MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY
 In February, when Nelson Mandela stood in front of 20,000 people in Trafalgar Square, no one could have anticipated the response to his rallying cry,
"Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings."
In unprecedented numbers, people answered the call - 500,000 signed up on-line, 25,000 people attended the Wake Up to Trade Justice Rally, 8 million people wore white wristbands and 3 million children wrote to Tony Blair urging the G8 leaders to 'Send My Friend To School'.
Protesting for the First Time
Six months into the campaign, 87% of the UK population had heard about it, exceeding all expectations. The C8 Children's Forum brought young people from across the world to take action on global issues. And over 10,000 people took photos of their eyes to stress the 'World is Watching' and waiting for AIDS treatment for all by 2010.
Over 500,000 people emailed the Prime Minister and in the biggest public demonstration on global poverty the UK has ever seen, a quarter of a million people marched in Edinburgh ahead of the arrival of the G8 leaders - over half joining a protest for the first time.
Ahead of the WTO meeting in December, 375 MPs were lobbied in a single day in the largest ever mass lobby of Parliament and over 750,000 people in the UK cast a Vote for Trade Justice to show their support for change. No politician in this country can claim not to have heard their demands.
 FARM-Africa joined the 2005 campaign, made up of 540 UK based non-governmental organisations, to influence policy on Trade, Debt and Aid.
We firmly believe that agriculture is crucial to making poverty history. We know from our experience that increased investment in agriculture transforms lives and helps to lift people out of poverty. To find out more, read our policy paper 'Reaching the Poor: A Call to Action'(2004).
The Global Campaign
The UK was not alone in its efforts but part of a global movement of 31 million people from 84 national coalitions around the world united in the Global Call to Action Against Poverty.
Across the world, campaigners gathered on three co-ordinated White Band Days on July 1st, September 10th and December 10th to pressure governments. In Delhi, 10,000 people attended the South Asian People's Summit Against Poverty, thousands of Kenyans joined the People's March for Justice while in Niger, campaigners toured the G8 embassies for a breakfast lobby. In Dublin, 20,000 took part in one of the biggest ever gatherings of people in Ireland.
As in the UK, the white band was hung on churches, mosques and town halls: the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Coliseum in Rome, the Tokyo Tower, Istiqlal placate, the largest mosque in Jakarta and in Peru a white band was displayed at San Martin Square, the site of the biggest demonstrations of Peruvian social movements.The combination of grassroots activism, popular campaigning and global action focused worldwide attention on rich country governments to demonstrate a dramatically different level of political commitment and tackle global poverty through action and not words.
Aims of the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Campaign
Trade Justice
MPH called for:
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Action to ensure that governments, particularly in poor countries, can choose the best solutions to end poverty and protect the environment
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An end to the export subsidies that damage the livelihood of poor rural communities
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Laws that stop big business profiting at the expense of people and the environment.
What was achieved
In 2005, the UK Government changed the language it uses on trade justice including positive statements on reducing European agricultural subsidies, a changed policy position on trade-related conditionality (the strings attached to financing) and important new statements on stopping forced liberalisation.
In WTO services negotiations, the UK government verbally committed to opposing mandatory approaches. Yet, the EU continued to demand mandatory targets for the liberalisation of trade in services. This means poor countries will be pushed into negotiations that could see essential services such as water, health and education opened up to foreign competition.
Major developed countries failed to end the dumping of agricultural products in developing countries. However, it was agreed that there should be special measures to protect vulnerable farmers in poor countries from liberalisation based on criteria such as food security, livelihood security and rural development.
Trade justice is crucial to making poverty history and campaigners across the world, encouraged by the solidarity shown by developing country governments will continue to call for an end to unfair trade.
Drop the Debt
MPH called for the unpayable debts of the world's poorest countries to be cancelled in full, by fair and transparent means.
What was achieved
So far only the IMF has signed up to the G8's debt deal - this still has to be finally agreed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank but it should be worth up to $1billion per year for the 18 countries that qualify (around 20 more could also become eligible). This compares to the minimum of $10 billion debt cancellation per year needed to help developing countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The principle of cancelling 100 per cent of the debt owed to multilateral institutions and recognising that debt relief must extend further than the current list of eligible countries, are important breakthroughs but major issues remain unresolved. Damaging economic policy conditions remain attached to financing debt relief and there is still no fair and transparent arbitration mechanism for resolving debt crises.
More and Better Aid
MPH called for donors to immediately deliver at least $50 billion more in aid per year and set a binding timetable for spending 0.7%of national income on aid. Aid must also be made to work more effectively for poor people.
The 2005 G8 Summit signalled an extra $48 billion a year by 2010, including between $15 and $20 billion of new commitments. If this promise is kept and delivered without imposing economic conditions, millions of lives could be saved. This will be a lasting legacy of 2005. However, the aid pledges made this year are not on the scale needed to make poverty history. The rate of progress towards the long overdue target of 0.7% is still far too slow.Africa has been identified as a priority for Europe. Half of the increase in aid that EU Member States have agreed to (up from 46 billion Euros in 2006 to 66 billion Euros in 2010) will go to Africa. However, the targets and indicators fall short of campaign demands, especially on the crucial area of untying all the aid to all developing countries. FARM-Africa believes that to achieve poverty reduction, the level of aid must be increased to at least 0.7% GDP, however it is equally important to ensure that these resources are spent effectively and that they help the poor develop pathways out of poverty. FARM-Africa believes that investment needs to be directed at the grassroots to farmers and herders in rural Africa who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.
How You Can Help
Although the MPH Campaign has finished, you can still get involved. Investment in the smallholder agriculture sector in Africa is key to lifting people from poverty and FARM-Africa continues to call for further support to build vibrant agricultural economies. To find out more, please visit our Research and Advocacypages for further information about how we are working at both national and international levels. To support our work, please visit the How You Can Help pages of the website.
Information on MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is available at www.makepovertyhistory.org and www.live8live.com
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