A hard-hitting report by the World Bank on the impact the financial crisis in developing countries from the World Bank to be unveiled at a conference organised by the UK Government this week will put the fight against poverty at the heart of the London Summit debate.

In a detailed analysis prepared for the meeting of G20 Finance Ministers on 13-14 March, the World Bank says financial conditions facing developing countries have deteriorated sharply. It estimates that developing countries face a financing gap of between $270bn and as much as $700bn depending on the severity of the economic and financial crisis and the strength and timing of policy responses.

The World Bank paper says that 94 out of 116 developing countries have experienced a slowdown in economic growth. Of these countries, 43 have high levels of poverty. World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said rich countries have to react 'in real time' to a growing crisis that is hurting people in developing countries. 'This global crisis needs a global solution and preventing an economic catastrophe in developing countries is important for global efforts to overcome this crisis.'

The report will be unveiled at a conference organised in London on 9-10 March by the UK’s Department for International Development, called Eliminating World Poverty: Building Our Common Future. World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will tell the conference: 'When this crisis began people in developing countries, especially those in Africa, were the innocent bystanders in this crisis, yet they have no choice but to bear its harsh consequences.'

The conference will hear speeches by Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, Sir Bob Geldof of ONE, Professor Paul Collier of Oxford University and author of The Bottom Billion, Justin Yifu Lin, the World Bank’s chief economist and the climate change expert Lord (Nicholas) Stem among many others.

Speaking on 25 February Mr Alexander called on the World Bank to make more funding available more quickly and to remove two specific restrictions on the absolute size of its grants and loans, and a limit on proportion of funding that can be provided to the poorest countries as budget support. He also called for radical reform of the Bank including an end to the tradition that its President is a US citizen.

On the BBC's World This Weekend programme on 8 March, Mr Alexander warned of a 'human crisis emerging from behind a financial crisis' and laid out his ambitions for the London Summit. He focused on three priorities: getting increased lending into Africa and Asia from the World Bank and the regional development banks; a clear rejection of any return to protectionism; and further action on tax havens and governance arrangements in developed countries.

The concerns of emerging economy came out strongly from a roundtable discussion on 6 March with the UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband and journalists representing news agencies from the so-called BRIC countries, the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Their questions featured concerns of the emerging markets, such as the growth of protectionism, the need for a green recovery and the demands of countries not represented at the Summit.

Speaking on the BBC's World This Weekend, Donald Kaberuka, African Development Bank said he believed the London Summit would deliver gains for poor countries. 'Gordon Brown has made it possible for Africa to be at the meeting of the G20 in London. That's a good start because we can sell our story, explain and share our analysis and I'm confident that international community will listen.'

Go to Part 2 - Global leaders demand action to end world poverty