United Kingdom outlines efforts to end global poverty

• Author: Sabina Bhatia
• Position: IMF External Relations Department
• Pages: 225-229

Page 225

In a follow-up to the 2005 Gleneagles Summit and its ambitious commitment to reinvigorating the fight against global poverty, the U.K. Department for International Development released a new policy paper that sets out the steps the United Kingdom will take to deliver on those promises. An IMF Economic Forum and panel discussion spotlighted the policy paper's key areas of concern: good governance, growth and aid, climate change, and reform of the international system.

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Promises to keep: the United Kingdom outlines its efforts to eliminate global poverty

At the Group of Eight (G8) Summit at Gleneagles in 2005, ambitious commitments were made to reduce the debt of poor countries, deliver more and better aid, pursue fairer trade, encourage improved governance, and foster more coherent policies in support of development.

Roughly one year later, at a July 20 IMF Economic Forum, Mark Lowcock of the U.K.'s Department for International Development (DfID) outlined the country's newly launched policy statement, "Eliminating World Poverty:

Making Governance Work for the Poor." The paper sets out how the United Kingdom intends to play its part in delivering on the promises made last year. Joining Lowcock to discuss the paper were Dennis de Tray (Center for Global Development), Abdoulaye Bio-Tchané (IMF), and Jim Adams (World Bank).

The policy paper highlighted four areas that the United Kingdom sees as critical in the fight against poverty-good governance, growth and public services, climate change, and reform of the international system.

Good governance. From the U.K. perspective, Lowcock noted, effective states and better governance (at the national and international levels) are essential for promoting growth and poverty reduction. To monitor governance and to inform the choices that the United Kingdom will make regarding the distribution of its aid resources, the country plans to adopt a new qualityof- governance assessment. But how, asked Andy Berg (IMF), will the United Kingdom resolve the tension between making aid available to countries on a predictable basis and withholding aid from poorly governed countries? Lowcock agreed this was indeed one of the most difficult challenges facing donors.

The United Kingdom would not want to "punish the poor for the failings of their government;" nor does it...