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Building our common future

Douglas Alexander
YOUR browser may not support display of this image. This is a critical time in the global fight against poverty. Millions of people have been lifted out of poverty over the last decade, thanks in part to debt relief and increases in aid. Bangladesh has enjoyed consistent growth since 1990, and poverty has declined by an average of almost 2 per cent each year since 2000.
But the global recession, the climate crisis and ongoing conflict and fragility in many countries threaten to turn back the progress we have seen. The global recession alone could trap as many as 90 million people in extreme poverty. Bangladesh has been relatively unaffected, but we know that
4.2 million more people are in poverty as a result of the global food price rises of last year. And there are 115 million Bangladeshis living on less than $2 a day who remain extremely vulnerable should the downturn continue.
That is why the UK Government has published a new strategic vision for the way we approach international development: 'Building our Common Future'.
It shows how we will keep the promises we have made to increase aid to developing countries.
We will dedicate 0.7 per cent of national income to development assistance by 2013. By next year our assistance will be equivalent to 0.56 per cent of national income --in line with the European Union's collective commit-
ment. And we will, by next year, have nearly trebled our bilateral and multilateral aid to Africa since 2004.
Half of our future global bilateral aid will be invested in public services. This level of investment will help children to go to school and provide other basic services such as health facilities and water and sanitation.
In the midst of (his recession, we will help to protect 50 million poor people, in more than twenty countries, from the worst effects of the downturn. Because growth is the exit route out of poverty and aid dependence, we will also do more to give people economic opportunities -- for instance through our international growth centre, which will give developing countries access to global experts in
creating sustainable growth. In Bangladesh, UK aid will over the coming five years help establish 50,000 preschools and provide 4 million more boys and girls with 5 years of quality basic education. We will also ensure 4 million pregnant women are looked after by skilled birth attendants, preventing death or serious injury as a result of pregnancy and child birth.
The UK is also investing about £200 million over the next five years to help 6 million extremely poor people improve their livelihoods and food security. These include some of the poorest and most vulnerable groups living on chars in the haor flood plains and coastal areas, as well as slum and street dwellers in towns and cities.
T he climate crisis represents one of the greatest threats to poverty reduction. Climate change is already affecting Bangladesh, with devastating impact. Ifsea levels rise by just one metre, a fifth of Bangladesh could disappear under water, forcing 30 million people from their homes. By 2050, 70 million people could be affected annually by floods and 8 million bv droucht. with increas-
ingly intense cyclones hitting the coast. It is a bleak picture.
We will ensure that, globally, new and additional finance is made available - over and above our aid commitments to tackle climate change, and we will use up to 10% of UK aid on climate programmes. We will invest in the knowledge and tools needed for adaptation, low carbon development and the protection of forests. We are already providing £75 million to support Bangladesh's national climate change strategy for adaptation and mitigation. This will help communities prepare better for disasters and will strengthen the early warning systems that already save so many lives.
The Bangladesh Government's strategy is expected to help 15 million people over the next 5 years; providing protection from Hoods and cyclones by building shelters and embankments, and helping them develop crops that are saline and arsenic tolerant.
One third of the world's poorest people live in conflict-affected or fragile countries. So at least half of all the UK's new direct aid will co to those
countries. We will help provide security and access to justice as basic services; we will do more to protect women from violence; and we will create jobs benefiting 7.5 million people.
Strengthening access to justice for the poorest, and helping people get the skills and opportunities they need to earn incomes, are two ways in which UK aid will support Bangladesh in the coming period. With other partners, including UNDP, and the European Commission, we aim to help 10 million people get access to community legal services over the next five years. And with IFC, we will help create 2 million additional jobs.
We will work more with international institutions like the United Nations, the HUropean Union and the World Bank in all of these areas - but we will demand more of them too. In Bangladesh, we will work in closer coordination and cooperation with our partners -- government, international organisations and non government organisations -- to ensure our collective effort is efficient and effective, and ultimately helos
Succour to the cyclone affected. Bangladesh and all its citizens.
We will work harder than ever to ensure that every pound of UK aid contributes towards direct and tangible results -- fulfilling our pledges on aid effectiveness made in the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action, and pushing others to do the same.
We remain committed in the fight against global poverty because it is morally right.
century, it is also clear that the future prosperity and security of all peoples across the world are more closely bound together than ever before.
The economic, climate and conflict crises that threaten the world's poorest people threaten us all. But working together, we can build a more prosperous, safe and sustainable world.
The writer is UK Secretary of State