Chancellor Gordon Brown with Christian Aid Director Daleep Mukarji at the start of 2003's Christian Aid Week
'If every child is to have primary education, we will need $10 billion dollars more a year. If infant mortality is to be cut by two thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters, we will need at least $15 billion extra a year. If we are to halve poverty by 2015 we will need an additional $20 billion or more each year.'

It is thanks to the efforts, commitment and vision of NGOs, churches and faith organisations that in the last three years the millennium development goals have been agreed by every country and almost every international organisation; that a new partnership for Africa has been prepared; and that 26 countries are in line for debt cancellation with many already spending the money freed up as a result.

At the International Conference on Financing for Development at Monterrey last year, governments signed up to the first increase in official development aid for twenty years - $12 billion extra a year by 2006.

I strongly believe that the work of NGOs such as Christian Aid has been essential in making good progress towards our goals and it will continue to be vital for the next move forward - the key question is how we can meet in practice the ambitious millennium development goals.

If every child is to have primary education, we will need $10 billion dollars more a year. If infant mortality is to be cut by two thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters, we will need at least $15 billion extra a year. If we are to halve poverty by 2015 we will need an additional $20 billion or more each year.

The UK government remains fully committed to the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of its national income on aid, and we will have moved from 0.27 per cent in 1997 to 0.4 per cent by 2006. But globally the world is only at 0.2 per cent and if we are to meet the 2015 goals we cannot wait for all countries to achieve the 0.7 per cent target - we need to urgently increase the amount of aid now.

That is why the UK government has proposed an international finance facility (IFF). In return for developing countries pursuing anti-corruption policies for stability and economic development, developed countries would increase aid from $50 billion a year to $100 billion - the sum needed if we are to meet the goals.

On the basis of long-term commitments of aid from donor countries, the IFF would secure additional finance from the international capital markets. In other words, rich countries would borrow money now to spend in the years up to 2015 when aid will have the most impact. This would move the developed world closer towards the 0.7 per cent target than would otherwise be possible.

The IFF would spend the extra money through existing, effective bilateral and multilateral mechanisms - mostly in the form of grants so poor countries will not accumulate new debt.

But in addition to increasing the volume of resources, we also need to make better use of aid. We cannot revert to the old approach of providing aid as short-term compensation for the failures and injuries of the past. Instead aid must be stable and predictable: an investment for success, used as it is in the more successful cases to finance the real priorities of poor people.

But the International Finance Facility cannot exist, let alone succeed, if churches, faith groups and NGOs - as well as governments and international institutions - do not demand its creation. If the worldwide debt campaign has taught us anything, it is that what can be achieved together by unity of purpose is far greater than what we can achieve acting on our own.

And, with your help, I believe we have a real chance of significantly increasing aid levels and meeting the millennium development goals.

This article is courtesy of, and was first published in, Christian Aid News. To express your views on the Chancellor's proposals, email press@christian-aid.org, write to the Editor, Christian Aid News, PO Box 100, London SE1 7RT, or visit the surefish.co.uk discussion board.