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The world we live in;

• Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
• The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.
• Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
• Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen
• 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).

The amount the money spent on military, financial bailouts and other areas that benefit the wealthy, compared to the amount spent to address the daily crisis of poverty locally and Global is staggering.

In 1970, the world’s rich countries agreed to give 0.7% of their gross national income as official international development aid, annually. Since that time, billions have certainly been given each year, but rarely have the rich nations actually met their promised target. In most nations today, inequality—the gap between the rich and the poor—is quite high and often widening.

Together we can take action and influence the decision makers, change their attitude and behaviour on global decisions, policies, and practices. We (in UK) are invited to have our say, give our opinion and ideas via the Spending Challenge website, where an e-form can be used to make suggestions to a cross-government team who will choose some ideas and pass them on to departmental and Treasury spending teams before ministers review them.

Please don’t wait- Just one click can say thousands of lives…