CAIRO: A press conference for the global campaign “Stand Up Against Poverty: Make Noise for the MDGs” was hosted by Al-Sawy Culture Wheel on Wednesday, September 15, at Al-Kalima hall. The press conference precedes a very important point along the path of the developmental plan which was set forth in the year 2000, and which had chosen eight goals to be achieved by the year 2015. Having passed 10 years from the starting point, a Review Summit for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be held in New York from Sept. 20 to 22 to review the different aspects of success as well as sharing the lessons learned along the 10 past years. The press conference was led by Khawla Matar, head of UN Information Center, co-partnered by Mohamed El-Sawy, and Morad Ezzat from Rotars act. Khawla was keen to highlight two basic points, which are the importance of the upcoming summit and the movement of “Stand Up Against Poverty” due to be held on Friday, September 17 at 5 pm by the Sphinx. The NY summit will be attended by 139 delegations from different countries, including Egypt represented by the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, to revise the rate of achievements regarding the 8 MDGs; eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowerment of women, reducing child mortality rate, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development. Despite the success that was achieved by different countries, several crises topped by the economic turmoil, caused a rebound drawback, which “as usual, hit the poorest and most marginalized of the social segments.” Several Arab countries have succeeded in achieving some progress in some fields of desired development. Egypt has succeeded in reducing the rates of maternal mortality from 174 cases of death among every 100,000 to 55 cases of death among every 100,000. Bahrain has also witnessed another success highlighting the empowerment of women, and their participation in their society, when in 2001, 98 percent of the women took part in the parliamentary elections related poll. “Without the empowerment of women, none of the other eight goals can be achieved,” expressed Matar. “In order to achieve these goals, both transparency and the active participation of the civil society are demanded,” explained Khawla, adding to them the cooperation and communication between both rich and poor segments of the one country, and the industrial and developing countries, to lessen the gap between them. As for the Friday movement of “Stand Up Against Poverty,” Khawla explained that it aims at magnifying the voices calling for the cause so as to reach the different presidents of the world, asking them to fulfill their oaths which they took in the year 2000. “It's not about the number of participants, it's how loud their voices are,” said Khawla. Among the different partners/sponsors who are participating in the event are Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, along with Rotar Act, UNICEF and the Scouts' Union. “A poor person must take a stand and ask for his rights, instead of waiting for someone's pity charity,” said El-Sawy, strengthening the principle that all offered developmental acts must be sustainable, and not temporary.
