‘Poverty Reduction crucial to achieving MDGs’

BY WILLIAM BEEKO & STEPHEN DARKO

Hon. Clement Kofi Humado, Member of Parliament for Anlo constituency and Chairman of the Parliamentary select committee on poverty reduction, has observed that reducing poverty formed a crucial role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“The campaign to make poverty become history is a central moral challenge of our age that cannot remain a task for a few but instead should become a calling for many all over the world and in Ghana,” he indicated.

According to him, the theme for this year’s International Day for Poverty Eradication ‘Stand up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!’ highlights the need for a truly global anti poverty alliance, one in which both developed and developing countries should fully participate.

Hon Humado was speaking at a press briefing held in Accra on the National Summary Report in achieving the MDGs.

“Nearly 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day, although the world has enough money, resources and technology to end poverty forever,” he noted.

“The year 2007 marked the half way point to achieving the MDGs. However, it appears that at this rate, many of the MDGs are not likely to be met,” he lamented.

In her address, Kyerewa Akua Asamoah, the Program Officer for MDGs at the Global Call for Action against Poverty (GCAP) Secretariat disclosed that her outfit mobilized and joined about 5,569,824 at events in rural, urban, cosmopolitan and cities in all the 10 regions and campaigned on the need to end poverty.

“Significant about this year’s event is the fact that it represents 499.30% increase in the 2008 number of 1,115,520 sending clear message to our leaders that citizens will not stay seated while promises to end poverty remained unfulfilled,” she stressed.

She continued that all over the country, the ‘demand notice’ was unambiguous: that our leaders today keep the promises to achieve the MDGs and address Maternal Mortality.

“Appreciating the fact that big events tend to be expensive and exclusive to urban communities as rural residents find it hard to attend, smaller-scaled but many more events were encouraged and supported by the MDGs /GCAP Secretariat all over the country, including our remote rural communities where community members organized events amongst themselves for their folks.”

She added that the uniqueness of ‘STAND UP TAKE ACTION END POVERTY NOW!’ 2009 campaign is the coherency of these events all over Ghana.

“A number of marquee events took place; we saw some sporting events, concerts, educational institution fora, route march and rally, church and Mosque conventions, tree planting to address climate change, open market campaign, flag-raising ceremony, short rallies at offices of public institutions and development agencies, small durbars at chief palaces and many more.”