HIV/Aids Africa

In UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s message on
the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, observed on 17 October, he
stated that poverty devastates families, communities and nations. It causes
instability and political unrest and fuels conflict. Today, some 800 million
people are chronically hungry and malnourished. Every day, 30,000 children die
due to causes directly related to poverty. Those figures lend acute urgency to
the theme of this year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty ?
“Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Empowering the poorest of the
poor.” The theme underscores the fact that poverty can be reduced only if we
reach out to the poorest of the poor, including those often excluded from the
development process. Only through partnerships with them, and by taking steps to
tackle inequality, can we eradicate poverty in all its dimensions.The Millennium
Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, adopted by 189 Heads of State
and Governments in 2000, represent a partnership between rich and poor countries
to fight extreme poverty and achieve concrete, measurable improvements in the
lives of millions of men, women and children across the world. The goals form a
central framework for promoting human development — from ensuring all children
receive primary school education to reducing the number of child and maternal
deaths; from tackling the spread of HIV/AIDS and other major diseases to the
overarching aim of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty and
hunger by 2015.Annan stated that those commitments represent a breakthrough in
the fight against poverty – that we must all work to ensure that this is
translated into concrete actions, especially for the world’s poorest people. “On
this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, let us resolve to build
on the momentum that now exists. Let us work in partnerships between rich and
poor to improve the opportunities of all human beings to build better lives,” he
said