MakingPovertyHistory

It's been just everywhere! - TV, posters, magazines, a huge rally in Edinburgh, and tons, and tons, of websites - so what's the deal with making poverty history anyway?

It's been over a year since the MakePovertyHistory (MPH) coalition was formed. But I'll spare you the details of how some lefty comrades got together and decided to do something to save the world. (Very tongue-in-cheek, btw.)

I will, however, give you the necessary 3-point brief on MPH - as I understand it anyways:

Trade justice: Making globalisation work for the world's poor.

Drop the debt: So debt dollars can instead go to food, health, education - and reform.

More & better aid: No strings attached please; and autonomy to end poverty!

(You can check out the manifesto here.)

The MPH however - in all unlikelihood - has faced some criticism. The strongest (in my opinion) is that aid without reform will lead to greater dependency. The weakest (in that of many) is that Bono (and Geldof, and the like) did it for ego.

There are more chunky issues of varying complexity, it seems, being nutted (or in some cases, jousted) out by development economists, policy analysts and other academiacs. Rather than butt it out here, though, I will let you look at the main counters, offered in a hot sheet (!) by Global Growth Org, one of the anti-poverty advocates who - interestingly - argue for free trade. Go figure.

One thing that I can't help chewing on, though - the relevance of MPH to our generation. With all these efforts including celebrities and plenty of media pizazz, we are obviously a target audience for mobilisation on poverty and the broader Millennium Developments Goals.

IMHO, I think the campaign's usefulness has been in bringing poverty out of invisibility, in our minds. Others argue that the general public's understanding of poverty has not been deepened, and MPH has merely made wearing white bands fashionable.

What do you think?


Technorati: makepovertyhistory, MDG, poverty