Today the gap between the world’s rich and poor is wider than ever.

Unfair global trade rules, the huge burden of debt shouldered by developing countries and insufficient and poor quality aid all play a huge role in keeping poor countries locked in poverty.

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY callied for the following changes in these three key areas to ensure a fairer deal for the world’s poorest people.

trade justice
Trade can play a powerful role in helping developing countries lift themselves out of poverty. But current trade rules are stacked in favour of the most powerful countries and businesses, and are often damaging for poor people’s livelihoods.

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is calling for:

• trade rules that ensure governments can choose the best solutions to end poverty
• an end to export subsidies the damage the livelihoods of poor communities around the world
• laws to stop big business profiting at the expense of poor people.

debt cancellation
Despite grand statements from world leaders the debt crisis is far from over. As a result, many countries still have to spend more on repayments than on meeting the needs of their people.

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is calling for:

• the unpayable debts of the world’s poorest countries to be cancelled in full, by fair and transparent means
• an end to making poor countries implement particular policies in order to get debt relief
• a fair and transparent process for dealing with debt problems, making sure that poor countries needs are taken account of – not just creditors’ concerns.

more and better aid
Poverty will not be wiped out without an immediate and major increase in aid. Rich countries have promised to provide the extra money needed to meet the millennium development goals to halve global poverty by 2015.  This amounts to at least $50 billion a year and must be delivered now.

Far reaching changes in the way aid is delivered are also needed to ensure that it achieves its maximum benefits.

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is calling for:

• donors to deliver at least $50 billion more in aid a year
• a binding deadline for donors to spend 0.7% of their national income on aid by 2010, ensuring that it does not include funding for debt relief which should be additional to aid spending/
• aid to be focussed on the poorest people
• aid to support policies set and fully owned by the receiving country
• an end to making the receiving country adopt certain policies in return for aid, such as opening their markets to imports and privatisation of their services and industries.