In Egypt, Stand Up was celebrated in more than 50,000 mosques in all governorates across the country, where imams preached about the need for eradicating poverty.
This unified action, carried out in cooperation with the Ministry for Religious Endowments, included high profile Friday sermons by the Mufti of Egypt and the Deputy Minister in the Errahman Errahim mosque, one of the most important mosques in Cairo.
Religious leaders also spoke about Stand Up in churches across the country and rang bells to make noise in support of the Millennium Development Goals.
Lebanon Stands Up for MDGs
The event brought together around 200 participants, including Lebanese government representatives, ambassadors from the diplomatic corps, Heads of UN agencies and missions, University officials, students and their parents, NGOs, and students from Model UN Program and UN staff.
DOHA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Oil-rich Gulf Arab states should give more development aid to poor nations and raise transparency if they want a bigger voice on the world stage in the wake of the financial crisis, a senior U.N. official said on Sunday.
"If you want to become a full global player, it comes with responsibilities," said Salil Shetty, director of the U.N.'s Millennium Campaign, which aims to halve extreme poverty and boost life expectancy by 2015.
Salil Shetty, director of the UN Millennium Campaign, told the Financial Times that developing nations are estimated to be facing losses of at least $300bn to their economies up to 2010 as a result of the economic slowdown and are particularly vulnerable to global shocks.
Under the heading “Deepening local democratic governance to eradicate poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals," the delegates to the Forum discussed potential ways of strengthening the role of Local Authorities both in the North and the South in the achievement of the MDGs.
Every minute a woman dies due to complications in pregnancy or
childbirth, adding up to half a million women dying every year. Another
10-15 million women suffer serious or long-lasting illnesses or
disabilities.
“No woman should die giving life,” said UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.
“To have a healthy society, you have to have healthy mothers.”
In many countries, however, progress in maternal health has been slow.
In some, the situation has actually deteriorated over the last 20 years.
