CAMBRIDGE

One campaign.
Three aims: TRADE JUSTICE. DROP THE DEBT. MORE AND BETTER AID.

“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest ... Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.

Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Of course the task will not be easy. But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.”

- Nelson Mandela, London, 3^rd February 2005

Yesterday 30,000 children died through hunger and preventable disease – they died purely because of where they happened to be born, because the global trade, debt and aid policies which we support perpetuate extreme poverty for a billion people.

Yes, yes, you’ve heard this all before, you’d love it if there was anything you could do about it but, well, you know... No, I don’t know. You’re wrong: you can do something about it. These are our governments’ policies. If you aren’t doing anything about it, you’re implicitly supporting them. If you don’t support them, complain: that’s what democracy’s about.

So DO SOMETHING! MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is a major campaign to urge changes in international policies that would start to bring an end to extreme poverty. It is a unique coalition of Britain’s major aid agencies and many other organizations working in unison.

The pivotal year of 2005 may be over – and we achieved a lot – but there is still a long way to go, so the campaigning continues.

See HERE for a very good summary of the achievements of 2005, and the challenges that remain.
See HERE for reports on the major events of 2005 across the UK, or HERE for Cambridge.
G8 Summit - Success or Failure? See here for summary.
NEW! - ACT NOW: Stop Nigerian debt travesty – urge the UK government to return money meant for poverty alleviation.

So...
This is what’s going on
This is what we want
This is what YOU can do

Who’s involved?
FAQs
For more info

Events

2005 Events Archive

Please check this website regularly for updates.

If you are organizing a related event, let us know.

What we want

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY urges the government and international decision makers to rise to the challenge of extreme global poverty. We are calling for urgent and meaningful policy change on three critical and inextricably-linked areas: trade, debt and aid.

Trade Justice

We believe we must do the following to ensure justice in trade:

Fight for rules that ensure governments, particularly in poor countries, can choose the best solutions to end poverty and protect the environment. These will not always be free trade policies.
End export subsidies that damage the livelihoods of poor rural communities around the world.
Make laws that stop big business profiting at the expense of people and the environment. More...

Drop the Debt

We believe that the following action must be urgently taken to deal with the issue of unpayable debt:

The unpayable debts of the world's poorest countries should be cancelled in full, by fair and transparent means. More...

More and Better Aid

We believe that the following will help to tackle poverty:

Donors must now deliver at least $50 billion more in aid per year and set a binding timetable for spending 0.7% of national income on aid. Aid must also be made to work more effectively for poor people. More...

What can I do?

Please support us: even if you’re only able to do the first four actions below, that would be fantastic.

This is a coordinated global campaign on a scale which has never been attempted before: we believe we have a real chance of making huge progress this year, just by simple weight and force of public support – but that means we are really counting on your support too. Thank you.

Now!

Read the national website, and get informed.
SIGN UP at MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY.org to show your support and receive occasional requests for easy and effective actions – N.B. if you signed up last year you need to sign up again now for continuing information for the next six months.
Get a WHITE BAND, the symbol of the campaign – at Oxfam shops, online or from (some) college Fairtrade stalls.
ACT NOW!: Britain and other donors are currently forcing Nigeria into an outrageous debt deal. It will get $18 billion of its $36 billion debt cancelled ... as longs as it pays $12.4 billion up front now – more than all the debt cancellation for 18 smaller countries agreed by the G8 at Gleneagles combined – even though it has already paid back more than it originally borrowed. The UK government is due to receive the largest slice: £1.7 billion by April – twice as much as the UK gave in aid to the whole of Africa in 2005.
See Jubilee Debt Campaign for more information and to take action now. More detail (pdf). Send Gordon Brown a T-shirt!

A few minutes more?

Challenge Tony Blair to MakeAIDSHistory.
Write to your MP or MEPs:

N.b. Data for new MPs (Who’s my MP?) has been fully updated, but still write to your MEPs too – no-one ever writes to them. Go on, make them feel loved. (Just don’t get so carried away you forget to mention reform of unfair trade rules, EPAs, etc...)
Keep in touch with what your MP is doing here.
Find out about Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which the EU is currently trying to force on African, Caribbean and Pacific countries; ~~email Patricia Hewitt~~ ~~(Trade Secretary)~~ and write to Peter Mandelson (EU Trade Commissioner) to complain. More... (detailed report). StopEPA.org; EPAwatch.
March 22^nd: Progress! The UK Government has changed its policy on EPAs, stating “We will not force trade liberalisation on developing countries either through trade negotiations or aid conditionality.” New policy (pdf). Labour also said in their election manifesto: “We do not believe poor countries should be forced to liberalise”. This is a great advance on their long-standing support for pure free trade (including enforced liberalisation and privatisation) as well as conditional ‘tied’ aid, although there are still concerns about some remaining aspects of their EPA policy (More). However, Mandelson and the EU are still a long way from getting the message, and are trying to fight the new British position. Email Mandy now! to tell him to change his mind.
N.b. Patricia Hewitt is no longer Trade Secretary since the post-election cabinet reshuffle. ~~In fact, no-one is ‘Trade Secretary’ any more, since the government have renamed the Department of Trade and Industry the ‘Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry’. We don’t~~ ~~think this means they’ve abolished the concept of Trade entirely, but we’ll have to wait and see.~~ In any case, the new minister for this department is Alan Johnson. Email him instead.
May 10^th: Ian Pearson has now been appointed Junior Minister for Trade working jointly at the ~~‘DPEI’~~ and the Foreign Office. Contact him.
May 13^th: The government has had another change of heart and gone back to calling it the DTI. In any case, the same people are still in charge. And it’s a nice little reminder that when people complain about how stupid the government is being, sometimes they listen. We told you so.
More action on Trade.
More action on Debt.

TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW. Then tell them again, in case they didn’t get it the first time.

FAQs

Who are you?
Why 2005?
But it'll never work...

For more info

See MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY.org

We warmly welcome and encourage as broad a range of societies, groups, and individuals as possible to get involved in the campaign in Cambridge. If you or your organization want to get involved, or if you’re running a relevant event you would like publicised, email: poverty @ srcf.ucam.org

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY CAMBRIDGE publicity flyers (four A6 flyers on an A4 sheet) are available here (pdf). Please feel free to distribute these. [Select Page Scaling: None when printing to get the right proportions.]

Please link to us.

Thanks to all the organizations, societies and individuals who are already supporting us.

“If I could ask you to think a hundred years ahead, to imagine what we, and our times, will be remembered for, I would venture three things: the Internet, the war on terror, and the fate of the continent of Africa. We are the first generation that can look extreme and stupid poverty in the eye, look across the water to Africa and elsewhere and say this and mean it: we have the cash, we have the drugs, we have the science – but do we have the will? Do we have the will to make poverty history?

Some say we can’t afford to. I say we can’t afford not to.”

- Bono

An end to extreme global poverty. Is that really possible?

This is our chance, this is what our generation will be remembered for – if we achieve it. And we really can achieve it, but only with massive public support. We need YOUR support – don’t just sit there: do something; be there; spread the word.

Make History. Make Poverty History.