Millions to urge UN to keep poverty goals
September 17, 2010
CBC News

Canadians are joining millions of people around the globe this weekend in publicly pressuring world leaders to live up to their promises to end poverty.

A series of events dubbed Stand Up 2010 has been organized by the global anti-poverty group Make Poverty History to coincide with an upcoming UN summit in New York, which will run Sept. 20-22…

In 2000, the leaders of 189 nations committed to:

• Eradicating extreme hunger and poverty.
• Achieving universal primary education.
• Promoting gender equality.
• Improving maternal health.
• Reducing child mortality.
• Encouraging environmental sustainability.
• Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other communicable diseases.
• Creating global partnerships to encourage development.

The leaders vowed to achieve the goals by 2015.

But progress has stalled or even reversed on some of the points for various reasons, including the impacts of climate change, a crisis in food prices and the global economic downturn. Progress is also threatened by donor countries who are freezing or cutting aid budgets. Canada has announced it will freeze aid at 2010 levels in 2011.

"Ending poverty in Canada and around the world is possible," Dennis Howlett, national co-ordinator of the Canadian chapter of Make Poverty History, said in a statement Friday. "We have the solutions. What we need is the political will….