Oxfam: Health and Education

Oxfam campaigns for increased aid and debt relief for developing countries as a means for them to help pay for health, education and other key services for poor people.

For example, Oxfam's education campaign has been running since 1999, campaigning for the abolition of school fees and for more aid. In recent years a number of countries including Uganda and Kenya have abolished their school fees - seeing children flood back into school as a result.

Meanwhile donors such as the UK government have substantially increased their aid for education. Oxfam's work on debt relief, supporting Jubilee 2000 and the groups that have developed from it, has helped ensure debt relief is spent on poverty reduction. Oxfam continues to challenge rich countries to drop the debt of developing countries.

All this effort can be seen as part of a wider ambition to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a set of goals agreed by world leaders in 2000 to halve poverty and ensure more poor people have access to education and health care, live in a cleaner environment and can exercise their rights. Oxfam is working to promote the MDGs and ensure they are a reality for the poorest people in the world - this requires more aid and debt relief, and a real commitment from developing countries to achieve these goals.

www.oxfam.org.uk