Archive for 'international development'
Another Tory MP thwarts Private Members’ Bill that has cross-party support
Labour & Co-operative MP Mark Hendrick’s Private Members’ Bill sought to enshrine in law the cross-party commitment to spend 0.7 percent of gross national income on official development assistance. The Bill was initially up for second reading on 13th July 2012 but was objected to by a Tory MP. It was rescheduled for 1st March [...]
Mark Hendrick MP: The people snared in poverty’s grip can’t afford inaction
Labour & Co-operative MP Mark Hendrick explains why he has put forward a private members’ bill to enshrine 0.7% of GNI to international aid in law, a key aim of the international development and co-operative movements. The world is in a state of constant change; reshaping economies, new governments forming but the one constant, the [...]
Event: Commodity trading & food prices with Chris Leslie MP
The Co-operative Party and the Labour Campaign for International Development are co-hosting this event on the transparency of commodity trading, food speculation and the price of food. In a world where a billion people do not have enough to eat, we need to sort out the broken global food system. Spikes in the price of food [...]
Stand up for small-scale farmers
Tonight, one in seven of us around the world will go to bed hungry. It’s a huge injustice that must be addressed. Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, could be a major opportunity for us to put things right. For small scale farmers with the right tools, training and investment, the sky’s the limit. [...]
Lend With Care, supported by the Co-op
Labour Party activist and international development and women’s rights campaigner Lee Webster describes an innovative new scheme from Care International supported by the Co-operative Group. Clemence Akouavi Akpassonou is a 36-year-old hairdresser from Benin, in West Africa. She’s married with 3 three children, and for the past seven years she has been running her own [...]
Sewn Up: a Co-operative Party international campaign
General Secretary Michael Stephenson announces our new campaign to support a women’s co-operative in South Africa – Sewn Up. During my trip to South Africa last summer, I visited a number of co-operatives in Ivory Park, a township near Johannesburg. The one that really inspired me was the Kopano Women’s Sewing Co-operative. Like the other [...]
Douglas Alexander: International development is both a moral cause and a common cause
The following is a summary of the speech I’ve just given to Co-operative Party Conference in Edinburgh. The Co-operative Party has a long and proud history and a strong and vital association with the Labour Party. The creation of the Department for International Development and the international leadership that Britain has shown over the last [...]
Gareth Thomas in online chat
International Development Minister and Co-operative Party chair Gareth Thomas MP is the guest of the Guardian in this week’s online chat. He’ll be online tomorrow 2pm-3pm and answering readers’ questions. Put yours to him here.
Put People First
In a couple of hours, 1000s of people will march in London ahead of next week’s G20 summit, to challenge the leaders of the world’s biggest economies to create a fairer and greener economy. And it’s not just the Put People First London march and rally happening today. Other marches are taking place in Berlin [...]
Douglas Alexander welcomes Fairtrade Fortnight
Douglas Alexander MP, Labour’s Secretary of State for International Development, has welcomed the start of Fairtrade Fortnight by pledging the Labour Government’s continuing commitment to helping people in the developing world get a fair deal for their products. He said: “Fair trade is fundamental to a fair world, a vital route out of poverty for [...]
