The Life You Can Save - Acting Now To End World Poverty

"An estimated 1.4 billion people survive on incomes of $1.25 or less a day. Some 2.6 billion people worldwide have one thing in common—they do not have access to sanitation. Worldwide, about 1.7 million deaths a year—90 percent of which are children—are attributed to unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene, mainly through infectious diarrhoea. Access to sanitation, the practice of good hygiene, and a safe water supply could save 1.5 million children a year. (1) Since 1990, the base year for the Millennium Development Goals, an estimated 10 million women have died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, and some 4 million newborns have died each year within the first 28 days of life. Research indicates that around 80 per cent of maternal deaths are preventable if women have access to essential maternity and basic health-care services. Two thirds of all maternal deaths occur in just 10 countries; India and Nigeria together account for one third of maternal deaths worldwide. Maternal deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth are an important cause of mortality for girls aged 15– 19 worldwide, accounting for nearly 70,000 deaths each year. (2) U)ICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, estimates that about 27,000 children die every day from preventable, poverty-related causes. Yet at the same time almost a billion people live very comfortable lives, with money to spare for many things that are not at all necessary. (You are not sure if you are in that category? When did you last spend money on something to drink, when drinkable water was available for nothing? If the answer is “within the past week” then you are spending money on luxuries while children die from malnutrition or diseases that we know how to prevent or cure.) "The Life You Can Save" by Peter Singer – both the book and the website – seek to change this. If everyone who can afford to contribute to reducing extreme poverty were to give a modest proportion of their income to effective organizations fighting extreme poverty, the problem could be solved. It wouldn’t take a huge sacrifice. But first we need to change the culture of giving. Research has shown that people are more likely to give if they know that others are giving. So we need to be upfront about our giving. The Life You Can Save - the book – asks readers to come to the website to pledge that they will meet a standard set out in the last chapter – the standard you can find on the pledge page on the website. Will you take the pledge, and thereby encourage others to do the same? For more details, and sources for the claims made here, please see The Life You Can Save: Acting )ow to End World Poverty http://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/ Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. He has taught at the University of Oxford, La Trobe University and Monash University, and has held several other visiting appointments. Since 1999 he has been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. "Peter Singer’s new book presents a logical, compelling argument for the need to end world poverty. He proposes a new standard for giving which, he believes, would help to alleviate the terrible conditions in which 1.4 billion people struggle to survive on less than US$1.25 a day. He addresses the issues of waste and surplus in individual consumption in developed nations and considers the environmental damage done by these nations at the expense of poorer countries. He graphically illustrates how relatively small changes

in consumption can, collectively, create more funding to reduce poverty. Singer discusses the ethical and emotional factors in decisions about giving and looks at common reasons for not giving more. He looks at current levels of aid provided by countries and individual philanthropists, highlighting the ways in which we chose to give, favouring family, community and country over the unknown. For example, Americans gave US$1.54 billion for disaster relief work after the 2004 tsunami which killed 220,000 people in Southeast Asia, yet the following year they gave $6.5 billion in aid to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina, which killed about 1,600 people. In a key chapter, ‘Creating a Culture of Giving’, Singer looks at individuals who have made the decision to give more, not necessarily from a high-income base. He argues that philanthropy is not for the rich alone; we can all do more. The real need seems to be for leadership not self-interest; a positive approach can be created through both corporate and individual initiatives. The arguments in the book have been presented to audiences around the world; they represent Singer’s views about ‘why we give, or don’t give, and what we should do about it’. His goals in writing the book are to make people think about their duties to those trapped in poverty and to get them to give more of their income to the battle against poverty. The arguments are not emotional but rational. The scale of the disaster facing the world is made clear; those living in extreme poverty are part of our world and our responsibility. This book will appeal to those who already give to charity or provide aid in some other form, and to those who are thinking about giving. It should be read by all of us." Chris Harrington is co-owner of Books in Print, Malvern (3) Peter Singer works in ethics, with a focus on applied ethics. He has written about global ethical issues, and his book One World (2002) includes a discussion of ethical issues relating to climate change. He has also published extensively in bioethics. In 2005 Time magazine named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people (4) The Pledge - Will you do your part to save the lives of people living in extreme poverty? In The Life You Can Save, Peter Singer suggests a new public standard for a minimum that we should expect people to give. By pledging to donate the percentage of your annual income that meets the standard, you will be making a difference to the poor. But that’s not all: you will also be helping to change the public standard of what is involved in living an ethical life in a world that contains both great affluence and extreme poverty. http://www.thelifeyoucansave.com/pledge/pledge.php?curr_country=171&lang=EN A list of some Organizations and Individuals mentioned in the book http://www.thelifeyoucansave.com/pledge/organizations.php?lang=EN (1) http://www.worldbank.org/ (2) http://www.unicef.org/ (3) http://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/ (4) http://www.princeton.edu/

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