International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, 17 October 2004
15 October 2004
Message from the Commonwealth Secretary-General:
Poverty remains the greatest threat to peace in the 21st century. Without greater equity in standards of living, how can we ever hope to live in a secure and peaceful world?
 |
| Commemorative Stone in honour of victims of extreme poverty. |
As I said recently to Commonwealth Finance Ministers five years after the solemn promises enshrined in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), no gold, silver or bronze medals have yet been won, and achievement of the MDGs remains a distant dream.
In the Commonwealth alone, 14 of the 43 countries for which data is available, are expected to fall short of realising the global poverty target. This is simply not good enough. It is not what was promised.
To meet the first MDG of halving the number of people living on a dollar a day, we must address human development in its fullest sense. This must include protecting the natural resource base for development and ensuring, through effective and equitable institutions, that the poor can participate fully in their own development.
We must remember too that trade liberalisation, with adequate access by developing countries to the markets of industrial and other countries and to each other's markets, is another key element in poverty eradication. This requires a sustained commitment to seek outcomes from the Doha Development Round of trade talks which truly keep development at the core. It is time to address the fundamental concerns of developing countries and to support them in addressing the short-term costs of expanding markets, nurturing competition and disseminating knowledge.
Assisting young people is a priority. In
We must also continue to strive for genuine economic empowerment for women. We cannot afford to leave half our populations behind. The Commonwealth Secretariat's case studies of women workers and producers in
Achievement of the benchmark MDGs on income, hunger, shelter, water, sanitation, health and education requires a real display of political will -- to create a supportive economic framework for poor and vulnerable countries to enable them to take advantage of the opportunities offered by trade, technology and global communication. Meeting international commitments on aid and debt is critical in this regard, including greater debt relief.
International Days to highlight particular causes are, of course, of great symbolic importance. They help keep the goal firmly in sight. But we would be failing in our duty if we were not to move from promises to implementation, from platitudes to resolute action.
On this Day, let us not just spare a thought for the poor of the Commonwealth and the world. Let us agree that poverty demeans us all, that it threatens everyone's future and that what world leaders promised at the dawn of this millennium must be realised for the sake of us all.
Link: http://www.oct17.org/en/home.htm
delicious
digg
reddit
facebook
stumbleupon
News feeds