People Living in Extreme Poverty

HC Deb 27 July 1999 vol 336 cc232-3W

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what targets have been set by her Department to increase the income of those people who are living on less than one US dollar a day. [92855]

Clare Short

Our aim is to mobilise the international system to achieve the internationally agreed target of reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. In the Comprehensive Spending Review published in July 1998, we set out key targets to be achieved by the end of this Parliament, including annual growth of 1.5 per cent. in Gross Domestic Product per capita, and quantified measures for progress in health and education, strategies for sustainable development, improvements in the effectiveness of the international system and increased effectiveness of the United Kingdom's bilateral aid programme. Progress against these targets, which closely reflect the International Development Goals, will be rigorously monitored in the Department's annual Output and Performance Analysis which will be made publicly available.