International development organisation Sightsavers has welcomed Prime Minister David Cameron’s statement this evening on the future of global poverty reduction.
The Prime Minister today chaired a London meeting of the UN high level panel tasked with exploring the future of international development post-2015 when the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) meet their deadline.
Dominic Haslam, Sightsavers’ Director of Policy, is one of just ten specially selected EU representatives attending a civil society roundtable with UN high-level panel members tomorrow, Friday 2 November, at the Royal Society, London.
Responding to the Prime Minister’s statement this evening, Dominic Haslam, Sightsavers' Director of Policy said:
“It’s encouraging to hear Prime Minister David Cameron recognise that tackling the root causes of poverty should be an absolute priority post-2015. In order to address household poverty the panel will need to ensure that they take notice of particularly vulnerable groups, such as disabled people.
“Over one billion people currently live with a disability, and yet being disabled increases a household’s expenditure on health, reduces its income, can cause children to be excluded from school, and leads to social and economic poverty. The new development framework must recognise this crucial link between poverty and disability, and ensure that issues that lead people to be marginalised, such as disability, are central to any new global agenda.
“Prime Minister David Cameron issued a rallying call today to our generation to completely eradicate poverty. If we’re going to have a hope of seeing this vision become reality, we’ll need to start with the millions of disabled people who right now are being excluded from access to quality education and health services and productive livelihoods.”
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To interview Dominic Haslam, including for comments and reaction on the high-level panel meeting, please contact Sarah Nelson on 07812 152044 or snelson@sightsavers.org.
Notes to editors/
1. About Sightsavers: Sightsavers is a registered UK charity (Registered charity numbers 207544 and SC038110) that works in more than 30 developing countries to prevent blindness, restore sight and advocate for social inclusion and equal rights for people who are blind and visually impaired. www.sightsavers.org
2. There are 39 million blind people in the world; 80% of all blindness can be prevented or cured.
3. Dominic Haslam has been selected to attend the Civil Society Roundtable on Friday 2 November at 11:30-13:00, a UN high level panel outreach event.
4. Dominic Haslam is Director of Policy and Strategic Programme Support at Sightsavers. He is responsible for overseeing Sightsavers’ external policy work, research, quality, evaluations and institutional relationships. He also sits on the steering committee of the Beyond 2015. www.beyond2015.org
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