PM in warning on poverty reduction
Updated on 06 May 2008
Gordon Brown has delivered a stark warning that global targets for tackling poverty are set to be missed.
The Prime Minister said it would now take an "extraordinary effort" to rescue the much-vaunted millennium development goals. Some of the initiatives were running 85 years behind schedule, threatening to leave millions of children hungry and without education.
Mr Brown was speaking at a summit of top businessmen and politicians in London's Canary Wharf financial district. Guests at the event included President Kufuor of Ghana and executives from companies including Microsoft, Cisco and Diageo.
Mr Brown said everyone agreed that the millennium development goals were key to preventing the worst injustices in the world, but progress had been too slow.
"So great is the distance we still have to travel to achieve them that they can only be met by each of us playing our part. For we know that, without an extraordinary effort, we will fail."
He added: "Our millennium development goal is to reduce infant mortality by two thirds, but so far do we still have to go that, unless we act now, it will not be met by 2015, not even by 2030 - not, in fact, until 2050.
"Our millennium development goal is primary education for every child, but, unless we act now, it will not be met by 2015, not even by 2050, but by 2100 at best."
The premier warned failure to act now would mean the planet suffering more environmental damage by 2015 rather than less.
Mr Brown insisted that the private sector had a vital role to play in tackling poverty, as when business thrived in a country, wealth was spread throughout the population. He praised initiatives, such as mobile phone banking, which were giving millions of people access to basic accounts for the first time, and electronic weather information for farmers so they could better plan when to harvest and sew crops.
"To every private sector in the company, in Britain and here in the City of London, my message today is: you can make a difference. When conscience is joined to conscience, moral force to moral force, think how much our power to do good and our power to change lives can achieve."
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