Reflections on my time in Ottawa

Recently, October 17th marked the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This day can be traced back to 17 October 1987. On that day, over a hundred thousand people gathered at the Trocadéro in Paris, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, to honour the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger.

October 17th presents an opportunity to acknowledge the effort and struggle of people living in poverty, a chance for them to make their concerns heard, and a moment to recognize that poor people are the first ones to fight against poverty.

What has been achieved since then? Sadly, not very much and with the recent financial crisis more people have plunged into poverty. At the recently concluded MDG Summit in New York, our hopes on coming up with a breakthrough plan for its remaining 5 years of implementation seemed to be met with lots of challenges and constraints. For many, the Summit failed to deliver a concrete plan that will redouble efforts to cut extreme poverty by half in 2015 and keep its promises to the world’s poor.

It’s been argued that the MDG targets are achievable and that all we need is political will to realize them. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. The fact is, working together as global partners for development -- the 8th MDG goal that cuts across all targets is the one that is lagging the most. But as crucial as this goal is in meeting all MDG targets, issues and challenges continue to exist such as: lack of debt workout system; ineffectiveness of aid; and unequal terms of trade and market access. Sadly, no conclusive answers were forged on these obstacles at the end of the summit in New York.

My home country, the Philippines, reported that it wouldn’t be able to meet its target on education and maternal health by 2015. As it wouldn’t also be able to keep its promise to millions of Filipinos who go to bed hungry and neglected everyday. And of many women and children dying everyday because of poverty and lack of access to health care. It’s the same story everywhere we go. The message that reverberates in all corners of this world is the same --- poverty and inequality is a human rights violation and we should make no more excuses to end it.

What’s holding us back from fully achieving the MDG targets? Through my work with global partners on these issues from Ottawa, Montreal and New York these past 6 months, I realized that coming up with a united response can be the most challenging. At the BBC World Debate in New York last September, panelists from the World Bank, US Government, EU, Malawi President, UN --- all found it difficult to agree on a united response.

In a few days, I will be reunited with my friends and family in the Philippines after my 6 months work here in Canada with Make Poverty History. But the bitter fact is, I will also be reunited with millions of Filipinos who are hungry and neglected. And that even if we meet our targets of halving poverty incidence by 2015...according to official reports, this would still leave another 12.5% of the 88 Million Filipinos earning $1.25 a day. This magnitude in one country alone is staggering.

• about half of the population are living in less than $2 a day of which majority are women and women headed households;

• growing number of children not in school because of poverty and accessibility;

• worsening insurgency problems in Mindanao and displacement of communities ;

• the continuous expansion of agricultural plantations into our regions highlands and destroying remaining forest reserves for profit and greed;

• climate change: super typhoons wrecking more distraction and the unending pool of victims that need welfare support are increasing; and

• foreign and domestic mining companies gaining more freedom to scrape and dig our dwindling resources.

The same stories are happening in many parts of the world.

It’s a call for us to truly make global partnerships for development work. For our governments to finally exercise their political will and deliver their promises to the poor.

We can all be part of the solution. Let’s live for the World We Want. Together, we must end poverty now!