Make them keep their promises

The leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries, the G8, were keen to join the Make Poverty History bandwagon in the Summer of 2005 and all made pledges to give more aid to African countries to 2010.

How appalling then that several have reneged on these commitments, according to a report which Bono’s anti-poverty group One will publish later this year. 

The report reveals that despite their promises France and Italy in particular have actually cut their aid budgets. Anti-poverty campaigners are concerned about whether Italy has the credibility needed to host an upcoming G8 meeting when aid to Africa will again be on the agenda.

The report’s introduction, by Bob Geldof and Kofi Annan, voices concern that the world’s poorest people are suffering most in the current financial crisis. These are concerns which Amnesty shares – in our annual report published a couple of weeks ago we said that the credit crunch has pushed more people into absolute poverty, and has led to increasing social tensions and even violent clashes between protestors and police. We’re also concerned that world leaders are now so focused on bank bailouts that they are forgetting the needs of people in the poorest countries.

Governments only made their original pledges because activists all over the world forced poverty onto the G8 agenda. We need to make sure we hold them accountable for the promises they made. Amnesty’s new campaign to Demand Dignity for the world’s poorest people aims to make human rights central to all efforts to end poverty. Get involved here.