World leaders urged to keep promises

"Let's raise our voice against poverty and remind the world leaders not to break their promises they made at the Millennium Summit 2000," read the placards carried by them during a colourful rally organised by People's Forum on the Millennium Development Goals Bangladesh.

A network of various NGOs working for poverty alleviation, the PFM organised the rally as a wake-up call to poverty cut marking the 2nd World White Band Day and expressing solidarity with the worldwide movement for poverty alleviation.

"Despite declaration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that promised halving of the world's extreme poverty, there has been little development to that direction," PFM Managing Group Convenor Tasneem Athar told the rally.

"We want to remind the world leaders unambiguously through our government that they committed themselves to poverty alleviation across the world," said Athar who is also deputy director of Campaign for Popular Education (Campe) that serves as secretariat of the PFM.

Poverty alleviation must not be a mere commitment, it must be translated into reality, read another placard carried by the street children who along with others took part in the rally.

The world leaders set eight goals (MDGs) in the Millennium Summit including halving extreme poverty by the year 2015, universal primary education for all children, gender equity and empowerment of women, lowering child death rate, development of maternal health, prevention of HIV/Aids and malaria, sustainable development of environment and worldwide participation for development.

The PFM leaders called for narrowing of trade gap between the developed and developing countries, protection of agriculture and farmers from the WTO aggression, and the use of 0.7 percent aid committed by the rich countries for the welfare of the poor.

They also demanded adequate allocation for development sector reducing military expenses, transparency and elimination of corruption in the administration, end to indiscriminate privatisation, elimination of discrimination against women and sustainable development preserving the environment.

Mosharraf Hossain of ADD, Nurul Islam of South Asian Partnership, Munir Ahmed of Supra, Momena Khatun of Teachers' Union and Arifa Akhtar of Karmojibi Nari also spoke.

Several hundred members of different affiliating NGOs of the PFM network took part in the rally that started from in front of the National Museum and ended at the Central Shaheed Minar.