Cameron: Panel aims to end extreme poverty by 2030

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Britain's prime minister said Wednesday a high-level panel he co-chairs will be making recommendations aimed at ending extreme poverty in the world by 2030 — and that means improving life for more than one billion people living on less than $1.25 a day.

David Cameron told reporters after two days of closed meetings this would require giving the world's poorest clean drinking water, electricity, health care and schools.

"Getting to the point where no one at all is that poor is no longer a pipe dream," he said. "It can and should be one of the great achievements of our time. It is doable."

Nine months ago Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Cameron and the leaders of Liberia and Indonesia to co-chair a high-level panel with about 25 members from all parts of the world and recommend the best ways to combat global poverty after the U.N. Millennium Development Goals expire in 2015.

World leaders agreed at a U.N. summit in 2000 on a series of anti-poverty goals to be met by 2015, including cutting extreme poverty by half, ensuring that all children have an elementary school education, halting the HIV/AIDS pandemic, increasing the number of people with access to clean water and sanitation, and reducing maternal and child mortality.

Cameron said the goals, known as the MDGs, are historic but they weren't perfect.

"There wasn't enough emphasis on the devastating effect of conflict, of violence," he said, and the MDGs overlooked the importance of building strong institutions and the rule of law.

Cameron said the panel's report and recommendations, which will be presented to Ban on May 30, will include promoting good governance and private enterprise, investment and entrepreneurship.

"Above all, we need a focus on economic growth driven by a strong private sector and the most powerful engine there is to lift people out of poverty," he said.

A new commitment for strong institutions and governance is also essential to end conflict, protect reforms, stamp out corruption and hold governments accountable, Cameron said.

The British leader said good governance and tackling corruption are "the golden thread of development."