Millennium Development Goal 1: Tackling poverty and hunger
It's hard to imagine, but more than a billion people in the developing world live on less than a dollar a day. Without enough money to buy food, millions go hungry every day, with under-nourishment playing a part in more than half of all child deaths.
That’s why we’re committed to the twin targets of, by 2015, halving the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar a day and halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger.
The good news is that extreme poverty levels fell between 1990 and 2000, although progress was uneven. If this trend continues, 370 million more people will have been lifted out of extreme poverty, with global poverty rates falling to 13% by 2015. The bad news is that while some progress is being made in southern Africa, it is stubbornly slow, with an estimated 360 million people set to be living in extreme poverty in 2015.
It’s not enough simply to provide food. If we are going to help Africa escape the spectre of malnutrition over the long-term, we also need to provide development assistance.
To this end, we spent an estimated £5 billion on official development assistance in 2007. Our priorities include combating the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa, promoting poverty reduction programmes, reducing debt, boosting access to markets, and supporting peace processes. To help boost the effectiveness of existing aid, we are also encouraging donors to work together more.
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Last updated: 22 July 2007
