Category: Uncategorized
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Failing to Include 0.7% Legislation in the Queen’s Speech Breaches Promises Made to the Electorate
The government once again failed to introduce legislation committing the UK to spending 0.7% of GNI on international development in the Queen’s Speech today. Unlike all the broken promises of the past, this has life or death implications for world’s poorest people. As the Independent reports: The coalition agreement stated that Britain would meet the United Nations…
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Lord Boateng reports on the UK supported vaccine rollout in Ghana
Lord Paul Boateng travelled to Ghana for World Immunization Week (21st – 28th April), to celebrate the country becoming the first African country to introduce pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines at the same time, simultaneously tackling the leading causes of the world’s two biggest childhood killers – pneumonia and diarrhoea. Globally, pneumonia and severe infant diarrhoea…
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World Malaria Day: Government needs to do more to support the Global Fund
By Gareth Thomas MP, Shadow Minister for Civil Society and Minister for International Development until 2010 Today, people around the world are marking World Malaria Day to celebrate the progress that has been made towards eradicating malaria, and to commemorate those who have lost their lives to the disease. Huge progress has been made in the…
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DFID and other donors must not cut aid to South Sudan
Kevin Watkins, co-author with Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP of a major new report on education in South Sudan last week, has warned of the consequences of aid to South Sudan being cut as a result of the oil dispute with Sudan. He writes for the Guardian’s development blog; How should aid donors respond to…
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Ivan Lewis calls on Andrew Mitchell to honour aid commitment
This weekend Shadow DfID Secretary Ivan Lewis MP wrote to International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell MP urging him to ensure that the Government follows through on its promise to enshrine the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on international aid in law. DfID’s Departmental business plan committed to enshrine in law our commitment to spend…
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Congolese Elections: Democratisation is a process, not an event, says Lord McConnell
Former Scottish First Minister and Labour Peer, Lord McConnell, has written about his experiences observing the DRC’s recent election. On December 17 2010, a young Tunisian man set himself on fire. This desperate act helped to spark a political revolution in the Arab world. Images of people revolting against notoriously oppressive regimes captivated onlookers worldwide. …
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Avoiding Sahel Famine Demands Urgent Action – NOT Dropping 0.7% Target says Lord McConnell
Former Scottish First Minister and Labour Peer Lord McConnell writes that the Economic Affairs Committee could not have chosen a worse time for their report opposing the all party commitment to 0.7% of UK GDP as the development aid target. While politicians and pundits in Britain might be having fun arguing about taxes on pasties, international…
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The world’s newest nation deserves the best start – tell the World Bank to support universal education for South Sudan
As Gordon Brown launches a new report education in South Sudan, LCID is supporting his call for the World Bank to support the world’s newest nation deliver education for all. South Sudan, the newest country in the world, is anchored to the bottom of the world league table for education. More than one million children…
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Osborne, Barclays, the Cayman Islands and tax avoidance
Left Foot Forward reported today that on Monday, Action Aid delivered a petition of more than 33,000 signatures calling for the government to close tax loopholes to the Treasury. Labour has promised to lodge amendments to the finance bill legislation, and Department for International Development and Treasury shadows Rushanara Ali and Owen Smith, respectively, accepted…
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Cameron has the wrong values to lead the post-2015 MDG Review – our piece for The New Statesman
This article was first published on the New Statesman blog. Thursday saw the news that Ban Ki Moon has asked David Cameron to chair a new UN committee tasked with establishing a new set of UN millennium development goals when the current ones expire in 2015. Britain will have the opportunity to maintain the global leadership on international development…
Labour Campaign for International Development 