STWR - Share The World's Resources

February 2006, Jeffrey D Sachs, The Guardian (UK)

The fight against extreme poverty can be won, but only if Bush recognises that military might alone won't secure the world

The end of poverty is a choice, not a forecast. There are a billion people on earth fighting daily for their survival. The world has committed, in the Millennium Development Goals, to cut extreme poverty by half by 2015. By 2025, extreme poverty can be banished. By dint of interest and calendar, the next step rests with Downing Street.

A response to Mohammed Mesbahi's article - the Tsunami, the Brandt Report and other matters - from Christine Edwards of the Department for International Development.

February 2006, The Guardian (UK)

Jeffrey Sachs, a prominent US economist and a special adviser to the UN secretary general, argues in a new book that extreme poverty could be eradicated by 2025.

In The End of Poverty, he says much will depend on the choices made by Americans, who are paying a far smaller share of their income in foreign aid than they promised three years ago, and only a 30th of the "nearly $500bn [£260bn] the US will spend this year on the military".

Will debt relief make a difference?

By Orla Ryan, BBC News business reporter

The world's richest countries are getting ready to grant a debt moratorium to countries affected by the tsunami.

But critics question whether the proposals - to freeze payments for a year or more - go far enough.

Some argue that the debt should be cancelled, not just temporarily suspended.

Others say the debt moratorium is ill-conceived, designed to reflect well on the world's richest countries while achieving little for the world's poorest.

January 4, 2005, Paul Brown, The Guardian

UN conference hears how small states are struggling with rising seas, pollution and cuts in foreign assistance.

Aid to 45 small island states, home to the people most vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters, has fallen by more than half in eight years, a UN conference will be told today.

Concern at plans to alter OECD aid terms

Charities and aid campaigners are sounding the alarm about a move by some of the world's rich countries to redefine spending on peacekeeping missions as development aid and thereby duck a pledge to increase aid commitments.

Senior officials from members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development met in Paris at the end of last week for discussions about how to define overseas aid spending for purposes of international comparison.

Some countries, believed to be Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia, argue that spending on peacekeeping operations or training of foreign armies should be allowed to be counted as aid spending.

Feb 06, Oxfam

A new report from international agency Oxfam today reveals that 45 million more children will die needlessly by 2015, because rich countries are failing to provide the necessary resources they promised to overcome poverty.