Immediate Release: Monday 31st January 2005
CADA launches MAKE POVERTY HISTORY in Northern Ireland
The Coalition of Aid and Development Agencies (CADA), in association with Carmel Hanna MLA, publicly launched MAKE POVERTY HISTORY in Northern Ireland at Parliament Buildings, Stormont at 9.45-10.30am on 31st January.
MAKE POVERTY HISTORY was launched in the UK earlier in January with a host of celebrities- such as Bono, Dawn French and Dermot O’Leary- and over 200 charities, campaign groups, trade unions and faith groups calling for the mobilisation of resources and political will in 2005 to end world poverty. It is part of a worldwide initiative, the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, highlighting 2005 as a year when governments must act on their previous commitments.The symbol of the campaign is a white band and at the Northern Ireland launch, CADA presented Northern Ireland MPs and MLAs with a white wristband to demonstrate their support. To mirror the growing public support for ending global poverty, Parliament Buildings itself has been ‘virtually wrapped’ in a white band echoing similar ‘wraps’ by the campaign of Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the UN in New York.
2005 is a year when the British Government plays a central role in international decision-making, hosting both G8 Summit in July and chairing the EU Presidency in the latter half of the year- as well as launching the final report of Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa in March. Members of the MAKE POVERTY HISTORY campaign are calling for landmark pledges on overseas aid, debt relief and trade to help meet the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
In Sept 2000 at the UN Millennium Summit in New York, rich countries made a commitment to play their part in ensuring that the Millennium Development Goals are met – but their agreements remain unfulfilled. Five years later, MAKE POVERTY HISTORY demands that any new round of international summitry becomes a platform for action.
The Millennium Development Goals, chosen on the grounds that they were realistic and achievable, are a commitment by global leaders to halve poverty and hunger, provide education for all, improve standards of health, halt the spread of major diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and slow down environmental degradation by 2015.
“This weekend Finance Ministers from the world’s richest economies will meet as the G7group. It is vital that they put together a serious proposal for financing development by dropping the debts of developing countries, which currently cost them $39bn a year. This has to be the year that rich countries take action and increase their aid budgets, reform the rules of trade and finally end the debt burden that is destroying the livelihoods of millions of people”, says Suzie Hamilton, Campaigns Officer, Oxfam Northern Ireland.
For further information contact:
Suzie Hamilton,
Oxfam Ireland
Tel. 07817 027105
suzie@oxfamni.org.uk