involved in Africa and to increase the UK market for African goods and services.

I hope you’ll take a minute and join Alan in sharing what you would like the government to do.

Volunteers and interns needed in the UK for ONE Vote 2010

Mar 2nd, 2010 9:03 AM UTC
By Brie O'Keefe

Pinning down politicians for political commitments isn’t always easy. That’s why we are going to need help chasing down all the parties. We’re putting together a dedicated team of ONE members to take our message to UK politicians and parliamentary candidates ahead of the election to ask them, face to face, to go ‘On the Record’ for development.

In addition to building a list of people who are keen to volunteer with UK ONE Vote 2010, we’re now also taking application for a group of constituency campaign leaders who will be able to take the campaign into high gear in some of the most important constituencies around the UK. I’ll be working with the campaign leaders and other volunteers to attend candidate surgeries and ask them about their plans for fighting poverty, organise events for local ONE members to meet up, and attend public candidate events.

Thanks in advance to everyone to signs up to help, I look forward to working with you!

Making a binding commitment to Africa

Feb 26th, 2010 3:53 PM UTC
By Joseph Powell

On Wednesday the British Parliament’s International Development Select Committee held hearings on the draft bill to make a legally binding commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on development. ONE petitioned No 10 for this last November and while it remains unlikely there will be time to pass the bill before a General Election, it was encouraging to see the next step of the process get underway. To put it into context it was over 40 years ago that Britain first promised to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income on development!

For the hearings expert witnesses submitted written evidence and were then questioned by 5 MPs from all sides of the political spectrum. There seemed to be a consensus that if passed the bill would provide predictability to the UK’s aid spending and set a precedent that other rich countries would be encouraged to follow. For example Karen Jorgensen, speaking for the OECD, described how Britain had “set the bar” in many areas of quantity and quality of aid and that this would strengthen our reputation as a global leader in development. Given that the G8 has only delivered on approximately one third of the additional assistance promised at Gleneagles in 2005 this example is badly needed.

The next step is for the committee to produce a report of its findings, followed by the 3rd reading in the House of Commons. ONE is calling all the relevant parties to act as quickly as possible – but rest assured if the bill is not passed by this Parliament we will be pushing for similar legislation to be a high priority for the next Government.

What “the Record” looks like

Feb 18th, 2010 10:47 PM UTC
By Weldon Kennedy

Here in the UK, we’re trying to get the political parties and party leaders to give us clear answers on what they plan to do to fight extreme poverty if they win the upcoming election. While we are working on getting their answers, it’s worth taking a look back through time to the impact that this sort of campaign has had in the past.

In the United States, ahead of the 2008 presidential elections, ONE ran a similar campaign, with some very impressive results. The majority of candidates went “On the Record”, and even recorded short videos like this one from Barack Obama, at the time still a candidate:

Looking at the various statements from that effort shows how getting candidates “On the Record” has a real impact. First, we have statements for which we can hold them accountable if they win office. And second, it serves to inform both ONE members and the broader public, allowing all us to weigh a candidate’s stance on fighting poverty when we consider for whom to vote.

I hope that you’ll join me in taking action to convince parties and party leaders here in the UK to go “On the Record”, because like all voters, I want to know what I can expect from my leaders.

All the parties

Feb 15th, 2010 1:58 PM UTC
By Weldon Kennedy

We’ve received a great response since we launched our ‘On the Record’ campaign last week in the UK and we’re really encouraged that ONE members agree it’s important to pin down our potential leaders on their policies towards development.

A few of you have written in however and asked why the campaign is only focusing on the Labour, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.

The 6 questions we’re asking are obviously applicable to all political parties not just the 3 most likely to form the next UK Government. So rest assured that ONE will be writing to the other key political parties across the UK and ask them to go ‘On the Record’ as well.

But we’ll need your help to get the message out. From reaching out to MPs and candidates, attending candidate surgeries, to delivering our ‘On the Record’ petition to party leaders, you really can help us make a difference.

So if you live in the UK and want to help please sign up here.

Getting UK leaders On the Record

Feb 9th, 2010 2:11 PM UTC
By Weldon Kennedy

Five years ago in London’s Trafalgar Square, Nelson Mandela gave the speech that you see in the video above. He challenged us to free millions of people from the prison of extreme poverty. We try to answer that challenge every day, but at this particular moment we’re launching a new unprecedented campaign to ask the UK political parties just how they plan to tear that prison down.

The first step is to get the major political parties to go “On the Record” about their plans for fighting extreme poverty. We want to ask them 6 questions to clarify their intentions, and to try and get the philosophy behind their policies. To get them to respond, we need to demonstrate the public care about these issues and that want their answers.

Please help do your bit by signing our petition to the party leaders.

Here are the questions we are asking them:

1. Global leadership
With the UN’s September Summit focusing on extreme poverty and the Millennium Development Goals, there is a historic opportunity for progress. How will you make the most of this opportunity?

2. The UK’s promise
If elected, what would you do to ensure the UK delivers on its commitment to give 0.7% of Gross National Income as development assistance?

3. Climate and development
What would you do to secure a global climate deal that helps people living in poverty and would you ensure that climate funding is additional to current and promised aid flows?

4. Improving aid
UK development assistance is well respected, but are there ways in which you would increase its effectiveness?

5. Security and development
What is your position on using development funding for security operations?

6. Investment in Africa
How would you ensure private sector investment in Africa helps to reduce poverty?

Sign the petition to the party leaders and keep an eye on the ONE blog for more news on the campaign.

A busy week in the UK media

Jan 15th, 2010 8:00 PM UTC
By Jessica Gomez-Duran

It’s been a busy week in the UK press for us development folk. There has been a series of articles across the British media on development ahead of the General Election later this year, which started on Tuesday with commentary from Kevin Watkins on the Guardian website. This was followed by an editorial from the Times the next day titled ‘In Development’ about spending 0.7% of the UK’s Gross National Income on overseas aid. This came out of the Times’s Bronwen Maddox doing a live web briefing with Andrew Mitchell MP, the Shadow Secretary for International Development.

The news coverage continued today with the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown writing in the Independent. The piece sets out the case on the importance of 2010 as the year to reach agreement on the Millennium Development Goals and to make a global action plan at the UN Summit in September. At the same time the Financial Times and others have been reporting on the speech made by David Cameron (leader of the Conservatives) this morning on national security and development.