The Youth Partnership for Peace and Development, Global Call to Action against Poverty together with other civil society organizations and campaigners in Sierra Leone are on the readiness to stage the fourth annual “Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!” mobilization taking place from October 16th to 18th 2009.
Millions of people across the globe have called on world leaders to eradicate extreme poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Coinciding with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, this mobilization recorded participation by 116.9 million people in 2008, the majority from poor countries, breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest mobilization of human beings in recorded history.
With just six years left until the 2015 deadline by which world leaders have pledged to achieve the MDGs, people around the globe are demanding that their leaders deliver on the promises they made in the year 2000 to eradicate extreme poverty and its root causes.
The MDG commitments related to women’s empowerment – including the promise to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters by the year 2015 – have seen the least progress. Women have been especially hard hit by the devastating impacts of the financial, food and climate crises as women and children constitute more than 70 percent of those living in poverty.
In keeping with this urgency, this year’s mobilization will have a specific thematic focus on women, and will be accompanied by actions in more than 131 countries calling on leaders to eradicate hunger, end maternal mortality and ensure women’s rights.
Some event organizers will also use the mobilization to influence global decisions at the UN Conferences on Climate Change and the MDGs.
Thousands of legislators – including Parliamentarians, Mayors, Senators, Ministers and Heads of State – are expected to be reached through the mobilization this year. Millions of people will come together across the world to remind their elected leaders to give the highest priority to the MDGs in local and national policies, plans and budgets. Events planned include rallies and concerts, gatherings in school assemblies and town halls, delegations visiting politicians and mass SMS campaigns.
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