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Development Strategies - Activity

Having had a reputation for not travelling abroad (apart from Brussels and the United States), Gordon Brown, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, undertook an extended tour of Africa in January 2005, taking in South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya.

Mr Brown is known for his commitment to greater social justice in the UK - something which, according to political commentators, marks a fundamental difference in policy aims between Mr Blair and himself. Mr Brown's visit to Africa came at a time when the UK took the presidency of the G7 group of leading industrial countries, an opportunity for the UK to set the agenda in terms of world issues.

Image: Mr Brown's visit exposed him to the realities of poverty and economic despair in some of the poorest countries in Africa. Title: A sleeping orphan at Otino-Waa Orphanage in war-torn northern Uganda. Copyright: Evan Earwicker, stock.xchng

Mr Brown is keen to transfer his beliefs to the world stage and his visit to Africa was part of the moves to help reduce poverty and boost economic development in some of the poorest countries in the world.

During his visit, he announced a series of initial steps that the UK had unilaterally instituted to help relieve some of the debt burden of some of these countries. Mr Brown is keen to persuade other leading nations to follow Britain's lead.

Image: The challenges facing countries such as Sierra Leone are massive - will debt relief be an important step in the process or yet another promise of a false dawn?
Copyright: Dave Dyet, stock.xchng

Links to Gordon Brown's ideas

• Campaigners claim victory over Brown's debt cancellation pledge - World Development Movement press release (http://www.wdm.org.uk/news/presrel/current/tjmbrown.htm)
• Gordon Brown's debt relief proposals - from the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) (http://www.vso.org.uk/news/pressreleases/gb_debt_relief.asp)
• Tour diary: Gordon Brown in Africa - from the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4177281.stm)
• Britain's role as president of the G7 - from the Treasury (http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/otherhmtsites/g7/g7_home.cfm)
• International Development in 2005: the challenge and the opportunity - speech given by Gordon Brown in January 2005 (http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2005/press_03_05.cfm)
• Brown in 100% debt relief pledge - report of Mr Brown's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos from the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4216489.stm)
• Brown wipes £80m Mozambique debt - from the BBC (includes links to other reports) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4177603.stm)

General links to sites dealing with development strategies

• Lecture notes on development strategies - from Oxford University's Economics Department [PDF, 150K] (http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/members/stefan.dercon/rural%20development_lecture%201.pdf)
• Case study on the development strategy for Nigeria - from the Overseas Development Institute [PDF, 114K] (http://www.odi.org.uk/speeches/nigeria_2004/Akpobasah%20paper%20web.pdf)
• The World Bank at the Millennium - report by Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Chief Economist at the World Bank [PDF, 10K] (http://www.res.org.uk/society/mediabriefings/pdfs/1999/November/stiglitz.pdf)