International Day for the Eradication of Poverty Roundup Part 2

This time, more events and a couple of speeches.

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is being recognized around the world today. Events even continue onto the weekend as the "Stand Up Against Poverty" campaign takes place.

A story in the Afrique en ligne has a good overview on both events.

The events, in which the UN and its partners will participate, will hold simultaneously around the world.

In Lagos, Nigeria, a concert hosted by popular musician Femi Kuti to make "Music Against Poverty" will commemorate the life of renowned Nigerian Musician Fela Kuti and Stand Up in support of the MDGs.

In Tema, Ghana, "Games Against Poverty" will use sport as a platform to support the MDGs.

In the United States, students will join a campus challenge to build political will to end extreme poverty by hosting teach-ins and events across America, and in India, members of the Art of Living Foundation, one of the largest spiritual movements in the world, will mobilise to plant more than 100 million trees around the globe.

Also, groups across Europe - from Portugal to Germany, will mobilise to demand more and better aid.

We encourage you to find an event near you and participate. Only an overwhelming voice of a large collection of people will make politicians take notice... and do something other than make empty promises.

Now on to a few politicians who are saying words today. In Nigeria, President Umaru Yar'adua used this occasion to make a speech. Sunday Williams of the Nigerian paper the Daily Trust provides this quote, which we found on All Africa.

The attainment of the government's vision of becoming one of the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020 can only be achieved with the eradication of extreme poverty, President Umaru Yar'adua has said.

The President made the remarks yesterday while delivering a keynote address at the all Local Government summit on poverty eradication and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty in Abuja.

He said, "We are resolved to as nation to face up to our development challenges and set the country on the right part to becoming a public grounded democracy and one of the 20 largest economies in the world by year 2020.However, this is only possible when we are perceived in an eradication of extreme poverty which we have resolved to achieve through human capital development, wealth creation, employment creation through appropriate partnership with the private sector."

He said, "Poverty has continued to be endemic to our communities despite the existence of the local government whose constitutional roles is to carry out the activities to improved the livelihood of rural dwellers. At the end of this commemoration, I'm convinced that many local government chairmen will go back home with resolve to address the issue of poverty eradication with more passion."

Lastly, on to Nepal, where Prime Minister Prachanda calls for more coordination. Our snippet comes from the Andhra News from Nepal.

Speaking on the occasion of International Day on Elimination of Poverty here, Prachanda said, "I want to remind all that the policies and programs and budget presented by the government that I am leading also has put poverty alleviation as top priority."

He expressed full commitment to uplift the backward and disadvantaged communities in Nepal.

He also reiterated his commitment to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

"For any country, political stability and the peace process is the foundation for development. The job of institutionalizing peace was therefore very important," he said.

"Judicious investment and the distribution of public resources and services are the first duty of any state in the absence of which poverty-free country cannot be built," he added.

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty Roundup

Today, October 17th, is recognized as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Established by a declaration in the United Nations general assembly in 1992. But it has roots in a demonstration in Paris on this date in 1987.

Were getting a lot of items on protests and marches that are going on today. So, here is our first roundup of the events.

First, a special stone in Dublin, as told by Charlie Taylor of the Irish Times.

A commemorative stone to mark International Day for the Eradication of Poverty has been unveiled in Dublin today.

The stone, which is situated near to the Famine memorial on Customs House Quay, was unveiled by Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin Emer Costello.

The commemorative stone was commissioned by Dublin City Council and Dublin Docklands Authority and is inscribed with words from Joseph Wresinski, founder of the international human rights organisation ATD Fourth World.

The words - “Whenever men and women are condemned to live in poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights are respected is our solemn duty” - were first inscribed on a commemorative stone laid on October.

17th, 1987, on the Human Rights Plaza in Paris where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had been signed.

Since then the same words have been used on more than 30 similar commemorative pieces around the world including the UN headquarters in New York and the European Parliament building in Brussels.

Next, we travel to Kenya. Emmanuel Kola of the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation give us the details.

Kenya joins millions of people around the world on Friday in marking the World Poverty Eradication Day.

The campaign whose key message is ‘Stand Up and Take Action against poverty' will be marked at Garissa Primary School in North Eastern province.

Minister of State for planning, National development and Vision 2030, Wycliffe Oparanya, the guest of honor at the event, will share the governments' strategies to eradicate poverty in the country where about 46 per cent of the population is living in absolute poverty.

As the Kenya marks this day, Focus will be placed on the biting poverty facing people living in the Arid and Semi Arid Lands- ASALs and the food insecurity currently being experienced in Kenya and East Africa.

With all the trouble in South Africa lately, the demonstrations there will be a little angrier. This protest is detailed by the South African Daily News

About a hundred people gathered on Friday at the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against poverty.

Protesters called, among other things, for an end to poverty and VAT on basic foodstuffs to be cut.

Co-chair of the global call for action against poverty (GCAP) Kumi Naidoo, said it was time for government to act decisively to eradicate poverty and instead of spending millions on border control it should rather spend on health care, water, and sanitation.

The GCAP is a civil society alliance comprising NGOs and trade unions.

Finally for this first roundup, Thailand. Where the UN and government joined in a walk. As reported by IRIN.

The UN and Thai government went walking in support of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October, with the deputy interior minister, Preecha Rengsomboonsuk, and the representative of the UN Children’s Fund Thailand country office, Tomoo Hozumi, joining more than 2,000 people in Ayutthaya Province to raise poverty awareness.

About 10,000 Ayutthaya citizens from every social sector joined the opening ceremony at the city hall after the walk. The two representatives made pledges to fight poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“We tried to adopt his Majesty the King’s initiative on sustainable development and emphasised three main issues: encouraging people to save, providing jobs for them, and making them help one another in solving poverty,” Touchrich Tanaluck, chief community development officer of Ayutthaya, told IRIN. “We believe this policy will help us achieve our goal in the ‘180 Day Roadmap for Poverty Reduction’ campaign.”

The campaign was launched on 15 August 2008 by former Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej’s government to raise the annual income of almost 180,000 Thais who live below the national poverty line through decentralisation. Each province has its own policy and campaign to achieve its goal.

DEVELOPMENT: 'Poverty an Issue in Europe Too'

from IPS

By Sabina Zaccaro

Civil society groups in Central and Eastern Europe want to remind their governments Oct. 17 that poverty exists in their own countries, and not just in those usually considered developing countries.

People around the world are asked to "stand up and speak out" on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty Oct. 17 against poverty and in support of the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight goals agreed in 2000 to reduce poverty and to improve health and education.

The 'Stand Up and Speak Out Against Poverty' initiative is a part of the campaign organised by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) alliance and the UN Millennium Campaign to get people into public spaces for 24 hours from 9pm GMT Oct. 16 to demand more urgent political response to the growing global poverty crisis.

On this date last year an estimated 23.5 million people stood up to demand an end to poverty, setting what organisers claimed to be a world record. This year they want to "send an even louder message which politicians cannot ignore."

The global mobilisation represents a chance for civil society groups seeking more participation in the current debate on aid, debt cancellation, trade negotiations and public accountability monitoring to have their say, but it is also an opportunity to strengthen communication on domestic problems with governments in Central and Eastern Europe.

"This year's key issue is to make the public understand that GCAP is not only a coalition of people looking at developing countries but also looking at poverty and inequality in the north," Julien Vaissier of the GCAP Europe Secretariat told IPS.

"If we look at countries like Romania, there is a huge domestic problem with poverty. GCAP is a way to open people's minds and make them understand that through its global echo they can try to bring about a change in their countries."

Some increase in people's participation in such moves has been recorded in Hungary, which joined GCAP in 2005.

"I wouldn't say that peoples' participation is big enough, but it is growing year by year," Balazs Frida of the Hungarian coalition told IPS. "First it was quite hard to mobilise people because the case of Central Europe is a particular one...people consider themselves not exactly poor, but still needing help from outside."

At the same time, he says, "we are committed with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, a grouping of 30 wealthy nations) and the UN to support foreign countries that are in a tricky situation."

According to Frida, "sensitising people is a challenging mission; you must help them understand that they are not poor any more, they are normal European Union members." At the same time, he said, they need to understand "there are poorer people outside Europe, and we don't have to concentrate only on domestic poverty or homelessness and underdeveloped rural regions."

The Hungarian coalition will organise conferences, street demonstrations and a full day programme with films, public discussions and a seminar on aid policies on Oct. 17.

The Czech Republic also joined the global group in 2005. "Each year it's an effort to reach out to new groups, new cities, and engage other groups like students, who had never been approached before," Petr Lebeda of the Czech Republic national coalition told IPS.

"Though it is difficult to monitor people's involvement, we collected around 527,000 signatures under the statement to be delivered to the Prime Minister and to the UN General Assembly.

"Peoples' capacity to speak out for rights is improving," he said. "It doesn't reach the usual standard of the European Union (EU) 15 countries; still I think it's a bit better than others member states, and perhaps on the level of Hungary or Poland.

"There's quite a tradition of human rights activism in the Czech Republic that goes back to the dissident movements under the Communist regime; human rights were a part of the resistance that resulted in the regime eject. There was a strong focus on that, both in official circles and in civil society, though it was largely focused on political rights, free speech, religion, freedom of assembly and this sort of rights."

Now, he said there is also "a lot of activity in terms of defending dissidents in Cuba, in North Korea, and the other problematic regime in Belarus."

Activists are now discovering another generation of human rights, like food rights, "which is still a concept, I would say, not very familiar to civil society and to the public as rights," Lebeda said.

The government's attitude towards poverty issues "is getting more responsible," he said. "The Czech Republic is realising its global responsibilities, acknowledging the fact that it has become part of one of the most elite groups in the world, the EU."