Updates

New UKAN website

Election Update

0.7 draft legislation

Draft legislation on vulture fund

G8/G20 process

Robin Hood Tax Campaign launched

Advocacy Calendar for 2010 (pdf)

What's next post Copenhagen? (pdf)

Find out more about current consultations by Parliament, DFID and others on the Bond consultation pages

New UKAN website

The UK Aid Network has just launched a new website! Here, you can get information and policy analysis on all issues related to aid quantity and quality and find out what the UK Aid Network is working on.

Check out the UKAN website

Election Update

ballot box The UK General Election is expected to take place in May 2010 with the latest possible date being 3 June 2010. This Election will be highly contested and a high turn over of new MPs is expected.

Parties have pledged that the election will feature a ‘World Poverty Day' when they will debate international development issues. Please use the opportunity to respond to statements by tweeting with the hashtags #voteglobal and #worldpoverty.

A reprint of the Vote Global Manifesto is planned in in the near future so if your organisation has not joined the 150+ signatories yet, sign on quickly by emailing Bond.

A website for political audiences and supporters (www.voteglobal.org.uk) will be up and running from early March which will be a place you can profile your campaigns, and supporters can find local hustings.

Draft 0.7 legislation

0.7 In January 2010, Secretary of State Douglas Alexander introduced a draft bill for enshrining in law the target of 0.7% of GNI as aid, the Draft International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Bill. This was one of the key recommendations in the joint Bond submission to the government's White Paper consultation in 2009.

Many Bond members and the UK Aid Network (UKAN) made submissions to an International Development Committee consultation on the draft bill. Whilst the bill is not expected to go through Parliament before the General Election, pressure will continue for the legislation.

Read the joint UKAN submission on 0.7 legislation

For more information, please visit the UK Aid Network website.

Draft legislation on vulture fund

The Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill had its second reading in Parliament on 26 February and is expected to go through full committee stage.

All parties expressed support for the second reading of the bill, proposed by Andrew Gwynne MP and introduced by Sally Keeble MP, which would effectively prevent vulture funds making huge profits out of the poorest countries in the world.

Yet, there are concerns by debt campaigners including Jubilee Debt Campaign that delays in the different stages of the bill process may mean the bill does not become law before the General Election.

For more information, visit the Jubilee Debt Campaign website.

G8/G20 process

Several G8 and G20 related meetings will take place in April and May 2010 including a G8 Development Ministers Meeting (26-28 April) and a G20 Sherpa meeting in May.

As chair of the G8, the Canadian Government has put commitments on maternal and child health high on the G8 agenda. Yet the upcoming G8/G20 summits also expect to discuss the future of the G8 and how the development agenda should be included in the G20 agenda.

Bretton Woods Project and Bond are co-convening a G8/G20 policy group to work collectively advocating for strong messages on economic justice and global poverty ahead of the G8/G20 summits. In March, high level Cross Whitehall meetings took place and more are planned for April, May and June.

For more information visit the G8/20 pages on the Bond website or get in touch with Elvira Kanichay, Bond Network Policy Officer.

Robin Hood Tax Campaign launched

robinhoodtax More than fifty civil society organisations including Oxfam, Comic Relief and the TUC are working together as part of a global campaign for a Financial Transactions Tax to raise funds to fight poverty and climate change. A small tax of 0.05% on the trillions of dollars that change hands each day, could raise £250 billion annually.