Oxfam launches G8 poverty pledge campaign

LONDON - Oxfam has launched a campaign across the national press aimed at putting pressure on G8 leaders to stick to their promises to curb global poverty one year on from the summit in Scotland.

The creative by Draft London features six different executions, each showing a member of the public together with a promise made at the Gleneagles summit last year and accompanied by lines such as "I'm going to hold them to that".

Promises highlighted include dropping debt for 40 countries and making available an extra $50bn of aid a year, but the charity is concerned that the leaders have so far failed to deliver and not enough has been done to help end poverty.

The Gleneagles summit made pledges on debt relief, aid and trade. So far, the verdict appears to be that while there has been progress on debt relief and aid, little had happened in the way of trade.

Bob Geldof, the force behind the Live8 concert, where popstars including Bono and Joss Stone put pressure on world leaders, and a member of Tony Blair's Commission for Africa, said yesterday that the G8 Summit was a combination of "the good, the OK and the ugly. The unseemingly ugly is, of course, the trade piece".

The campaign, under the charity's "I'm in" slogan, encourages readers to sign a petition, which will be sent to the G8 leaders calling for action on their promises, either online or by texting the word "in" and their name to Oxfam.

Sue Charles, account director at Draft London, said: "With this latest part of the 'I'm in' campaign, we really wanted to show people that they can send a clear message to world leaders by sending a simple text. This campaign makes it easy to get involved and helps remind the G8 leaders of their promises through the work of Oxfam."

The UK government has set up an Africa Progress Panel to monitor progress on the pledges made. This included Geldof, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan.

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