Immediate steps needed to achieve MDGs by 2015: UN

United Nations, Oct 18 (PTI) With more than one billion
people still living in poverty, the world leaders need to take
immediate steps to contain the menace and achieve Millennium
Development goals (M.D.G.s) by 2015, a senior United Nation
(U.N.) official has said.

"There are still 1.4 billion people living in extreme
poverty. More than 30,000 people die of malnutrition,
avoidable diseases and hunger every day. There is no time to
waste if we are to achieve the M.D.G.s by the target year
of 2015," U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said
on International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

"We join millions around the world today standing up
against hunger and malnutrition, standing up against deaths
from preventable diseases, standing up against poor living
conditions," Migiro told the participants of U.N.'s 'Stand Up
and Take Action" campaign, Thursday.

The event was part of the global "Stand Up and Take Action
against Poverty" campaign, involving some 67 million people
"or about 1 per cent of the world's population" from over
2,000 events across more than 100 countries this weekend.

The campaign is aimed at mobilising support to fight
against poverty and call on world leaders to deliver their
commitments to meet the Millennium Development Goals
(M.D.G.s), the internationally agreed targets to halve extreme
poverty and address other social ills by 2015.

"We are standing because everyday 50,000 people die
needlessly as a result of extreme poverty, and the gap between
the rich and poor is getting wider," participants read out as
part of their pledge at U.N. headquarters.

President of the U.N. General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto
said, "The persistence of poverty represents a flagrant
violation of the human rights of most of the world's people."

"This poverty is inexcusable, since it is a man-made
problem caused by the dominant culture's perverse logic of
selfishness and is within our power to eradicate," d'Escoto
said.

"I call on all parties not to reduce aid in these trying
times, instead, we should triple it. Let us not wait until the
poor and excluded take to the streets to demand it," he added.

Members of the Broadway musical "A Tale of Two Cities"
also performed at the ceremony, which marked the 60th
anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.

The UN Millennium Campaign, responsible for initiating
the annual Stand Up events, says that luminaries will join the
millions demanding governments keep promises made at the
Millennium summit in 2000 to achieve the M.D.G.s.

"From Friday to Sunday, in rich and poor countries, at
concerts and sporting events, in universities and in houses
of worship, millions of people will show that they will not
remain seated in the face of poverty and broken promises to
end it," said Salil Shetty, Director of the U.N. Millennium
Campaign.

"This mass mobilization will demonstrate to world leaders
that citizens do not consider the global financial crisis to
be an excuse for breaking promises, and they must commit to
concrete plans of action now to eradicate extreme poverty and
achieve the M.D.G.s by 2015," Shetty added.

Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people from all parts of Thai
society took part in an event in Ayutthaya province, north of
Bangkok, where the U.N. and Thai government members pledged
their commitment to stamp out poverty and inequality.