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Davos 08: The ghost of 2005
The PM's continued attempts to make poverty history are admirable. But he badly needs others to help with the heavy lifting. Larry Elliott
Gordon Brown's call in Davos today for a renewed push to achieve the UN's millennium development goals was both timely and necessary.
Given his current domestic difficulties, it would be the easiest thing in the world for the prime minister to slacken off on his anti-poverty agenda. But he said the scale of the emergency meant action now.
In truth, there are already signs that the international community has collectively taken its foot off the gas. That's partly the result of the strong growth in many developing countries over the past three years - largely but not exclusively attributable to high commodity prices - giving the impression that the problem of development is all but sorted.
But it is also partly the result of a gloomier outlook for the developed world, which has meant development currently has a lower priority than dealing with the financial crisis and the threat of recession.
Finally, it remains the fact, as it always did, that some G8 countries pay lip service to the idea of providing extra resources to tackle poverty.
Brown would dearly love to rekindle the spirit of the Make Poverty History campaign - the coalition of aid agencies, faith groups and trade unions that put pressure on the G8 in the run up to the Gleneagles summit in 2005.
But aid agencies have told the prime minister that that will prove mightily difficult. It was relatively easy in a country such as Britain to mobilise pressure around a platform of aid, debt relief and trade; it will prove nigh-on impossible to mobilise the same sort of energy to ensure that G8 countries live up to their funding promises.
Brown wants to see three things happen in 2008. Firstly, he wants to get the private sector involved in the development process, and to that end he has organised a conference with business in London in the spring that will include some of the world's biggest multinationals.
Secondly, he wants to ensure that Africa stays high on the agenda during both the Japanese and Italian presidencies of the G8 this year and next, so that there is no backsliding on aid commitments.
And finally, he wants there to be compacts between poor countries, rich-country donors and the private sector to deliver specific UN development goals - be it universal primary school education or improvements in infant mortality.
Will Brown succeed? Bono said in Davos yesterday that unless civil society could keep its foot on the windpipe of the G8, the chances are that the campaign to meet the millennium goals would fail.
Brown deserves to succeed, but he can't do all the heavy lifting; others must do their bit.
[http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk]
Source: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk