The 0.7% aid budget needs your help

The coalition government is under pressure to back away from its pledge of passing into law the commitment to give 0.7% of national income in foreign aid. Aid cynics in the media continue to spread myths about the ineffectiveness of aid, forcing the government to consider cutting foreign aid.

These myths are wrong, dangerous, and a significant step back in the fight against extreme poverty. If left unchallenged, these myths will have a huge negative impact on the lives of the world’s poor.

British aid is working, it is saving millions of lives, and it is helping to pull millions out of extreme poverty. British aid helps provide schooling and vaccinations for millions of children, access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation to even more people, better healthcare for women and newborns therefore reducing preventable deaths, and helps support countries to hold freer and fairer elections so promoting international peace and development, and growth.

All three major parties have committed to the 0.7% target, this is something that we should be proud of as it makes our country an international leader on aid issues; it sets an example to countries across the world to do the same. However, in order for them to stand firm behind this commitment, the Government need us to show we support their promise.


How you can help

There are four different actions that you can choose to take to support 0.7% and we can provide you with help to do all of them:

  1. If you have 2 minutes, tweet your MP;
  2. If you have 10 minutes, write a letter to your MP;
  3. If you have 1 hour or more, visit your local MP at their weekly ‘surgery’ (the name of the sessions they hold to talk to constituents each week) and talk to them about why the UK should continue to help the world’s poorest people; or
  4. Join us in London on Tuesday 6th March when we will be going to Parliament to lobby MPs and the government.

We need as many people as possible to take action, and even if you only have two minutes to tweet your MP, your support will be instrumental in helping keep aid in the budget.
 
 
 
 

What will you do to support the 0.7% aid budget?

To tweet your MP click here to find out your MPs twitter handle. When you reach the page, select your constituency first, and then type in your postcode. Please use the #0.7 in your tweets, and feel free to use our suggested tweet: ‘@(your MP) I’m proud the UK saves lives through international aid. What are you doing to protect the 0.7% commitment in the budget? #0.7’

To write a letter to your MP, please fill in the form below and someone from the Global Poverty Project will be in touch shortly to help with some suggested text on why this issue is so important:

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