Brown urges action on the causes of terrorism
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made the case for a concerted effort to tackle terrorism and the causes of terrorism in a documentary aired last night.
Gordon Brown said poverty in the developing world helped engender terrorism and he urged wealthy countries as a result to increase their foreign aid budgets.
Poverty was “a breeding ground for discontent”, Mr Brown told ITV’s The New World War: A Reporter’s Personal View.
Mr Brown said there was a prevalent sense of injustice among third world countries against rich Western nations.
Mr Brown is the architect of the International Finance Facility, a financial mechanism that aims to double debt relief for the world’s poorest nations.
James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, told the same programme, without action on debt the world would be a more dangerous place in the coming years.
“What are our children going to do if half the planet cannot get a job, cannot have a family, are frustrated in everything that they’re trying to do and who are knowledgeable today about what is happening,” Mr Wolfensohn said.
“Frustration and a lack of hope will drive instability.”
With Britain taking over the presidencies of the EU and G8 next year, Tony Blair hopes to wield his influence to win further concessions for developing nations.
As one of its “Millennium Goals”, the United Nations has set the target of reducing world poverty by 50 per cent by 2015.
