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The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2007: Message from the Administrator of UNDP

Seven years ago the world came together and committed to tackle poverty in all its forms and work to build a better world for everyone.  This vision was encapsulated in the Millennium Declaration and the eight Millennium Development Goals that emerged from it, which include halving the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger by the year 2015; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment; reducing child and maternal mortality; combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases and ensuring environmental sustainability.

These Goals are underpinned by a commitment to build a global partnership for development, a compact between poor countries that commit to focus on reducing poverty, and the richer world that commits to be an active partner in supporting developing country efforts. The MDGs represent an internationally agreed set of goals that can be achieved if all actors work together and do their part.

Now, at the midpoint towards the 2015 target, it is clear that significant progress has been made in many areas. The number of people living on less than one dollar a day has fallen by roughly 250 million people and so, at the global level at least, it looks like we will meet the goal to halve extreme poverty and hunger. In some regions more children are in school – both girls and boys – and people can expect to live longer and more productive lives.

However this is not happening in all parts of the world. As I saw in my visit to Mozambique, Tanzania and Rwanda last week, while many African countries are making real progress in the fight against poverty, the challenge of achieving the MDGs and other development objectives in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly acute, where only some countries are progressing sufficiently to achieve some of the Goals.

Today, worldwide, more than one billion people still lack access to safe drinking water; 6,000 people die of HIV and AIDS each day; and more than 750 million adults cannot read - half a billion of them women.  The impact of climate change also poses a particularly daunting challenge to many developing countries, especially the poorest.

But this picture does not have to remain the same. Many of the Goals remain eminently achievable in the vast majority of countries.  For this to happen, though, two crucial aspects of the partnership for development must be respected.

The first relates to the theme of this year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty: ‘people living in poverty as agents of change’, where it is clear that developing countries themselves should own their development process and that UNDP’s role is to help build the capacity to empower them to take charge of their own development.  It also means that the support we provide will be more effective as it will be given in support of the priorities of poor people, and on their own terms.

The idea that people living in poverty are agents of their own change can be applied at the local level, but also extends through the national level where people can get involved in monitoring policies and reviewing budgets, as well as at the international level where poorer countries must be able to contribute fully to the global institutions and processes that can shape progress in their country.

The second component of the partnership is that while poor people must be in the driving seat of their development, we have also committed to provide them with the necessary support. Implementing the commitments that the international community has already made – on increasing and improving aid, dealing comprehensively with the debt problems facing developing countries, and delivering a trading system that puts the needs of poor countries at its heart - would go a very long way in ensuring that the MDGs can be met. The policies and actions of all countries on issues such as the environment and migration must also be made as supportive as possible of development, lest we give with one hand and take away with the other.

On this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty we should recommit to achieving the MDGs as a whole, and to these two components in particular in the fight against poverty, so that the world can come as close as possible to achieving the ambitious Goals we all set for 2015.