PGMA launches RP participation in UN's poverty campaign
Manila (18 October) -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led the recent launching in Malacaņang of the Philippine participation in the global campaign of the United Nations on "Stand Up Against Poverty, Stand Up for the Millennium Development Goals" which aim to halve the incidence of poverty by 2015.
During a flag-raising ceremony at Malacaņang grounds last Monday, the President read the United Nations Pledge against Poverty, which has been translated into Filipino.
The historic occasion was initiated by the UN Resident Coordinator's Office (UNRC) with the Office of the Presidential Assistant on Culture and the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) as host.
As the Chief Executive was reading the Pledge, it was also recited simultaneously nationwide in different Filipino languages undertaken by students in school campuses organized through the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and in local government units through the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP).
The LMP issued Memorandum Orders to their respective constituents to operationalize the campaign in their jurisdictions. National government agencies and their various instrumentalities in the regional, provincial, municipal and grassroots levels also replicated the reading of the UN Pledge in various languages and dialects translated by the Pambansang Komisyon ng Wika (PKW).
The UN Millennium Campaign, dubbed "Stand Up Against Poverty, Stand Up for the Millennium Development Goals" is a global advocacy effort to have the greatest number of people to ever stand up and pledge themselves to the eradication of poverty.
The campaign is contained within the UN's MDGs: a set of eight time-bound, concrete and specific targets to halve extreme poverty by 2015.
These goals are: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop global partnerships for development.
The Philippine participation in the UN-initiated campaign against poverty is called "Tumayo Tayo: Labanan ang Kahirapan, Tuparin ang MDGs." (PIA-MMIO) [top]
