Thank you to all the residents who have contacted me regarding Christian Aid’s manifesto ‘Global Poverty – where do you stand?’
The Liberal Democrats have long been the leading party on international development issues and as set out below our party policy meets many of the demands set out in the Christian Aid manifesto.
We the first party to commit to the 0.7% target on aid spending and we will meet that target by 2013. We remain committed to supporting an independent Department of International Development represented by a Secretary of State in the Cabinet.
Liberal Democrats were deeply disappointed by the feeble outcome at the Copenhagen climate summit and will continue to push for an ambitious international agreement which delivers the $160bn needed by developing countries to deal with climate change. We are the only party to commit to providing this funding on top of existing aid pledges.
Liberal Democrats recognise the importance of improving taxation and transparency and tackling corruption in the developing world. In our recent policy paper, ‘Development in a Downturn’, we set out plans to reform international financing systems by cracking down on tax havens, improving transparency and tackling corruption – particularly by making it harder for western banks and financial institutions to facilitate that corruption.
Violent conflict is an everyday reality for millions of the world’s most vulnerable people and it continues to hamper efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals. We believe that access to justice and security should be treated as rights in the same way as access to health and education. We support growing efforts by the Department of International Development to tackle the causes of conflict and help to establish post-conflict reconciliation. However, we do not believe that aid money should be used for arms or weaponry of any kind.
The Liberal Democrats have a strong record at the forefront of the international development debate and our manifesto for this election continues that tradition.
