By Antonio Marafioti and Miren Gutiérrez
ROME, Oct 16 (IPS) – “Our voices must reach the ears of the leaders who govern us,” says Marina Ponti, describing this year’s campaign by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP).
Referring to the Stand Up and Take Action campaign, Ponti, the United Nations Millennium Campaign Europe director, says that “standing up is a sign of solidarity. By doing so, we are saying that we cannot remain seated in the face of poverty in the world.”
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted by the international community in 2000 to set specific targets for reducing poverty and inequality in the world.
“Last year, we strengthened the concept by adding ‘Speak Out’, because our voices had to reach the ears of our leaders. Now it is no longer enough to stand up and shout; we have to demonstrate our efforts by means of concrete actions,” she added.
The number of people who have stood up for each edition of Stand Up has grown every year. In 2006 an estimated 23.5 million people took part in the campaign’s events around the world, setting a Guinness World Record. But last year, the total reached 43.7 million people.
This year’s aim is for 67 million people around the world to stand up and call on their governments to put an end to poverty and inequality, in the activities scheduled for Oct. 17 (the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty) through Oct. 19.
“We are very optimistic,” Ponti told IPS. “Reaching that number of people would be something that governments won’t be able to ignore. It would be proof that people’s consciousness has been raised with respect to this serious problem. I am sure that citizens are much more aware of the problem of poverty than their governments are.”
Italy will be one of the “hot spots” for this weekend’s GCAP activities, said Ponti.
