Elle and Campaign to End World Poverty

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Elle Macpherson has joined United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to support a campaign urging governments to meet their commitment to bring an end to global poverty.The UN chief, the model-turned-businesswoman and a host of other celebrities added their name to a pledge wall set up just metres across the road from UN headquarters, urging governments to do more to meet the Millennium Development Goals of halving global poverty by 2015.

The world's financial troubles are casting a gloomy cloud over a meeting of political and philanthropic leaders who've gathered at the UN to review the progress on the Millennium Development Goals.

They've recommitted themselves to reducing global poverty, with pledges of $16-billion in aid and there have new commitments on malaria and education.

But some leaders say with the finance markets in meltdown, it's a folly to talk of increasing aid for the poor.

Outside the meeting of world leaders and philanthropists at the United Nations General Assembly, actors and musicians launched a new campaign to end world poverty.

It was a star-studded event, attracting the likes of Elle Macpherson, musicians from the Black Eyed Peas and Kristin Davis, an actor from the TV series Sex and the City.

The group's spokesman Kumi Naidoo summed up their views:

"When we look at the money that we are asking for, it's a fraction, one tenth at most of the $700-billion bail-out package that magically seems to have been found to address the crisis caused by the greed and bordering on corruption on the part of bankers in the United States and elsewhere."

Singers Missy Higgins and John Butler are also lending their support to the campaign, sponsored by Oxfam and Save the Children.

As part of the campaign, a song - in my name - written by Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, was launched, calling on politicians to honour their promises and urging people to use their individual power to bring about change.

"Politicians promised in 2000 to halve poverty in 15 years," will.i.am said.

"They made this pledge in my name, now they must act to achieve it."

Former Irish president Mary Robinson said the current financial crisis showed the evils and injustice of an unequal world.

While money could be found to bail out financial markets, it couldn't be found to help millions of people access clean water.

"Poor people are not stupid," Ms Robinson said.

"They know this is the most unfair and the most unacceptable way for the world to organise itself.

"We made commitments to help, 'in my name' is a very human rights approach, it's holding governments accountable."

But the Executive Director of Oxfam Australia Andrew Hewitt says the problem with these summits is few countries deliver on their pledges.

"The world's leaders have not put the money where people's mouths are. The fight against poverty has unfortunately gone backwards in the last year or two.

Aid promises have not been delivered upon. The food price crisis is causing more than 100 million more people to go to bed hungry every night and the effects of climate change are exacerbating poverty around the world".

Blog Action Day is a nonprofit, grassroots movement of thousands of individual bloggers coming together for one cause. Oct 15th the cause is - poverty.

Poverty is not only a pressing issue, it is a complex one. It's easy to think that there isn’t much an individual can do. Fortunately this isn’t the case at all. With activities ranging from advocacy and professional contribution to charity and financing, there is in fact many ways that we can act.

You can find a range of resources about poverty, about what the average person can do as well as dozens of post suggestions and ideas in the Resources section.
http://blogactionday.org/

World Habitat Day, an annual event created by the United Nations, falls on the first Monday in October and unites people of goodwill and organizations around the cause of housing to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.

For the more than 1.6 billion people suffering from some sort of shelter deprivation in the world, that future is bleak. Without access to adequate shelter, clean water or sanitation, upwards of 10 million people die each year from preventable diseases. Many of them are infants. In some parts of the world, entire families face forced eviction from property or land they own.

Urbanization continues at a rapid rate, with half of humanity now living in towns and cities. Today, one-third of the current urban population—a staggering 1 billion people—live in slums. By 2030, estimates are that two-thirds of the world’s population will be urban dwellers, exponentially increasing the number of people living in slums if action is not taken to provide decent and affordable housing.
http://www.habitat.org/gov/take_action/world_habitat_day.aspx

Comments (1)

At the time of financial crises we need to come together united and try to solve the problems which are responsible for such a hazard. We need to overcome it. It is meant to bring calm to the population and markets and display government strength and stability. As a large number of people spend their money in movies, making films, sports, nowadays even on internet many sites offer gambling online bonus but there people lose a large sum of money there in such stuffs which should be minimized as the world is going through a phase where a little wastage of money could be matter of remorse.