Making poverty history

Fifteen years after the G8 summit at Gleneagles, the fight against global poverty could be set back drastically by Covid-19. So will poverty ever be history? Michael Alexander reports.

Fifteen years ago this week, the G8 summit saw leaders from the USA, Canada, Russia, France, Italy, Germany and Japan join the then-UK prime minister Tony Blair at Gleneagles in Perthshire where they discussed development in Africa and global climate change. As hundreds of thousands marched vociferously in Edinburgh and Auchterarder demanding that the richest nations “Make Poverty History” – and despite events being overshadowed by the 7/7 London bombings – the summit ended with an agreement to boost aid for developing countries by $50bn (£28.8bn) and to cancel the debt of the 18 poorest nations in Africa.

On trade, there was a commitment to work towards cutting subsidies and tariffs, while on climate change, the US accepted – for the first time – that global warming was an issue.

Fifteen years down the line, there have been encouraging trends with global “extreme poverty” at its lowest ever recorded level by 2015.

But with Oxfam recently warning that the richest nations are continuing to fuel global inequality, with extreme poverty again on the rise in Africa and underfunded health systems in the world’s poorest nations woefully illprepared to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, will poverty ever be history?

Jack McConnell – now Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale – was first minister of Scotland at the time of the 2005 G8.

The Labour peer remembers an “incredible” week that presented an opportunity to showcase Scotland internationally, while the event itself was historic as a focus for rich countries to “step up their game” to help the poorest. With the Make Poverty History (MPH) movement driven by peaceful “people power”, he’s still in awe at the “truly phenomenal” role of police who quelled the actions of a small number of hard core Italian anarchists intent on “smashing up” Edinburgh.

But Lord McConnell, who now chairs the all-party parliamentary group on UN sustainable development goals at Westminster, concedes that while the 2005 G8 “made a difference”, it was not enough.

Highlighting the ongoing link between conflict and extreme poverty in many places, he is urging the G8 (now the G7) to “show the same commitment and concern for the world’s poorest” when they meet in the USA in September to recommit to goals set in 2015.

However, he is also “deeply concerned” about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We could see the first rise in extreme global poverty in our lifetimes,” he told The Courier.

We need to understand we can’t combat pandemics in the same way we can’t stop wars if we just look after ourselves

“Extreme global poverty has been steadily coming down – the national, local and international action has been working – but the pandemic could be the thing that reverses that trend.

“That’s why we need leadership from the United Nations, we need leadership