[MDGs] EXHIBITION: Photographers put anti-poverty goals in the frame

08 Sep 2005
Source: AlertNet
By Kirsty Whalley

LONDON (AlertNet)

If a picture paints a thousand words, international photographers are hoping the power of images will help convince world leaders to turn worthy rhetoric into action in meeting U.N.-sponsored goals to cut extreme poverty.

A photography exhibition in London coinciding with the mid-September U.N. Special Summit puts the Millennium Development Goals in the frame, inviting viewers to empathise with the people shown and get to grips with the eight targets aimed at halving extreme poverty by 2015. Photo essays by leading photographers bring to life the first seven Millennium Development Goals, which include reducing child mortality, promoting gender equality and fighting HIV/AIDS.

“We want to build on the momentum created by the African Commission and the Make Poverty History campaign,” said Adrian Evans, director of exhibition sponsor Panos Pictures. “We are inviting people to contribute to the exhibition of the eighth goal by thinking about how they can help change the world.” The eighth Millennium Development Goal is to develop global partnerships for development.

Zed Nelson, who photographed families in Dhaka for the first goal of halving the number of people living on less than $1 a day, recalled being asked by his subjects whether the pictures would make a difference. “You want to say yes but you don’t know for sure,” he said.

“Eight Ways to Change the World” runs until Sept. 18 at the Bargehouse gallery in London.

A small selection of images from the show is available here:

http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/112618613554.htm

[Global Poverty] UN report says poverty breeds conflict

September 09, 2005

Poorer nations are increasingly becoming the focus of conflicts in an ever more violent world, according to a UN report.

The 2005 UNDP Human Development Report counts the terrible human cost of violent conflicts in poor countries, and points to the ways in which poverty provides a breeding ground for further violence. The geographical pattern of conflict has changed over time, with a clear shift in security risks towards the poorest countries, the report concluded. Low-income developing countries accounted for just over one-third of all conflicts between 1946 and 1989. But since 1990, developing countries have accounted for more than half of all armed conflicts, with nearly 40 per cent taking place in Africa alone.

The poorer the country, the more likely it is to suffer from violent conflict. The report indicated that countries with an annual per capita income of US$250 are twice as likely to descend into civil war as those with an annual per capita income of US$600. The century that just ended was the most violent humanity has experienced. Nearly three times as many people were killed in conflicts in the 20th century as in the previous four centuries combined.

The report sets out a host of measures that could be taken to reduce the threat of conflict and its detrimental impact on poverty and human development. It suggested an integrated approach to collective security. A recent report from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the creation of a Peace-building Commission to provide a strategic framework for an integrated approach to collective security.

As part of that approach, a global fund should be created to finance immediate post-conflict assistance and the transition to long-term reconstruction, the report's authors suggested.

Source: China Daily

http://english.people.com.cn/200509/09/eng20050909_207581.html

[MDGs] UN warning on world poverty

news.scotsman.com
Wed, 7 Sep 2005

World leaders must take drastic action if they plan to keep promises to end world poverty, a damning United Nations report has warned.

The 2005 Human Development Report said time was running out for the world's poorest nations. Eighteen countries, with a combined population of 460 million people, have moved backwards in the last 15 years.The stark assessment comes just a week before the UN world summit in New York, the largest meeting of world leaders in history.

The report calls for urgent reform in global aid, trade and security policies, if the Millennium Development Goals, set five years ago, are to be met.The eight targets range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/Aids by 2015.Kemal Dervis, UN Development Programme Administrator, warned that the time to act was now."The world has the knowledge, resources and technology to end extreme poverty, but time is running out," he said.

While the report concludes that living standards are improving, it makes for dismal reading.Niger in West Africa is last on the list of 177 countries ranked by living standards. Twelve African countries are in the bottom 18, a figure linked to the HIV/Aids pandemic.

On current trends, by 2015, there would be 827 million people living in extreme poverty and another 1.7 billion people living on £1.08 a day.

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2005, All Rights Reserved.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1904992005

[Fair Trade] Blair slams farm subsidies

British prime minister Tony Blair has said that ending agricultural export subsidies is a ‘moral responsibility’.Writing in the Financial Times Blair highlights what he hopes will be at the heart of upcoming international summits: Africa, climate change and trade with developing countries.

“When WTO ministers meet in Hong Kong this December they have a huge responsibility. A successful negotiation can deliver enormous gains to the world economy and lift millions out of poverty,” said Blair. Calling for an end to agriculture subsidies, Blair argues that farm protectionism risks disrupting the global Doha round of trade talks, due to resume in December in Hong Kong.

“It should be possible at Hong Kong to set a deadline of 2010. It is our moral responsibility to help those in poverty by allowing them the means to grow and prosper”, said Blair. “And it is also clearly in our economic interest.”

"There is an enormous amount at stake . . . failure to make progress could even be fatal for the trade round." And on poverty, Blair insists commitments made by the G8 at Gleneagles, last July are a significant step forward, but further concrete action must follow words.

“We must ensure over the next few months that we translate it [success] into the kind of results the world needs and has a right to expect.” He also calls for a new global agreement on climate change that will go beyond 2012.

©2005 EUpolitix.com

http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200509/49e47ab0-759c-4bf6-8e5e-1e7c672021a5.htm