Millions join UN events to mark poverty fight

UNITED NATIONS - Millions of people marked an annual International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Wednesday by joining a mass "stand up" around the world aimed at promoting U.N. targets on reducing poverty.

In New York participants led by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon crouched down on their knees and, on a count of three, stood up to demonstrate support for the fight against poverty.

World leaders committed themselves in 2000 to a set of Millennium Development Goals including reducing hunger, halving extreme poverty, combating HIV and boosting primary education. Still, 980 million people are living on less than $1 a day.

Organizers said around 7,000 "Stand Up" events had been registered around the world, from New York to Nairobi, and they were hoping to break last year's figure of 23 million people participating -- in itself a world record.

"I don't want to jinx it but I think we can say that we will at least break the record," Mandy Kibel, deputy director of communications for the U.N. Millennium Campaign, said at U.N. headquarters where several hundred people took part.

"Our global scorecard is mixed," Ban said, noting that the world had just passed the half-way point towards the target date of 2015 outlined in the Millennium Development Goals.

While parts of Asia have made good progress on eradicating poverty, he said Sub-Saharan Africa was not on track.

"We are standing because every day 50,000 people die needlessly as a result of extreme poverty, and the gap between rich and poor is getting wider," Ban said, leading participants in reading a pledge to work to end poverty.

Kibel said similar events were held in schools in Africa and Asia, in a prison in Kenya, at a soccer stadium in Japan and at churches in the United States. The aim, she said, was to show governments that people want them to take action.

"From a political point of view obviously at the end of the day what we're looking for is change of policy," she said.

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, marking its 20th anniversary this year, had helped put the issue on the international agenda but there was much still to be done.

"The situation is not getting better and we need to mobilize much more energy and much more money to fight effectively against poverty," Ripert told a news conference.

"Reducing poverty by half by 2015 -- probably we won't make it, let's be clear," he said. "Therefore more than ever we need to increase our efforts."

A report in July marking the mid-point of the campaign said the world would struggle to meet the targets by 2015 but it could be done if rich countries boost international aid budgets.