Make Poverty History five years on: dusting off the white band

Exactly five years ago, 225,000 people marched the streets of Edinburgh, tens of thousands attended the Live Eight concert in London and millions wore white bands to demand a better and fairer world.

In its media briefing, Making poverty history – five years on, ActionAid says that despite recent setbacks, the impact of the campaign has been positive.

The charity says that it made campaigners out of many thousands of people who continue to support international development charities and that it added momentum to positive change in developing countries.

ActionAid Head of Campaigns, Jenny Ricks says, “By backing the campaign’s call for more and better aid, drop the debt and trade justice, the public showed they understood that tackling poverty means confronting its underlying causes.”

“Make Poverty History demonstrated that poverty is not inevitable and that political action as well as individual commitment is essential for change to happen.”

ActionAid points out that the developing world has reaped the benefit of Make Poverty History and that many people’s lives have improved.

Debt was cancelled in more than 20 poor countries, most of them in Africa. Additionally, the quality of aid has risen, benefiting individual countries.

In Sierra Leone, British aid has helped the anti-corruption agency increase its power and recover £660,000 of government money. In Rwanda, aid has supported the tax authority. A total investment of £20 million enables Rwanda to collect this same amount every four weeks. Poverty is decreasing and almost all children go to primary school.

ActionAid says that Make Poverty History’s emphasis on the importance of aid was also an important contributory factor in getting more children into school globally.

As a direct result of increases of aid, there are 33 million more children in the classroom than a decade ago. Even more striking is the ten-fold rise in the availability of anti-Aids drugs over the last five years.

“Global poverty cannot be ended by a single event, politician or country. But that was never the point of Make Poverty History.

“It was about building understanding, creating a movement for change and underlining the importance of fixing systems,” says Jenny Ricks.

Yet ActionAid argues that action is still needed at community, national and international levels and it points out that new challenges now exist.

Climate change is affecting the poorest first and worst and developing countries are also suffering the fallout of a financial crisis they did least to create.

Jenny Ricks concludes: “Real change comes from local people demanding their rights – from a women’s group in a village standing up against domestic violence, to thousands of farmers demanding better support from their governments.”

“Above all, making poverty history is about supporting developing countries to make their own choices in the best interests of their people. It is about helping, not hindering.”

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