ONE Raises Alarm About Lack of Government Poverty-Fighting Commitments at Spring Meetings

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON – As this weekend’s 2015 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund draw to a close, ONE expressed deep concern over the lack of new financial development commitments made by donor and developing nations. Concrete commitments must be made ahead of the July Financing for Development Summit in Addis Ababa in order to make poverty-reduction goals a reality.

Michael Elliott, President and CEO of The ONE Campaign, said:

Today, we saw an amazing display of public support at Global Citizen Earth Day on the National Mall as thousands of people came together to say it is time to end poverty. We are happy to partner with Global Citizen to engage millions as we work together to eradicate poverty.

However, this week, with nearly every Finance Minister from around the world in Washington, we had an opportunity to build momentum among donors to get the new global goals financed. Unfortunately, that opportunity was missed. We are calling for a BFD — a Big Funding Deal — so we have the necessary resources to make a real impact on reaching our development goals, like ending extreme poverty and hunger, and saving children’s and mothers’ lives. As IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said, “Poverty is sexist.” We must not only focus our efforts on the poorest countries and people, but on women and girls, who are affected most harshly by poverty.

There were some signs of leadership and we must build on those, including a commitment by Bretton Woods II to channel 50% of their social impact investments to the least developed countries by 2020.

We also heartily applaud Ireland and Belgium for their commitments to spend at least 50% of their aid in least developed countries – and we will push others to follow their lead in the coming crucial weeks. Everyone needs to understand that words alone are not enough.