(STRASBOURG, November 15th) More than 1 million Europeans mobilized on October 17th --the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty -- under the Stand Up and Take Action initiative, to ask their Governments to keep their commitments on increasing aid quantity and quality, debt relief, and trade opportunities that will help poor countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Summit on soaring food prices, convened by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has concluded with the adoption by acclamation of a declaration calling on the international community to increase assistance for developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and those that are most negatively affected by high food prices.
It is the 7th anniversary of the pledge by African Union member states to allocate 15% of national budgets to health. In a statement to mark the anniversary, Archbishop Tutu stated:
The dramatic surge in food prices has plunged millions of poor people and many net food importing poor countries into a food crisis. Consequently, it has also put at risk their chances of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Whilst the focus has been on the impact on the MDG1 of reducing poverty and hunger, given the close inter-connectedness between all the 8 MDGs, the impact on these sections of the poor on health, education and livelihoods more broadly, cannot be underestimated.
The Acting Spanish President, Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, cited the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as the key focus of his governments development and cooperation policies, while giving his inaugural speech in the Spanish Parliament yesterday.
I feel very much at home here, and in tune with the purpose of your meeting.
I have been among the first women in several positions, which was not always easy, including certain minor inconveniences: when I became a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands in 1981, there was only one toilet – for the men – near the Plenary. When I became a member of the World Bank Board of Executive Directors in 1991, it was the same: One labeled “Gentlemen” in the antechamber of the Board Room – I had to walk a corridor to the “Women”…
I feel very much at home here, and in tune with the purpose of your meeting.
I have been among the first women in several positions, which was not always easy, including certain minor inconveniences: when I became a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands in 1981, there was only one toilet – for the men – near the Plenary. When I became a member of the World Bank Board of Executive Directors in 1991, it was the same: One labeled “Gentlemen” in the antechamber of the Board Room – I had to walk a corridor to the “Women”…
For when the sounds of the ‘vuvuzela’ start blurring across four South African cities, MDG campaigners will also stand up to make a point in order to be heard.
A few days ago, the clock chimed a 100 days left before the global curtain is raised on the first-ever World Cup on African soil and for a continent where the poverty situation has almost adorned a lifestyle status, the soccer balls that will be kicked around in Johannesburg’s Soccer City and other stadiums during the World Cup in South Africa will not be far-off from this sad reality.
A group of experts discussed three major crises facing the world over the past year: Afghanistan, the Global Economy, and Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations Association Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference and 2010 Members’ Day.
Poverty has a female face
In the year 2000, 189 world leaders pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals — a set of 8 benchmarks to eradicate extreme poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat major diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development by the year 2015. But progress is moving too slowly to meet the deadline.
World leaders have made the least progress on their promises to women.
