UN 0.7% GNP TARGET FOR DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE

Early day motion 386, tabled 8 November 2001 by John Battle (Labour). Signed by 241 members.

That this House welcomes the commitment by international institutions and the UK Government to the goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015; notes with extreme concern the warnings of the World Bank and others that without significantly increased development assistance many countries will fail these goals; recognises that the economic consequences of the tragic events of 11th September will have severe and adverse impacts on developing countries; draws attention to the fact that the countries of sub-Saharan Africa already lag far behind other developing nations in poverty reduction and will need greater sustained assistance to achieve their development goals; applauds the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark for consistently achieving the UN 0.7 per cent. GNP target over many years, and congratulates Luxembourg for achieving the target in 2000 and Portugal and Ireland for setting dates to achieve the target, in 2006 and 2007 respectively; believes that successful poverty reduction is an essential foundation of stability in an increasingly globalised world and that the UK's advocacy with other donors that lag behind the 0.7 per cent. target will be significantly enhanced if we lead by example; and therefore calls on the Government to make a firm commitment to achieve the UN 0.7 per cent. target for overseas development assistance by 2012 and adopt an intermediate target of 0.4 per cent. by 2006.

Signatures by party: Labour 156, Liberal Democrat 39, Labour/Co-operative 15, Conservative 14, Scottish National Party 5, UUP 4, Plaid Cymru 3, DUP 2, Social Democratic and Labour Party 2, Independent 1.