On Tuesday a coalition of development charities delivered an open letter to Tony Blair, urging him to use Britain's chairmanship next year of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations to fight poverty worldwide. The campaigners have chosen their moment well. Even without their intervention, the fight against poverty looks set to be near the top of the global policymaking agenda in 2005.

January will bring a special United Nations report on how close we are to reaching the UN's Millennium Development Goals, which include halving poverty worldwide by 2015. In September, this will be discussed by world leaders in a special session of the UN General Assembly. In March, the Commission for Africa established by Mr Blair is expected to outline proposals for reviving that impoverished continent. In July, a G8 summit will focus on Africa's problems. In December, a deal to liberalise global trade further, which would certainly benefit poorer countries, may be struck at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong.