Bill Clinton, the former US President, onThursday urged the world's rich to spend more on supporting projects in the developing world even though their own wealth has been hit.

Speaking at a session in Davos on philanthropy, Mr Clinton said: “The interdependent world is still pretty good to us, otherwise we couldn't afford to be here. We've got planes for Davos parked as far away as Milan.

“There are those among us who are not starving. Those of us who can do more, even in this time, should.”

He admitted that the financial crisis was having a severe impact on charitable organisations. His own foundation was “particularly hard hit this year when wealthy individuals lost a lot of their money”.

Mr Clinton said the priority should be to focus spending on health and poverty, both in rich and developing countries.

He also urged organisations funded by the wealthy to try to broaden their donor base.

Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on microfinance, said the crisis had increased the need for philanthropy and that the rich still had plenty of money. “Those who have billions and have lost half of it, still have half of it left. Their lifestyles will not change. But the real impact will be on the people at the bottom.”

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft who now runs his own foundation, said he was “not that negative” about the outlook for charitable giving, at least in the medium term. He said the causes of the poorest were more visible than ten years ago or even five years ago. Mr Gates, whose foundation has increased its spending to $3.8 billion (£2.7 billion) this year, even though its value has shrunk by 20 per cent, said he was encouraged that governments had not cut back on development spending, with the notable exception of Italy. It had been rumoured that France was planning to cut back, but reconsidered after lobbying by organisations such as Oxfam, he said.

He added that the proportion of the potential pool of money that is tapped for philanthropy is so small that “even a 20 per cent reduction in those dollars shouldn't affect — at least over a five-year time period — the growth in the size of philanthropy”.

He said there was huge potential in China and India while some of the big foundations in Europe could fill the gap by increasing their spending.

Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister, denied that philanthropy was in crisis, pointing out that 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, was one of the largest years of charitable giving in America.

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