The chancellor, Gordon Brown, has announced a series of measures aimed at giving children in the developing world access to education.

Brown and the former South African president Nelson Mandela opened an international conference aimed at fighting child poverty and launched a fund that aims to give millions of Commonwealth children a chance of primary education.

Speaking at the conference, the chancellor unveiled the government-supported Queen's Golden Jubilee Year Fund as part of a raft of measures targeting child poverty in the developing world.

Urging governments and NGOs to work together to meet 2015 development targets, Brown announced that the Jubilee Fund would seek to help 75 million children in Commonwealth countries who currently lack a basic education, with a particular emphasis on education for girls and other disadvantaged groups.

"We know that education is a precondition of progress personal and national - the very best anti-poverty strategy, the best economic development program. There is simply no better means to empower the powerless, to put their future directly in their hands. Education should be the birthright of every child," he said.

Speaking ahead of an electioneering budget next Wednesday the chancellor announced tax credits to accelerate the research and development of drugs to tackle Aids, TB and Malaria. As well as tax credits for pharmaceutical companies carrying out research and providing wider availability of treatments, Brown announced a fund for drugs and vaccines.

"I call on the pharmaceutical companies to join us. I call on them to step up to their responsibility - to recognise the scale of the challenge we face and to respond on an equal scale, by developing and delivering affordable treatments for the world's poor. Because, quite simply, we cannot save lives and raise hopes without their commitment," Brown said.

Monday's conference is one of a series of meetings of the IMF, World Bank and G7 industrial nations, leading up to September's UN Special Session for Children. The UN's 2015 child poverty targets include primary school education for all children, and a two thirds reduction in infant and child mortality rates.