UK Public Wants More Action from World Leaders to Beat Child Poverty

Summary: London, 29 April 2002 - A groundbreaking survey into public attitudes to child poverty, published today by MORI for Save the Children Week, reveals that the public have little faith in the ability of world leaders to tackle the problem, despite their promises.

UK Public Wants More Action from World Leaders to Beat Child Poverty A groundbreaking survey into public attitudes to child poverty, published today by MORI for Save the Children Week, reveals that the public have little faith in the ability of world leaders to tackle the problem, despite their promises. World leaders should not expect to be let ‘off the hook’ though as, despite the accepted wisdom that the public is apathetic about political issues, the MORI research shows clearly that the UK public believes that child poverty can be beaten - and they want world leaders to do more. 90% would be willing to help the fight against child poverty themselves if asked by a charity and would be prepared to take an active part in lobbying governments; sign a petition; display a poster or sticker; support fair trade or give their own time or money to support a campaign. The poll comes at a time when the debate on child poverty is high on the international agenda. It reveals an overwhelming majority of the population views global child poverty as a serious political issue - and that they believe that more should be done to combat it. More than half of UK adults interviewed said they would like to see Tony Blair or the UK Government taking more action to combat child poverty in the UK. In contrast tackling child poverty in developing countries is thought to be the responsibility of the UN, World Bank and the IMF - all came under fire for not doing enough. The research shows that the public is largely optimistic about the likelihood of eliminating child poverty, especially in the UK. However, when asked about the ability of governments to meet targets on child poverty, people’s optimism plummets. Even before the government published its figures on child poverty in the UK earlier this month - the MORI poll shows that less than half the UK public has faith in government or official targets to combat this problem. Mike Aaronson, Director General of Save the Children UK commented: “Our leaders need to wake up to what the MORI poll is saying. It shows that the UK public is ready to play an active part in the fight against child poverty. Poverty is the biggest destroyer of children’s lives, hopes, and opportunities, but governments and international institutions are not delivering on their promises to beat it. The question is: can the UK government increase the public’s faith that the fight can be won? Promises alone will not achieve this: from now on words must be seen to lead to decisive action.” The key findings of the poll show: 98% identified child poverty as a serious political issue in developing countries 60% say the same is true for the UK 64% of people agreed that child poverty in the UK can be ended, and 38% agreed that this was the case globally This falls to 46% when presented with the UK government targets to reduce child poverty in the UK by half within ten years - and to eliminate it within 20 years - and 24% when presented with the UN’s world-wide ‘Millennium Target’ to halve the global percentage of people living in extreme poverty by 2015 56% would like to see Tony Blair and the UK Government taking more action to combat child poverty. 56% of people identified the UN as having lead responsibility for eradicating child poverty globally followed by the World Bank/IMF (41%). 90% of UK adults would be prepared to do something to help end child poverty, if asked by a charity 26% of UK adults would be prepared to do four or more things to help combat child poverty, if asked by a charity. Save the Children's Beat Poverty campaign launched this week aims to raise awareness of child poverty around the world and to lobby governments, international organisations, and donors to commit to tackling child poverty on a global scale. As part of the Beat Poverty campaign, Save the Children has published its Manifesto setting out what it believes needs to be done to eradicate child poverty. The charity is calling for: More long-term investment in basic healthcare and good quality education to give every child the best start in life; The UK Government to increase significantly the budget for overseas aid, and to set an early date for reaching the UN agreed target (0.7% of GNP); Guarantees that trade liberalisation will not undermine children’s rights to health, nutrition and secure livelihoods; Children to be top priority in all actions governments take to tackle poverty.