Mary Backs Global Poverty Promise

Mary Creagh is urging people across Wakefield to go online and back a new campaign to turn a promise to tackle global poverty into a law.  

The http://globalpovertypromise.com website is part of a campaign to put the Government’s promise to raise international development aid to 0.7% of national income by 2013 into legislation.  

Mary said: “People across Wakefield are proud of what we’ve achieved and the help we’ve given to people living lives of poverty in developing countries. We’ve campaigned to Make Poverty History and kept our promises through this global recession. I am urging people to go online and join me in backing ‘globalpovertypromise.com’.”  

Douglas Alexander, International Development Secretary, said:   “Mary has been a passionate campaigner on global poverty and a long standing advocate of action to help people in the developing world."  

“Aid increases and debt cancellation have helped to get 40 million more children into school, while the number of people with access to AIDS treatment has increased from just 100,000 to over 4 million. The proportion of the world’s population living in poverty has fallen from a third to a quarter thanks to a combination of both aid and trade.  

Last year alone, the Department for International Development helped train over 100,000 teachers, vaccinate more than three million children against measles, provide a million people with clean water, protect seven million people with anti-malaria bednets and give more than 12 million people access to better sanitation.