International Development Minister attends poverty-reduction conferences

The 11 ^th> May Minister of International Development Hilde F. Johnson is chairing the closing debate of the World Bank’s annual European conference, known as ABCDE Europe, which is being held in Brussels this year. Other participants include the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn.

At the turn of the millennium, the world’s heads of state and government committed themselves to halving the proportion of the world’s people living in extreme poverty by 2015. The conference is seeking to determine whether we are on track, and focusing particularly on the degree to which the rich countries are contributing to poverty reduction through their trade policy, development assistance and investment.

On Wednesday 12 May, the Minister will open the conference "Making Developing Work for the Poorest" together with her British counterpart, Hilary Benn. The conference is being held in London. In her speech, Ms Johnson will talk about the connection between human rights and poverty reduction. She will stress the importance of using a rights-based approach in these efforts and show how such an approach can be translated into practical policy.

For more information, contact Per Egil Selvaag, tel.: 90 04 56 51.