Brown calls on business to stamp out poverty

from The Times Online

The Prime Minister has invited companies to find ways of meeting goals to provide health and education to impoverished children.

David Charter in Davos

Business leaders were today challenged by Gordon Brown to join a new movement with politicians and aid agencies to prevent international anti-poverty targets heading for dismal failure.

The Prime Minister invited the wealthy executives at Davos to a summit at Downing Street in May where companies will be asked to come up with resources to help meet the Millennium Development Goals, a series of targets with a 2015 deadline.

His appeal was shared by Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General, Bill Gates of Microsoft and Bono, the U2 frontman, who said that despite their "crap" name, the goals marked a great chance to make real improvements in the lives of the impoverished.

Mr Brown said: "We have promised that infant mortality will be cut by three quarters by 2015. On present trends we will not make that happen until at least 2050.

"We have promised that every child will be in schooling by 2015, but on present trends we will not achieve that before 2115 and the children of the world cannot wait another century."

The Downing Street summit of international corporations will be followed up by European Union leaders at their council meeting in June and at the G8 meeting of leading industrialised powers in Japan the following month.

Mr Brown added: "This is a unique call to action, never made before, to all private sector companies, all NGOs [non-governmental organisations] as well as all governments."

Bono, a veteran campaigner for the poor, said that the world was facing a moment of truth. "Where another generation put a man on the moon, we cannot put every kid in school," he said.

"Where another generation fought fascism and injustice and prevailed, we fail in our fight against the anopheles mosquito which kills 3,000 people a day," he said, referring to malaria deaths.

Mr Ban said that knowing that thousands of children were dying in the developing world from preventable diseases, without doing anything about it, was like "standing and doing nothing as the train roars off to Auschwitz."

The UN chief added: "Too many nations have fallen behind. We need fresh ideas and fresh approaches. It is unacceptable that one child dies of hunger every day, every five seconds."

Mr Ban said that he would use September's annual United Nations summit to refocus attention on the millennium goals. "We will bring together the world leaders and together demand action," he said. "We must re-energise the world's commitment."