Photo: Flickr/UK Parliament

WHAT'S THE ISSUE?

In March 2014, at the annual budget announcement, global citizens took action directed at George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, calling on him to maintain the UK's important commitment to 0.7% GNI to international aid.

Delivering a budget the fully meets the 0.7% target puts us in a strong position to follow up from the budget by calling on government to put this budget target into law. Enshrining 0.7% of Gross National Income into law sets into practice a long aimed for international goal in the UK – setting an international gold standard, which, we hope will challenge other governments to respond with similar laws. In effect 0.7% as law means a legal requirement to ring fence 0.7 pence – less than a penny – of every tax pound raised to be dedicated purely for Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). This will help stabilise development initiatives with more reliable and predictable funding patterns year on year – allowing the better planning and distribution of aid towards the end of extreme poverty by 2030. In 2014, 0.7% was met by the British government even without the legal requirement to do so, and raised almost £11 billion pounds sterling in ODA funds, as the UK’s annual contribution to the fight to end poverty. That sounds like a lot of money but with 99.3 pence of every tax pound left over for other projects, little compromise need be made to UK’s domestic infrastructure and services, and by comparison British armed forces received a budget of £38 billion and the NHS reportedly received £95.6 billion.

HOW DID GLOBAL CITIZENS RESPOND?

The launch of our Global Citizen Tickets initiative in the UK caused a bit of a stir as we tied it together with our aid campaigning. We needed to ensure that the UK government kept their promise to spend 0.7% of its gross national income on life-saving international aid.

Inspired by Global Citizen Tickets, hundreds of British global citizens maximized the strategic alignment of our tickets reward initiative with the timing of the UK budget announcement. They sent hundreds of emails to the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is responsible for UK government taxation and spending, calling for him to reconfirm and progress last year’s announcement that 0.7% of UK GNI would be committed to the overseas aid budget, to actually fulfilling this promise. This was particularly important as the UK continues to press forward with a series of stringent austerity measures to manage the national deficit.

Even One Direction joined in by tweeting George Osborne!

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

The efforts of global citizens secured a significant win for the world’s poorest people, with George Osborne fulfilling his promise to deliver on 0.7%. This makes the UK the first of the G8 nations to fulfil the national promises made 43 years ago in 1971. We even prompted a twitter response from George Osborne!

This proves that because of global citizens like you we’re making a real difference. We’re showing that ordinary actions like emailing our leaders, when amplified through the media leads to systemic change for people living in extreme poverty. We know that securing 0.7% of UK spending on aid and development between now and the next election will save millions of lives.

So, if you emailed George Osborne last week – thank you, that’s what being a global citizen is all about.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The fight against extreme poverty is not over! We’re doing everything we can to ensure that the end of extreme poverty is reached by 2030 – as we now know from the World Bank that with the financial and political commitments in place, Zero Poverty by 2030 is possible.

As part of the UK Global Citizen movement, you can continue supporting the end of extreme poverty by taking the actions below, which will earn you points toward tickets to see your favourite artists:

1.2 billion people live on less than £1 a day for everything. Take the Live Below the Line challenge and raise money for vital extreme poverty initiatives across the world.

57 million kids still go without education. Sign our Education Petition to make sure every child has access to primary education across the globe.

We’ll also continue our efforts supporting 0.7% in aid, with partner NGOs across the sector, as we continue taking steps to ensure it becomes enshrined into law. In fact, working with 36 partners across the sector as part of the #turnupsavelives coalition in early 2015, we’ve since achieved the hugely promising vote of 146 to 5 MPs voting to see 0.7% made law at the Third reading of the 0.7% Private Member’s Bill in parliament. This is an important step before the bill is passed as law, which must first be debated in the House of Lords before it can receive Royal Assent and become an Act of Parliament. Read more about this coalition effort here: http://www.turnupsavelives.org.uk/