Christian Aid Applauds Brown's Anti-Poverty Efforts

|PIC1|Christian Aid applauded Gordon Brown's efforts at Gleneagles, Scotland, today as he acknowledges the dedication of campaigners who want to see an end to global poverty.

"And yet such campaigning is still needed," said Christian Aid ahead of the Chancellor's address this afternoon.

Two years on from the Make Poverty History rally in Edinburgh for the G8 Gleneagles meeting, millions of people still live in poverty.

"The efforts that Gordon Brown has put into the fight against global poverty are to be applauded, but, as heir presumptive to the Prime Minister we need him to show real leadership both globally and in the UK in the struggle to cut carbon emissions and bring climate change under control," said Claire Shelley of Christian Aid Scotland. "If he doesn't do that, all his other efforts will be wasted."

She continued: "In 2005 the UK Government made fighting poverty in Africa and climate change their top priorities for the G8. Unfortunately despite their efforts what was agreed was a poor reflection of what was needed when compared to the scale of the problems and the campaigning by the people of Britain and around the world."

Mr Brown will today announce UK backing for a global education rapid reaction force designed to provide schooling for millions of African children in war zones or fragile states.

The Chancellor will speak at an event at Gleneagles, scene of the 2005 G8 summit, designed to reinvigorate the efforts on development in Africa made by leading Western countries under Britain's presidency.

"In 1807, a combination of social compassion and moral outrage ended the British involvement in the slave trade," Mr Brown will say. "Today that same compassion and outrage must inspire us to tackle the great wrongs of our time and to give every child in the world a better chance - freed from poverty and liberated by education."

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Rev Alan McDonald,
and the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, will also speak at the event.