Make Poverty History was a battle for hope fought and won by millions of ordinary Britons. Politicians of all parties now ask not whether, but how they should tackle world poverty. With this in mind, during the first 100 days the next leader should address three tactical challenges – sustaining public consent for spending, winning over other countries and establishing development as part of the bipartisan political settlement – and then take bold policy action on trade and aid.
The first tactical consideration requires governments to get better at crediting their taxpayers. The US aid programme’s strap-line is ‘from the American people’. Meaningfully, it is. Through their political consent for spending, it is the publics and not the governments of donor nations that are ultimately responsible for the lives saved. In that spirit, British taxpayers should be repeatedly recognised for their support for aid and receive continual feedback on its impact. In 2002, only 50,000 Africans had access to anti-AIDS drugs. Today an additional 1.2 million people are receiving treatment thanks to aid. Debt cancellation and increased aid helped put 20 million more African children in school between 2000 and 2004. If you pay your taxes, you did that. Thank you.
The second requires working in tandem with international progressive networks. While UK negotiators can champion ideas inside the formal diplomatic process, trans-national faith groups, NGOs, unions and the student movement can mobilise global public opinion in parallel. While there will always be a healthy tension between government and those who drive it to go further, this sort of public diplomacy should become Britain’s default foreign policy practice when the interests of government and non-governmental actors coincide.
The third requires viewing the shift in Conservative positioning on development as a triumph and not a threat – it is evidence that voter consensus is narrowing the parameters of debate. Commentators may legitimately question both the motivation and depth of the change but when the stakes are so high – literally life and death – all moves towards bipartisanship should be embraced.
In the policy arena British strategies on trade and aid deserve swift and substantial action in the first 100 days. The precariousness of the Doha round of trade talks will dominate this year’s international economic agenda. A progressive British Prime Minister should demand action that is unilateral from the European side if need be, as well as a more generous set of European concessions in multilateral negotiations. A bold development package would include aid for trade, subsidy reduction or elimination and increased access to northern markets.
The UK needs to continue to push for democratic governments in developing countries to be freed from harmful economic policy conditions. On aid too, Britain must be prepared to stay in the vanguard. UK spending will need to reach at least £8.79 billion by 2010 if we are to stay on track to meet the promise of 0.7 per cent of gross national income spending on aid by 2013. This target must be non-negotiable in the Comprehensive Spending Review (itself one of the defining moments of this crunch period).
Effective action to secure trade justice and increase aid is both a moral imperative and a way to continue the rehabilitation of British politics begun in 2005. Millions of people came to the democratic table and must now be shown that peaceful political pressure can, and does, deliver real change. Thatcherites coined the phrase TINA – there is no alternative – as a defence of the pro-privatisation policies of the multilateral institutions. African activists responded to TINA with an acronym of their own: THEMBA – there must be an alternative. It wasn’t a coincidence that themba is the Zulu word for hope.
To be engaged in progressive politics is to serve the idea that there will always be an alternative. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of global poverty – an injustice that is created and sustained by political choice. A new Labour leader must entrench the remarkable development breakthroughs achieved by the Prime Minister and Chancellor. There is no reason for complacency on the international left – the Conservatives are already making new development policy commitments, and this Republican White House has delivered more aid for Africa than any former administration. That bipartisan consensus must be seized as a platform to initiate further bold action on trade and aid. In the process, the next leader would not only help to create a better, safer world, but also fulfil the most abiding promise of progressive politics: hope, in any language.