We joined the Labour Party because we all want to make a difference. We believe in social justice and that it is our duty to confront poverty where we see it. We believe that through acting together we achieve more than acting alone.

This is why the Department for International Development is a real Labour achievement of which all party members and supporters should be proud. The campaigning efforts of party members up and down the country is making a real difference to the lives of the poorest people on earth.

UK aid is lifting 3 million people permanently out of poverty each year. In Bangladesh, UK aid contributes to over 1,300 people escaping poverty every day.

Our support to education is helping to abolish school fees in countries such as Uganda, which resulted in 2 million additional children enrolled. In Kenya the removal of school fees led to an additional 1 million children enrolling. Debt cancellation and aid increases have helped put nearly 40 million more African children into school between 2000 and 2007.

Through the provision of insecticide-treated bednets, UK aid has protected 1 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 600,000 people in Uganda and 400,000 people in Malawi. UK aid is expected to save 52,000 children’s lives in Ghana over 3 years, 185,000 lives in Kenya and up to 40,000 lives a year in Tanzania.

This is a small snapshot of the difference that UK aid and Labour values are making to the lives of the world’s poorest people. It is a record that we should be proud of.

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