'We are the first generation that can look extreme poverty in the eye, and say this and mean it - we have the cash, we have the drugs, we have the science. Do we have the will to make poverty history?' - Bono, September 2004

While wealthy nations have been generous in pledging millions to help tsunami affected communities, it remains a fact that across the world, one billion people continue to live on less than $1 a day, millions die each year from HIV/AIDS, and 30,000 children die every day as a result of poverty.

In 2000, rich countries - including Australia - made a commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).The MDGs are a commitment to halve impoverishment and hunger, provide education for all, improve standards of health, halt the spread of major diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and slow down environmental degradation by 2015.

If the world fails to act to meet the goals, and current trends are allowed to continue:

• 247 million more people in sub-Saharan Africa will be living on less than $1 a day in 2015
• 97 million more children will still be out of school in 2015
• 53 million more people in the world will lack proper sanitation facilities.

A vital aim of the MDGs is that the poorest countries have the finance needed to achieve their goals. To do this, rich countries have promised to provide a very small fraction of their wealth - just 0.7 per cent of their national income - and to improve the way in which they give aid and to end the burden of debt.

Tackling global poverty requires more than money: poor countries' prospects are also undermined by unfair trade rules, the violent consequences of the arms trade, and the impacts of global warming. Poor country governments must also fulfil their commitments to fight poverty. But, without finance, these countries will not be able to take advantage of global trade and investment opportunities, or protect their citizens' basic rights to life, good health, and education.

The sums that rich countries invest in global poverty reduction are shamefully small. It is no surprise that vital poverty-reduction programs are failing for lack of finance. Cambodia and Tanzania are among the poorest countries in the world, yet they require at least double the level of financing that they currently receive if they are to achieve their poverty-reduction targets. Global initiatives to support poor countries to achieve universal education and combat HIV/AIDS are starved of cash. And poor countries continue to pay out more to their creditors than they spend on essential public services. Low-income countries paid $39 billion to service their debts in 2003, while they received only $27 billion in aid.

Meeting the UN target of allocating just 0.7 per cent of national income to aid would generate $120 billion, enough to meet the MDGs. But only five of the 22 major 'rich' country governments are meeting that target. Australia is not one of them - allocating just 0.26 per cent of our national income to aid.

For the rich countries, spending 0.7 per cent of their national income on aid is equal to a mere one-fifth of their expenditure on defence and one half of their expenditure on domestic farm subsidies.

Cancelling the debts of 32 of the poorest countries would also be small change for the rich nations. The cost to the richest countries would amount to $1.8 billion each year over the next ten years - or on average a mere $2 for each of their citizens every year.

Aid does work. Millions of children are in school thanks to money from debt relief and aid. Roads built with foreign aid mean that farmers can reach local and international markets to sell their crops more easily, while children in rural areas can travel to schools more easily.

However, rich-country donors need to make aid work better if poverty is to be significantly reduced. Increases in aid budgets can and must go hand-in-hand with improvements in the way that aid is delivered. Developing countries, as well as donors, have a responsibility to meet the MDGs. And well-functioning and poverty-focused governments can of course make the best use of aid.

This means combating corruption, building strong and accountable public sectors which have the staff to deliver vital services, and ensuring that parliaments, civil society, and the media can monitor public spending and act as watchdogs against corruption. In Malawi, education groups now check whether schools receive the textbooks and chalk promised to them in the government budget.

In 2005 Oxfam will form part of the 'Global Call for Action Against Poverty' coalition, aiming to make poverty history. The call unites a huge range of groups and is a chance for millions of people to tell world leaders that poverty is an injustice that is not inevitable.

As part of the campaign, Oxfam is calling on rich country governments to:

• Cancel 100 per cent of the debt of the poorest countries where it is needed for them to be able to reach the MDGs
• Provide at least $50 billion in aid immediately, in addition to existing aid budgets, and set binding timetables in 2005 to ensure that the 0.7 per cent target is met in all donor countries by 2010.
• Reform the rigged rules and double standards of international trade which prevents developing countries from harnessing their full economic potential.