Campaign Responses
DFID welcomes the work of civil society groups in inspiring the public to lobby on behalf of developing countries. Last year, we received over 90,000 letters, emails and petition signatures from the public.
As we receive such a large volume of correspondence in connection with these campaigns, we may not acknowledge all of them or send individual responses. However, all such representations will be taken into account when considering the issues concerned and we will ensure that both the public and civil society groups are informed of DFID’s views and decisions on these issues.
Our responses to some current campaigns are given below:
Response on Jubilee Debt ‘Pick Up the Pace’ Campaign
April 2009
Since the 1998 human chain in Birmingham much has been achieved through two international initiatives - the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).
Read the full 'Pick Up the Pace' response
Response on Tearfund’s ‘Don’t Forget about Toilets this year’ campaign
February 2009
The Department for International Development (DFID) is committed to increasing our efforts to improve access to water and sanitation. The Government doubled funding for water to Africa to £95 million per year between 2004 and 2007, with a further commitment to spend £1 billion over the next five years.
Read the full 'Don't Forget about Toilets this year' response.
Response on Tearfund's "Congratulations on your new job" campaign
December 2008
The British Government is committed to doing all it can to help people gain access to clean water and basic sanitation. Almost 900 million people still lack safe drinking water, and approximately 2.5 billion still have no basic sanitation. This is a disgrace. It is also the reason why I shall be doing my utmost to champion the cause of those in need of these basic essentials of life.
DFID launched its new water policy,
Water: An increasingly precious resource, Sanitation: A matter of dignity
(1.34
mb)
in October 2008 and I am keen to ensure that we deliver on what we said we will
do in this policy.
Read the full "Congratulations on your new job" response
Response on the Jubilee Debt Campaign on Debt Relief progress and Doha
December 2008
The UK remains committed to comprehensive debt relief that ensures none of the poorest countries committed to poverty reduction is burdened by very high levels of debt. That is why we have led the way in agreeing the major international debt relief initiatives of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) and why we continue to provide additional debt relief for the poorest countries that will use the resources for poverty reduction.
Read the full "Debt Relief progress and Doha" response
Response on Save the Children's "Knit One, Save One" Campaign
November 2008
Most child deaths are preventable and avoidable with the delivery of better health services. This is why our strategy to accelerate progress towards the maternal and child MDGs is to focus on stepping up global efforts to strengthen health systems. This is so that hospitals and health centres have well-trained doctors, nurses and midwives as well as the medicines and equipment to do their job. This means making immunisations, antibiotics and mosquito nets available for children to protect them from preventable diseases.
Read the full "Knit One, Save One" campaign response
Response on Save the Children's "Get on track" Campaign
November 2008
The work of the Department for International Development (DFID) plays an important role in contributing towards reducing child mortality. However, the UK’s broader development efforts to enhance economic growth, improve basic services such as water and sanitation and education, address inequality, conflict, civil unrest, child rights and food insecurity, also have a positive impact on improving the health of children.
Read the full "Get on track" campaign response
Response on the Jubilee Debt "Stop vulture funds" Campaign
October 2008
We are working to give heavily indebted poor countries the legal expertise necessary to defend themselves. We are pleased that the Board of the African Development Bank agreed in April, with sustained UK support, to establish an independent Legal Support Facility. We will provide £5 million to this facility which we believe will play an important role in reducing the harmful impacts of vulture fund activity.
Read the full "Stop vulture funds" campaign response
Response on the "Stand Up Take Action" campaign
October 2008
In 2007, 43.7 million people participated in Stand Up worldwide, to express their commitment to ending world poverty. This year, this powerful civil society campaign is asking people to go one step further and take action themselves in their own communities to support the world’s poorest people and raise awareness of some of the key challenges they face – from water and sanitation, to food supply and agriculture, to education and malaria.
Read the full "Stand Up Take Action" campaign response
Response on Practical Action’s “Climate change adaptation” campaign
October 2008
As well as increasing developing countries’ resilience to the effects of climate change, the UK is also striving for a fair global deal on mitigating the worst effects of climate change. The UK is working to ensure that developing countries have a voice in this new global deal and that climate change mitigation is consistent with growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.
Read the full "Climate change adaptation" campaign response
Response on the Jubilee Debt 'Lift the Lid on Bad Loans' Campaign
Updated October 2008
In the UK, DFID works closely with the Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD)
and HMT to try to ensure that all new UK lending to low income countries is
consistent with a country’s debt position and will contribute to the social and
economic development of a country. All of the UK’s export support to poor
countries is carefully examined, taking into account a country’s debt position,
the impact of the new borrowing on this and what the funds will be used for.
Projects which are developmentally beneficial may not be supported if the
overall impact on a country's debt position is deemed to be harmful.
Read the full "Lift the lid on unjust debt"
campaign response
Response on Oxfam’s “Make free public health care for all a reality” campaign
October 2008
In the UK Government’s 2006 White Paper “Eliminating world poverty: making governance work for the poor” , the Department for International Development (DFID) set out its commitment to help partner governments abolish user fees for basic health services, as part of our wider effort to support quality and equitable healthcare for all.
Read the full "Make free public health care for all a reality" campaign response
Response on the Jubilee Debt “Pick up the Pace” Campaign
August 2008
The UK continues to lead international efforts in support of debt cancellation and poverty reduction for poor countries. We have provided generous relief on debts owed to the UK, and been instrumental in developing and implementing international debt relief initiatives such as the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). 23 countries have already had their debts cancelled in full and a further 10 countries are receiving interim debt relief, which reduces their debt service payments while they work towards qualifying for debt cancellation. These international debt relief initiatives have so far delivered over US $100 billion worth of debt relief to poor countries.
Read the full 'Pick up the Pace' campaign response
Response on the Results UK "TB/HIV" Campaign
July 2008
The UK Government supports the principles in the document produced at the meeting, “Call for Action on HIV/TB”, including the need to scale-up efforts to deliver universal access to TB and HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services by 2015; the need to strengthen health systems and services; the integration of health services, including HIV and TB; and to increase investment and facilitate research to promote the development of better tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB.
Read the full TB/HIV campaign response
Response on Stop AIDS Campaign to “Save the Universal Access Promise”
June 2008
The UK Government’s updated seven-year AIDS strategy
“Achieving Universal Access – the UK Government’s strategy for halting and
reversing the spread of HIV in the developing world”
(4
mb) was launched on 2 June and is now available.
Read the full Stop AIDS campaign response
Response on Christian Solidarity Worldwide “Change for Burma” Campaign
June 2008
The UK Government’s overall contribution to the relief effort now stands at £27.5 million, delivered though the UN, the Red Cross, and NGOs experiences in humanitarian crises in Burma.
Read the full Change for Burma campaign response
Response on UNICEF UK’s “Born Free from HIV” campaign
June 2008
The UK is fully committed to Universal Access to comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment, care and support and worked hard to ensure that this commitment was endorsed by the international community.
Read the full UNICEF UK campaign response
Response on World Bank Funding and Conditionality
April 2008
The World Bank has come a long way in recent years in its use of conditions
and the UK government has been instrumental in this change. In 2004 the Bank
abolished its use of prescriptive conditionality – the practice of insisting on
specific reforms. Following a review of conditionality policy in 2005, the Bank
adopted the Good Practice Principles to ensure a change in practice. These
Principles commit the Bank to ensure that conditions are not imposed on
governments and that a one-size-fits-all approach is not taken.
Read the full response
Response on ActionAid's 'Invisible women' campaign
March 2008
Women are disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS both because of their unequal status in society and because their physiology makes them more vulnerable to HIV infection. Many women and girls do not have access to essential information and services, lack the social and economic power to control key aspects of their lives, are faced with violence and discrimination and carry the burden of care for those affected by AIDS, including orphans
Read the full response on ActionAid's 'Invisible women' campaign
Response on World Development Movement’s ‘Stop Water Wars’ Campaign
February 2008
We recognise that changing patterns of water availability, partly as a result of climate change, will necessitate stronger regional co-operation over shared water resources. Water use underpins economic growth, is essential to food security and the livelihoods of the poor, and is a central component of any strategy for sustainable development. For these reasons, water resource management is one of the central three pillars of DFID’s forthcoming water policy paper.
Read the full response on 'Stop Water Wars' Campaign
Last updated 17 April 2009
