By Gurpreet Singh - 27th October 2009
The world's poorest people can only be helped through the economic downturn by global action, according to an international development minister.
At a meeting with the all-party parliamentary group on debt, aid and trade last night Gareth Thomas outlined DfID’s hopes of continuing to support economic growth in the developing world.
An extra 60 million people were unemployed, 100 million had been pushed into poverty, and world trade was set to shrink by 15 per cent, he said.
Drawing on proposals outlined in DfID's latest white paper, 'Building our Common Future', Thomas argued that there was a greater need to work together with the UN, G20 and regional institutions.
Together they can help minimise the impact of the downturn on those who were set to lose the most.
He also stressed the need to triple investment in areas where there was particular insecurity and powerlessness, such as the Congo, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.
Thomas suggested that political will of international leaders, and not necessarily the details relating to an estimated £30bn needed for climate finance, would be the key for an international deal to become reality at the Copenhagen summit on climate change in December.
When pressed further on NGO concerns about climate finance taking away from other funding streams, the minister highlighted that there was obvious overlap between the government's commitment to 0.7 per cent of GDP for foreign aid (as agreed at the UN General Assembly in 1970) and any amount agreed on climate finance.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd