Post your thoughts on tackling poverty and helping families in the developing world

[carriemumsnet]

Hi all

We've been asked by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander for our ideas and comments on tackling global poverty.

Here's his statement where he outlines some of the issues and what's currently being done and what's planned. If you can post your questions/comments/suggestions here, the plan is that he will check back in the next couple of weeks and answer some of the questions/comment on the suggestions.

Over to you Douglas Alexander....

God, this is huge, and I am no expert, but would prioritise

Clean free water
Composting toilets in every village
Microbusinesses and microloans for women - as that Nobel Prize Winner developed
Communities solving their own problems
Education education education - on health and sex and BF
Force retailers in the UK to be totally transparent about how their products are made and by whom
Much more rigorous legislation about imperialist activities by huge multinationals
in developing countries

I know its a little thing, but I see no reason why unused medicines that are not out of date can't be sent there. We donate old clothes and sometimes canned goods, but I understand that they are always short of medicine. How often do we all really finish our courses of antibiotics etc. Why can't a scheme be set up to make these available?

Well IMVVVHO trade has to be the starting point (as well as aid) - Fair Trade has to become mainstream, in everyone's conscious minds as they go about choosing their weekly shop in the UK. THe "Fair Trade" logo does guarentee a good level of pay for workers as well as a commitment to set up and run community groups in develping countries, so the FT logo shuold be actively prmotoed by gov't and by shops (esp. big supermarkets).

That's not to say that all big complanies are evil slave-labourers though - Waitrose do great community projects with its suppliers, and other comapanies are v. ethical without having the FT logo (although I do see the FT logo as a "gold standard"). IMO the thing is that when we shop, we must have in our minds "Where has this come from? Who made it? Were they paid a just wage? Were they exploited?"

It's such a complex issue, though, isn't it?

I second the idea that unused medicines could be sent there.

And how about dissolving the debts of the Third World? Something the ex PM said he would do, but so far has failed.

We need to deploy some of those troops that are coming home from Basra to accompany food and medicine aid in Third World countries as most of the stuff is being pillaged before it's even got there.

We need to be tougher on the governments to stamp out corruption and stop relying on foreign aid, they should do more to support their own people and we should give them incentives for doing so.

We should stop the supply of weapons to these countries, many of the guns they use are British and American ex-service guns - where did they get them from?

We should organised more exchanges of medical students so that our students get to practice their skills over there where they are desperately needed, and their students get to train in our hospitals.

Create a fair system of trade within the international markets;

Free education for all;

Develop and encourage use of sustainable agricultural methods;

Encourage talented members of indiginous populations to stay and contribute to their own countries (this is NOT an anti-immigration comment!);

Use all diplomatic powers available to assist in the cessation of wars/conflicts leading to suffering;

In the short term, what about a government backed promotion of child sponsership of children within the developing world? This may solve many of the problems for the next generation. Why doesn't Gordon Brown ask his friends in the City to sponser a certain number of children, perhaps a million to begin with?

This thread keeps popping up at the top of active convos even when the last post is half an hour old! It's making me ever so slightly paranoid.

me too rhuby

While it may seem logical, the sending of medicines to developing countries is actually really unhelpful, and in many cases detrimental. What they need are large quantities of a relatively limited number of standardised drugs - not small numbers of different things. Small sacale drug donations cause massive problems of logistics, as well as possibly leading to mistakes - i.e. different dosages / instructions not in local languages / different names etc. There are clear guidelines devised by WHO based on past experiences about how and under what circumstances drugs can and should be donated.

Get tough on drug companies to make it easier and cheaper to send basic drugs to these countries. The charges they set for Aids drugs for example, is phenomenal and their governments simply can't afford it.

Go on, offer them peerages if they send free drug supplies to poor countries!

as a knee jerk reaction probably the best thing to do would be to stop destabilising regions of the world by getting involved in messy and protracted wars

drop third world debt

Yup, Nigeria et al need seriously sorting.

And its BP and the like largely to blame - that country should be sooooooooo rich.

Of course corruption plays a part, but really I think multi-nationals have a lot to answer for in that part of the world. There should be tighter controls on what they can and can't do in a local community and proper recompnese for what they take from a phenomenally rich country left incredibly poor.

I wholeheartedly support the measures on health listed below. I think this government has a pretty good record so far on international development and I hope you can make this work.

The only addition I can think of immediately would be more funding for research into non-profitable medical causes - eg malaria.

On tackling poverty in general, I agree that trade and corruption are big issues.

perhaps the uk should lead by example on corruption by reopening the investigation into corruption at BAE?

re trade: I think the fair trade scheme is only a sticking plaster itself. what we need is a world bank which pushes for humantarian / labour law reform rather than economic reform and privatisation. that would get things moving more quickly.

Finally I think the UK must also stop offering trade guarantees for military deals, especially those which involve countries which can ill afford new hardware. joined up government and all that.

good luck in the new job!

Controlling corruption is critical, but sadly it means controlling human nature to a large extent. Where there are gains to be made unfortunately there will always be people who will take advantage and put their own preceived needs and -sometimes- greed first. I live in a country which would be classed as developing, although not 3rd world, and which has received and is still receiving a considerable amount of foreign aid. Sadly it is almost par for the course for there to be someone corrupt administering the aid and skimming off the top for their own pockets. Not just with aid either - in hospitals you have to give a decent bribe to get proper treatment, and even then you can't trust that a doctor is actually performing properly.

We are spoilt in the UK because there are long established systems in place to ensure that corrpution and unprofessional behaviour and practice can ultimately be tackled in some way. How or even if such systems can be created in other countries remains to be seen, and would need to be worked on using local knowledge and people.

Normal hardworking families want to move on but it seems they will always be overshadowed by the greedy corrput crowd.

I am not very up on all this, my opinions are really a stab in the dark type thing but I always though about nurse/doctor training etc. to have 6 months or so in a developing country - even setting up education facilities for UK based nurses and doctors - I really wildly presume it would be cheaper than setting up in the UK and at the same time providing nurses and doctors?

I really don't see how this can be done externally.

The problems are within the countries - the corruption at government level is huge and however much money you pour in it will be creamed off by those in power. Remember China had a faminie whilst it sold its grain to the free world. So I think one has to be realistic about how much you can achieve from outside.

We need to take into account the culture of the countries that you are targetting. One poster has asked why women continue to have children in war ravaged Darfour. I expect that it is cultural - tradition dictates that you have a large family because you can expect to loose children to illness, famine and war and so you have a large family because when you are old (40+) you will be relying on your children to look after and feed you.

I also think you would do well to leave the whole thing to the NGOs who are established in those countries. You are a government - not an aid organisation. Ask the NGOs what they want and give it to them with the minimum of fuss and red tape. They are the experts in this field. You are a bureaucrat. Leave it to them.

But this raises points so much deeper. There are regimes in the poorest parts of the world that flourish due to negligence on the parts of the western governments. So many economic problems - it makes your head spin.

I see this as a sticking plaster. A valiant one in principle but no more.

-The education of girls

To educate girls about their reproductive systems before they become pregnant, to give them something other than motherhood to aim for.

-Improved women's rights

Including the right to say no to their husband, and the right to inherit. Equality would be good, but let's start with mere improvements.

-a serious legal penalty for rape, including marital rape.

So that when she says no, it is heard. Less pregnancies will result, less financial strain on the families.

-free contraception - hormonal and barrier

See above - less babies, more money.

-free voluntary sterilisation

see above.

This thread appears to have been 'stickied'.

I would actually start doing something rather than relying on cheap publicity stunts like getting the International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander to ask potluck questions on a parenting site

Did I say pot luck questions

Sorry I meant spout party political bullshit

ecapeFrom: we should aimfor those things, but how do propose to enforce laws in other countries? Can we really push other governments to change their penal laws? We can ask them to introduce things (eg a mnimum wage, which is what I was thinking of below), but asking them to change their sentences for rape is a much bigger thing isn't it?

yes, yadayada, world poverty is "party political bullshit". I don't know why we bother, we should all just go home to our nice heated, well stocked houses. and the politicians should just get on with stuff without bothering to tell anyone what they're doing.

"why we bother" ??

"politicians should just get on with stuff without bothering to tell anyone what they're doing"

So you think they're telling you exactly what they're doing ??

Ok
Not looking for a fight BUT
I was not making a comment on world poverty I was making a comment on politicians, and why exactly this question is on MN, surely they have enough unelected quango's to tell them what they want.
I am not niave enough to think that Mr Alexander is going to be hanging onto my every word about how to sort out World poverty, much as i'd love to, preferably in less than 50 words