LETTER: Make Poverty History

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 11th Apr 2005

Dear Editor - It is unacceptable that so many countries have to spend more on debt repayments than on meeting their people's most basic needs, such as education and healthcare.

At current rates of progress, we will fail to meet the 2005 target that ensures for girls the same opportunities in primary and secondary education as boys. Girls still account for the two thirds of children missing out on education. Not only are more than 60 per cent of developing countries unlikely to meet the target, but on present trends, most are unlikely to achieve gender equality for girls in basic education even by 2115!

With millions of children dying every year from preventable diseases, the Liberal Democrats welcome the Sachs report which calls on developed and developing countries to work together on 'Quick Win' actions. One of the key 'quick win' calls for distributing free, long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed-nets to all children in malaria-endemic zones to cut decisively the burden of malaria. This is a practical solution which will save and improve millions of lives.

There was encouraging progress at the G7 Finance Ministers' meeting in February where for the first time it was agreed that "in principle" up to 100 per cent of poor countries' multilateral debts could be cancelled, without reducing the resources available to the poorest countries through the World Bank and the IMF. I believe this agreement must be converted into concrete action at the July meeting of G8 leaders in Gleneagles.

The terrible reality is that 30,000 children die everyday as a result of poverty and preventable diseases. This is an intolerable reality and I believe the world's rich countries must work in partnership with those in the developing world to achieve a world free from poverty.

I would encourage everyone in Brentford, Chiswick, Hounslow & Isleworth to get involved in events this Friday 15th April - I will be wearing the Make Poverty History wristband right the way through the general election campaign and beyond. For more information visit www.makepovertyhistory.org

Yours sincerely

Andrew Dakers

Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for Brentford & Isleworth