IT’S rare that MPs get the chance to help the world’s poorest people simply by turning up to work.
On Friday, September 12, they can do just that by attending the second reading of the International Development Bill.
This Bill would cement the UK’s commitment to invest 0.7 per cent of national income in overseas aid.
I saw a fraction of UK aid’s transformative power in Ghana recently – the fastest-growing African economy, where 99 per cent of children finish primary school but where 6.5 million people still live in extreme poverty. This year alone, UK aid gave nearly 20 million people in developing countries access to water and vaccinated 48 million against polio.
If Southampton, Hampshire and Winchester’s MPs are serious about giving the world’s poorest a real shot at working themselves out of poverty, they must do the right thing. I urge them – whatever their political colour – to attend the debate, support the Bill and seal the deal on aid.
DIANE SHEARD, UK Director The ONE Campaign
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