UN unveil 10-year poverty reduction plan

9.00.00am GMT Tue 18th Jan 2005

UN unveil 10-year poverty reduction plan

Yesterday the United Nations Millennium Project's report was published. The report - Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals details how world poverty can be halved by 2015. The plan is an excellent blueprint which calls on an increase in aid from $20billion currently given to £135billion.

The goals of the UN Millennium Summit (which the plan seeks to achieve by 2015) are:

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Achieve universal primary education

Promote gender equality and empower women

Reduce child mortality

Improve maternal health

Combat HIV, Aids, malaria and other diseases

Ensure environmental sustainability

Develop a global partnership for development

Nearly 190 countries (including all the EU countries) have signed up to these goals.

The plan has ten action points, they are:

Developing countries should adopt poverty-reduction policies.

Strategies should promoted human rights, support public investment, make governments more transparent and focus on women's health and education

Strategies must be inclusive involving both civil society organisations and the private sector

Rich countries should choose at least six 'fast-track' countries that deserve a massive boost in aid as a reward for good governance

Rich and poor should club together to achieve "quick wins", including free malaria medicines, more school meals and the abolition of school fees

National governments in developing countries should work with regional bodies to pool ideas and resources

High-income countries should raise official aid from 0.25% of GDP to 0.44 in 2006 and 0.7 by 2015. Debt relief should be more generous

Rich countries should open markets to exports from developing countries. They should invest more in the the very poorest countries through electricity supplies and roads

International donors should make sure scientific research prioritises the needs of the poor. An annual $7billion should be given for research by 2015

The United Nations should co-ordinate its agencies and programmes more effectively