Our strength is determined by our treatment of the weak

While many give the impression of believing UK aid is in some way a niche policy area, it is in fact necessary to help form the stable, prosperous and just world we collectively seek.

It is in our national interest to help support nations which have the potential to become unstable or susceptible to conflict to ensure they experience lasting stability. It is in line with our national values to seek to alleviate the suffering of those who may not survive childbirth or sleep every night in a state of starvation. And it is central to our global purpose to aid at-risk nations in becoming autonomous and globally integrated.

The horrors of Syria or tragedy of Haiti should remind us all that international development is not a luxury or an optional extra. Apart from being central to our foreign, economic and security outlook, it is an obligation on any government who believes social justice does not end at our borders and that shared prosperity must be a global cause.

That is why this week is so vital for all who want to demonstrate the scale of our ambition to tackle global suffering. Today is World Food Day, tomorrow is the UN’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Both days are designed to mark the awfulness of extreme poverty, violence and hunger in the minds of those able to contribute to their abolition.

Each year, 2.3 million children die from malnutrition. 22,000 children die a day through poverty. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to sign their names. 2.6 billion people in developing countries lack basic sanitation. Tackling this injustice must of course be a year-round task for governments and global institutions, but this week provides the opportunities to raise awareness or give to charity which are so readily available but so often missed in people’s modern daily lives.

I am therefore urging us to do just one additional thing today, either through the official UN site or one of the many domestic or international development charities campaigning on these issues.

These goals are not out of grasp if we reach for them. It is estimated that achieving a world free from hunger would cost US$42.7bn a year in agricultural investment while addressing the scourge of malnutrition would cost US$10bn. Each government, financial institution and global grouping, therefore, must deliver on genuine commitments which make real our belief that our strength is determined by our treatment of the weak.

That is why I am proud of the legacy of global leadership on international development which the last Labour Government bequeathed to this administration, and why I look forward to pushing this agenda forward from opposition. Development is not a political tactic or branding mechanism as it has been for many on the Right, but the measure by which we judge ourselves. Labour will therefore remain committed to 0.7 with explicit objectives to eradicate extreme poverty, reduce inequality, protect scarce resources and end aid dependency by 2030. This effort will only be successful if it is global, between multilateral organisations and governments, but also local, delivered in partnership with diaspora communities.

But unswerving beliefs do not mean unconditional commitments. Labour will have a zero tolerance approach to corruption. Our criteria for aid effectiveness will be programmes that demonstrate value for money: results which support sustainable change, getting help to the poorest, innovation and accountability. We will not accept waste. This is always essential, but never more so than when the UK faces a fiscal squeeze and stagnant living standards. Aid effectiveness and value for money will be our watchwords.

Labour’s campaigning aim will be to deliver a new global covenant that replaces the Millennium Development Goals in 2015, developed in genuine partnership with developing countries, donors, multilateral organisations, NGOs, the private sector, trade unions and diaspora communities. We will not achieve this if we are hesitant or reluctant about our international commitments or beliefs. Rather, we must make the case anew, guided by rigorous deliverability and focused on making the global society in which we live one where every global corner has wealth creators, prosperous families, global companies, content communities and flourishing families. These are the ambitions we each have for our own famililies; they should be those we hold for others.

Jim Murphy is Shadow Secretary of State for International Development