While it is vital that poor countries receive more aid and better targeted aid, nothing will help eradicate poverty as effectively as enabling poor countries to benefit from the wealth created by international trade.

The hurdle they face is that international trade rules are loaded in favour of rich countries - for example when heavily subsidized agricultural surpluses from wealthy countries are dumped in developing countries, meaning unsurprisingly, that local farmers cannot compete and go bust.
At present poor countries account for just 0.4 per of international trade -and it is estimated that unfair trade rules cost them $700 billion each year.

But while the politicians come under pressure from campaigners to rewrite global trade rules to help producers in poor countries benefit from the global market, part of the answer already lies in the hands of ordinary consumers.
(Yes YOU !)

At the core of the co-operative are 650 smallholder farmers, some of whom are widows and orphans of the 1994 genocide. With support from the DFID (Department for International Development) the project focuses on helping people developer a consistent crop, exchanging high volume and low quality for low volume high quality.

The hero has been the Bourbon coffee bean, from one of the worlds oldest and finest varieties of Arabica tree. Seldom commercially grown today, the trees produce a lower yield compared to many modern varieties, but the taste, according to connoisseurs is "smooth with a sweet fruity nature and a rich full body"

The best beans are bought at fair trade prices (roughly three times more than offered by local merchants) by Union Coffee Roasters, a UK-based ethical coffee company. With the support of the charity Comic Relief, they launched Cafe Maraba Bourbon in Sainsburys.

Pascal Kalisa a 22 year old Rwandan says "The whole area is more prosperous as a result. As growers and people who work on the processing earn monet they spread it around among the local businesses. Everyone benefits".

Irish pop star Ronan moved by the 'inhumanity' of trade injustice

The sweat is pouring off Kofi Eliasa as he toils in a quarry by the side of the road. He works for 12 hours a day in the searing heat, breaking stones into gravel. He earns less than £1 a day.

Women and children work with him. This is all because Kofi was forced to give up his tomato farm as he couldn't make ends meet.

Kofi told his story to pop-star-turned-campaigner Ronan Keating who travelled with Christian Aid to Ghana to witness the effects of unjust trade.

Appalled and moved by what he saw, Ronan returned from Ghana determined to make a difference.

He's become an ambassador for the Trade Justice Campaign, sharing the stories of the people he met in the fields and markets of Ghana, in the hope that people here will be inspired to campaign for trade justice.