“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.
On November 11th, the United Nations Millennium Campaign in Portugal, Objectivo 2015, joined Pobreza Zero (the Global Call to Action against Poverty in Portugal), Micah Challenge and Africa-Europe Faith & Justice Network for a joint hearing with Portugal’s President, Aníbal Cavaco Silva.
Eveline Herfkens of the UN Millennium Campaign presented the new Aid Effectiveness Brochure, produced by the UN Millennium Campaign and OECD, at the Portuguese Parliament. Eveline was accompanied by Portugal’s Undersecretary of State for Cooperation and Development, João Cravinho, and representatives of the Parliament’s Commission for Foreign Affairs.
8 Ways to Change the World: Local Authorities Guide
Download the Brochure (pdf)
Concrete proposals for Local Authorities both from the North and the South to promote the MDGs at the local level.
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), including farmers, workers, women’s, faith-based and students’ groups and organizations, have issued a statement declaring that it is clear more than ever, that the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are Europe’s means of locking-in the fundamentally unequal relationships between Africa and Europe. Viewed from Africa, this is nothing less than, “re-colonisation.”
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.
From December 7th to 9th, more than 70 European and African leaders met in Lisbon, Portugal, to attend the EU-Africa Summit. Seven years after the Cairo summit, the Lisbon event ended with an ambitious action plan and a promise to meet again in 2010, but wasn’t able to tackle key issues such as Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) and human rights.
