October 17 is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The theme of this year's commemoration was "Leave No One Behind: Think, Decide, and Act Together Against Extreme Poverty".
I came down to the UN Headquarters today for the New York commemoration of this annual event. I attended a wonderful lunchtime program hosted by France, Burkina Faso, and the ATD Fourth World Movement (the principal organisation that has spearheaded the annual celebrations since 1987). The very first International Day was celebrated with the laying of a commemorative stone in Paris, a replica of which was then installed at the UN in New York in 1996. The inscription on the stone reads:
Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty.
ATD Fourth World had been ramping up for the New York event for a while, including with a fantastic online campaign with Thunderclap. Their efforts resulted in more than five million Twitter and Facebook users committing to send messages about the need to stand with people in poverty and commit to a world that leaves no one behind. If you're on Twitter, check out the conversations using the hashtags, #endpoverty and #no1behind.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon echoed these messages in his opening remarks today, when he said "where poverty holds sway anywhere, people are held back everywhere". The Secretary General commented that while we have lifted 750 million people out of poverty in the years 1990-2010, one out of every five people in the world still live on less than USD1.25 per day. And this does not even begin to address the violence, discrimination and social exclusion that many of these people in poverty face in addition to their economic disadvantage.
What I found most compelling about today's event was that it had a real focus on the lives of people living in poverty in the United States, including the "everyday heroism" that people in New York are exhibiting. Included on the program of speakers were:
- a lady living in the projects in the Bronx who shared her struggles to keep her children safe in a community with a crumbling playground, no community center, drive-by shootings, and unsafe housing infrastructure;
- a native New Yorker from the "Sure We Can" recycling collective, who questioned whether policy makers would know what it is like to live on food stamps; and
- a military veteran who reflected on the particular resonance he felt for this year's International Day theme, to "leave no one behind". A four-year volunteer with the Neighbors Together project in Brooklyn, he shared very personal reflections on what it is like to have a criminal record in New York, where one mistake from your past can follow you around forever and leave you facing poverty, joblessness, and hopelessness.
The theme for today's event was developed in close collaboration with people living in poverty around the world, but I was really grateful for the focus on the everyday lives of New Yorkers.
Extreme poverty is a reality for so many people and even though we shine the official spotlight on it every 17 October, I very much enjoyed hearing from people for whom ending extreme poverty - starting in their own community - is a daily commitment.
