REACHING THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Early day motion 421, tabled 14 January 2004 by John Battle (Labour). Signed by 242 members.

That this House welcomes the commitment by international institutions and the United Kingdom Government to the Millennium Development Goals, including the goal of halving the proportion of the world's population living in absolute poverty by 2015; notes with extreme concern the warnings of the United Nations, World Bank and others that without significantly increased development assistance many countries will not meet these goals, and that pledges made as part of the Financing for Development process represent positive but insufficient progress towards making the necessary resources available; congratulates Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Luxembourg for achieving the United Nations 0.7 per cent. target, and Ireland, Belgium and France for setting clear timetables for reaching the target by 2007, 2010 and 2012 respectively; acknowledges recent progress in the United Kingdom in increasing aid, including the commitment to raise the United Kingdom aid budget to 0.4 per cent. of GDP by 2006 as well as proposals for an International Financing Facility to leverage additional resources of up to $50 billion; believes that the United Kingdom Government should continue to lead by example and therefore calls on the United Kingdom Government to use the 2004 Spending Review to set out a timetable for reaching the United Nations target, in response to the member organisations of BOND calling on the United Kingdom to spend 0.7 per cent. of GDP on overseas development assistance by 2008.

Signatures by party: Labour 161, Liberal Democrat 44, Labour/Co-operative 13, Conservative 8, Scottish National Party 5, Plaid Cymru 3, DUP 2, Independent 2, Social Democratic and Labour Party 2, UUP 2.