(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.
Rome, July 7, 2009: On the eve of the G-8 Summit, the United Nations Millennium Campaign and Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) in Italy organized a stunt in Piazza del Popolo in Rome in order to grab the attention of G-8 leaders. The stunt was part of the “Press the 8” campaign which encourages citizens to pressure G-8 leaders to deliver on their promises at this week’s summit.
Rome, June 12, 2009: On the occasion of the G-8 Development Minister’s Meeting that took place at the Foreign Ministry in Rome on June 11-12, GCAP Italy organized a stunt in Piazza del Popolo in order to grab the attention of G-8 leaders. A huge weight with the word “crisis” crushed southern poor people while representations of G-8 leaders remained indifferent and kept on drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. The stunt occurred as development ministers met to discuss the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries and sustainable development.
Rome, May 29, 2009: The award ceremony for the creative competition “Little authors of great thoughts: G-8 children write to the big leaders” today took place at Villa Wolkonsky, residence of the British Ambassador in Italy, in the presence of British Ambassador Edward Chaplin, actor Colin Firth, Italian Millennium Campaign Coordinator Marta Guglielmetti and Tavola della Pace Coordinator Flavio Lotti. Even the President of the Republic of Italy sent a message to the young authors.
Rome, May 4-5, 2009: The City of Rome today hosted 260 delegates from over 40 countries at the Civil G-8, the forum where representatives of civil society and the most industrialized countries have gathered to tackle some of the most important issues on the agenda for the upcoming G-8 summit. Issues on the agenda include global governance, climate change and the environment, funding for development, health, education, employment, gender equality and the fight against poverty.
“We’re not a charitable organization. We’re not going to help the poor to escape poverty. What we’ll do is lobby, holding governments accountable so that poverty might be eradicated”, says Lucília Justino, president of Amnesty International Portugal. Amnesty is currently running a worldwide campaign for Human Dignity. This advocacy effort focus on poverty, violence against women and education for all.
Portuguese actress and TV presenter Catarina Furtado is UNFPA ambassador. After travelling extensively through Africa, Catarina has always found “deep injustice and social inequalities”. Guinea-Bissau is the country that, in her view, best represents “total injustice” – and it’s precisely in that country that she is currently contributing for a project on child mortality and maternal health.
Eveline Herfkens, Founder of the UN Millennium Campaign, and Marina Ponti, Director for Europe, addressed a group of communication experts from European bilateral aid agencies and multilateral organisations. The workshop was jointly organised by the OECD, the Polish Government and the UN Millennium Campaign in Warsaw on 4-5 June.
Achieving the MDGs in times of crisis and changes was the overarching theme of the meeting, whose main objective was to equip communicators with tools that would enable them to adapt to such situations.
