Xinuha: Record breaking 173 mln people take stand with UN against poverty
UNITED NATIONS, October 22, 2009 (Xinhua) — Smashing a Guinness World Record, more than 173 million people around the world joined forces with the United Nations to call on global leaders to stamp out poverty and take action to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their deadline of 2015, UN officials said here Wednesday.
Over 3,000 events were held in more than 120 countries in the fourth year of the “Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!” campaign over the weekend. Nearly 60 million more people took part in the festivities this year compared to 2008.
Xinhua: UN chief leads students in "stand up against poverty"
NEW YORK, October 16, 2009 (Xinhua) — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday led the students at the UN International School in Manhattan, central New York City, to stand up against poverty as part of the global campaign to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
The secretary-general told the students that by taking stand and by acting, “we could end poverty in our lifetimes. And he urged them to lead the way, to learn about the Millennium Development Goals and talk about them with families, friends and teachers.”
Associated Press: UN chief launches global anti-poverty campaign
October 16, 2009 – UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a global campaign Friday to get millions of people around the world to Stand Up Against Poverty this weekend.
Now in its fourth year, the Stand Up against Poverty Campaign established a world record last year with 116 million people taking part in events to support the campaign to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, which include reducing extreme poverty by half and ensuring universal primary education by 2015.
As the leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) countries gathered in Hokkaido, Japan, today for their summit meeting, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated his call for urgent action to tackle three key challenges the world is currently grappling with.
Efforts to address the food crisis, climate change and the slow progress towards reaching the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their target date of 2015 “so far have been too divided, too sporadic, and too little,” Mr. Ban told a joint news conference with World Bank President Robert Zoellick.
The MDG Africa Steering Group has just completed the second meeting. The level of collaboration representing leaders within the international development community is unprecedented. As has just been introduced by the Spokesperson, we have all the leaders of the world development pillars [African Union Commission, African Development Bank, World Bank, European Commission, International Monetary Fund, Islamic Development Bank, and OECD.]
With official development assistance (ODA) still insufficient to achieve global anti-poverty targets by 2015, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed France’s former foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to develop and promote new sources of funding, citing the urgent need to fill this critical gap.
Mr. Douste-Blazy, appointed as Mr. Ban’s Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development, currently serves as Chairman of the Executive Board of UNITAID – the international drug purchase facility hosted by the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
World leaders have issued a joint statement at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos vowing to make 2008 a turning point in the fight against poverty. The world is facing a “development emergency”, they said. “We pledge to work together to help the world get back on track to meet the MDGs.”
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed that 2008 should be the year of the “bottom billion,” citing the need for renewed determination to address the needs of the poorest of the world’s poor who have been left behind by global economic growth.
“We must address ourselves to the needs of the weak, the disadvantaged, those who have been excluded from the mainstream international community,” Mr. Ban told reporters at a Headquarters press conference, his first for the new year.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the outcome of the landmark United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in which 187 countries today agreed to launch a two-year process of formal negotiations on strengthening international efforts to fight, mitigate and adapt to the problem of global warming.
After almost two weeks of marathon discussions, delegates have agreed on both the agenda for the negotiations and a 2009 deadline for completing them so that a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions can enter into effect in 2013.
