§ 20. Mr. SwayneTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement about her White Paper on Globalisation. [143215]
§ Clare ShortThe new White Paper "Eliminating Poverty—making Globalisation work for the poor" stands alongside our first White Paper published in 1997. It reaffirms our commitment to the elimination of poverty and the achievement of the International Development Targets. It sets out an agenda for managing globalisation, trade, investment and the new technologies in a way that could ensure that the abundance of wealth currently being generated brings benefits to the one in five of humanity who live in extreme poverty.
The White Paper makes it clear that globalisation can be managed either to bring a massive improvement in life to the poor of the world or could lead to their growing marginalisation and the division, squalor, poverty, conflict and environmental degradation to which this would lead. The future is not pre-determined. It is a matter of will and choice. The White Paper is designed to help mobilise a stronger international effort to systematically reduce poverty.