The event was covered by Tony Millet from Marlborough News Online and a full report of the lecture is available from them here.

Mark Goldring's message began on a very optimistic note.  Over one billion people have moved out of poverty in the past 25 years.

But...there are still 800 million men, women and children who may go to bed hungry.  Goldring said that if the 'success story' about global poverty being more than halved was better known, there would not be such knee-jerk criticism of development funding.  He stressed the key elements in this success - provision of basic education, literacy, vaccination and the fall in child mortality from 43 per 100 before their fifth birthday in the early twentieth century, to 4 per 100 now.

However, the good news about poverty reduction has been tempered by a recent UN report that numbers of those going to bed hungry has risen again - by between 20 and 30 million in the last year.  This was caused largely by the rise in conflicts and the effects of climate change.  Climate change, Mark Goldring, explained, hits the poorest - tens of millions are being driven into poverty by climate change - its effects crops, fish stocks and deforestation.  

We are grateful to all those who attended and donated. The retiring collection raised £825 split between Oxfam GB and MBG.