(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 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.
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.
While Europe boasts that it is the world’s largest donor of development aid, it’s recently- announced position for the upcoming UN MDG Review High Level Plenary Meeting in New York on September 20-22 undermines its role in accelerating progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals - Mid-term Review (Speech)
At past UN Summits on development, Europe was a leader: in 2000 at the Millennium Summit; in the 2002 Fin for Dev Conference in Monterrey, at the 2005 Summit on progress on MDG’s…
The Commission’s first draft of April 21st for the European position for this September’s Summit on the MDGs followed these shining examples:
European citizens took their demands that world leaders end poverty to the European Parliament today, where a giant petition symbolic of the voices of 505,823 Europeans who have signed an e-card to their leaders was handed over to the President of the
European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, by the UN Millennium Campaign, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and dozens of civil society organizations. The petition was presented as the European Council prepares to meet on June 18 to decide the European Union’s (EU) position on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
May 20, 2010- Last night, Italian representatives of Parliament, civil society and media gathered in Rome for a concert in memory of Tajudeen Abdul- Raheem, the late UN Millennium Campaign Deputy Director for Africa who died in a road accident one year ago. In attendance were the Millennium Campaign Regional Director for Africa, Charles Abugre, Regional Director for Europe, Marina Ponti, and Italian Coordinator, Marta Guglielmetti.
During the concert, the orchestra played a melody to the rhythm of a heart beat in memory of Abdul-Raheem.
On May 14-16, the United Nations Millennium Campaign in Italy participated in 3 days of anti-poverty events, including a march and youth forum, to give voice to citizens’ demands that Italy and other nations keep their promises to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
By Ian Sullivan
I reckon that I’m pretty much 0.7% committed and I want governments around the world to be equally committed. Not much to ask?
From May 5-7, civil society organizations from across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America will meet in Madrid to analyze progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and ask European Union (EU) member states to work on a common position to bring to the UN Summit on the MDGs at the United Nations in September. Falu Njie, Deputy Director of Policy for the UN Millennium Campaign, will participate in the Conference.
