|
IN 14 WORDS ...
At the start of the 21st century 1.2 billion people live in abject poverty. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry and 50,000 people die every day from poverty-related causes.
Poverty exists because of the choices we make. It exists because we have:
- insufficient and ineffective aid
- an unjust global trade system
- a debt burden for poor countries that is so great that it suffocates any chance of recovery
- an unwillingness to invest enough in social development
It doesn't have to be this way.
If we choose - if we have the will to act - we can make poverty history.
Over five years ago, all members of the United Nations committed to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to meet minimum targets to reduce poverty, hunger, illiteracy, discrimination against women, and environmental degradation by 2015.
But the pace of action is too slow. The world is failing dismally to reach those targets. And the poor will pay the price.
It's time for real action. In 2005, a global call to action against poverty was launched and campaigns are now up and running in over 80 countries. If everyone who wants to end poverty speaks at the same time, world leaders will be forced to listen.
Who We Are
|
