CAIRO: Egyptian citizens will join millions of people around the world for the United Nation's "Stand Up initiative between Oct. 16 and 19. Last year Egypt recorded one of the largest participations in the campaign created to remind world leaders of their commitment to achieve Millennium Development Goals. This year religious leaders have decided to incorporate the campaigns' call to take action against poverty in their Friday prayers and Sunday masses in churches around the country. Students and activists from Cairo University and a number of different NGOs will organize events to support the campaign as well. The UN Resident Coordinator James Rawley said that Egypt is moving on track towards the Millennium Development Goals. He pointed out, however, that Egypt still lacks progress on bringing the product of the country's remarkable economic growth down to the poverty-stricken layers of society. According to the UNDP report, Egypt ranks 82 out of 135 countries on the Human Poverty Index. With soaring food prices and unemployment, alleviating poverty in Egypt and around the world still remains a challenging task. The recent financial crisis has only exacerbated the problem and highlighted further the growing gap between the rich and poor. "Given the amounts found to bail out banks in just a year, we know the resources are not lacking. It's this lack of political will to tackle poverty that remains the biggest motivation behind Stand Up participation, said Adelaide Sosseh, Co-Chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) based in Gambia. The hope is that the positive economic signs that Egyptian government officials and members of the business elite have recently remarked on will help them give serious consideration to the thousands of Egyptians that will stand up against poverty this weekend.
