Celebrities 'hijacked' poverty campaign, say charities

Charities issued a harsh critique of the Make Poverty History campaign on Dec. 26 as they assessed its impact at the end of 2005. The campaign, led by a coalition of 540 organizations, was launched amid fanfare on Jan. 1, 2005 with a pledge to narrow the gap between the world's rich and poor. Aid workers say it has been "hijacked" by celebrities at the expense of real achievements in securing sold debts, aid and trade deals for the developing world. Events at the G8 summit in Scotland in July, attended by the musician and activist Bob Geldof, attracted some of the strongest criticism. Aid workers said that pledges announced by British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the summit were not being carried out and that hardly any had yet to translate into real money. At the summit, 18 of the world's poorest countries were promised that their crippling debts would be canceled by the world's richest nations. But six months later, no details have emerged of the debt cancellation plans. Following the G8 Summit, Geldof praised the British government, giving them "10 out of 10" on debt relief progress and "eight out of 10" on aid issues. But some charities were critical of the way in which Geldof appraised the summit, with many organizations saying that the pledges were too little, too late. Dave Timms, a spokesman for the World Development Movement, said that Geldof's comments were misleading. He said: "The Make Poverty History Campaign was perhaps bravely naive and there were some good elements in that it raised public awareness. But people like us who have been campaigning for 30 years felt that some of the real issues became overshadowed by the hype. "There are celebrities who really didn't seem to know what they were talking about and Bob Geldof's comments after the G8 were very unhelpful, because they made people think everything had been achieved." He added: "There was some progress on debt but we have yet to see any of those pledges translated into a penny for the poorer countries and there was no progress on trade. "The other problem we had was that the [British] Labor Government managed to get into a position where they said that they were partners with the movement, when in fact there are many issues, for instance on trade deals, where we disagree strongly." Richard Miller from the charity ActionAid said: "Pledges have been half-hearted and there has been recent backsliding on aid and debt commitments. The pledges sounded good and they will make a difference but they should have been greater." At the G8 Blair also made much of the pledge that Britain would increase the proportion of GDP in the developing world to 0.7 percent by 2013. But Timms said that some Scandinavian countries had already reached this target and that France was set to achieve it before the UK. He pointed out that raising the proportion to 0.7 percent would only bring Britain up to the level of spending that it was at during the 1970s. Timms said: "We are going to spend the next eight years getting back to where we were four decades ago–I don't really call that progress." More than 15 million people in Britain bought a white wrist band in support of the Make Poverty History Campaign and a clutch of celebrities featured in television ads for the movement. But many charity workers believed that the campaign became hijacked by the Live8 concert promoted by Geldof and that the message got lost in the hype. Miller said: "It now transpires that up to 2008 almost all of the aid increase will be Iraqi and Nigerian debt relief, most of which wasn't being serviced. "As for what happens between 2008 and 2010, the US is openly doubting the feasibility of its aid commitment while German and Italian finance ministers have said that they do not regard the target [of doubling aid by 2010] as binding." Campaigners are also concerned that canceling debts will be linked to "free trade" demands that will benefit western countries at the expense of the poorer countries they claim to be helping by scrapping subsidies that poor farmers in the developing world desperately need to survive. Even Oxfam, one of the prime members of the Make Poverty History movement, accepts that the G8 pledges have not gone far enough.