Mr Clegg will say the UK will increase spending on malaria from £150m to £500m a year by 2014 Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is to urge rich nations to stick to their promises on increasing overseas aid.
He will reiterate the UK’s commitment to raise spending on overseas aid to 0.7% of annual economic output from 2013 – it is currently 0.5%.
Addressing the United Nations in New York later, he will ask other developed countries to show the same “resolve”.
He will also outline plans to increase UK spending on tackling malaria from £150m to £500m a year by 2014.
Mr Clegg will defend the government’s commitment to increasing aid “at a time when people at home are making sacrifices in their pay and their pensions”.
He will say people in the UK understand that “while we are experiencing hardship on our own shores, it does not compare to the abject pain and destitution of others”.
Mr Clegg will also say that helping to improve living conditions in the world’s poorest nations means potential new customers for UK exports and is also a way of targeting both climate change and terrorism.
The Lib Dem leader is in New York to attend the continuing summit on the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.
Drawn up in 2000, with the aim of being reached by 2015, they outline eight ways in which poverty can be reduced, such as ensuring every child has a primary school place, and tackling malaria and HIV/Aids.
It is the first time he has represented the UK government at a major gathering of world leaders.
Regarding malaria, Mr Clegg will say: “In Africa, a child dies from this disease – this easily preventable disease – every 45 seconds.
“So we will make more money available, and ensure that we get more for our money, with the aim of halving malaria-related deaths in 10 of the worst affected countries.”
Mr Clegg’s speech comes two days after former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was angry at the failure of rich nations to honour their pledges to combat global poverty.
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