Why not leave Africa and Asia and other poor countries to sort out their own problems?

Because we play a huge part in each other’s lives.

Their problems become ours, as ours become theirs – people desperately seeking refuge here because of terrible conflict there, and farmers trapped in crippling poverty there because of subsidies here. And, there are the worldwide problems of HIV and AIDS, climate change and terrorism.

As a rich country, we have a moral obligation to fight poverty. And a safer, more equal, more prosperous world is in all our interests.

In the UK our aid to poor countries is managed by the Department for International Development (DFID).

• We work towards a set of targets agreed by the UN to halve global poverty by 2015 – the Millennium Development Goals.
• In 2005, the UK spent £5.9 billion on reducing poverty overseas. This is set to increase significantly as the UK’s aid budget rises to 0.7% of national income by 2013.
• Our staff work in some of the most difficult places to protect the vulnerable and help countries recover from conflict.
• We work with the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), World Bank and others to find international solutions to international problems.
• And we fund charities to work on the ground, giving them £233 million in 2004-2005.

Aid works. Debt relief works. Trade works.

All these get clean water to children, prevent mothers dying, and help countries earn their way out of poverty.

But aid and debt relief work best when they help poor countries and poor people take responsibility for their own futures.