A total of 15,533 people in Malta - mostly pupils and teachers in various schools - stood up against poverty from the 'Stand-Up and Take Action' worldwide campaign held from October 17-19, aimed at reminding governments to keep their promise to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The Stand-Up campaign in Malta was organised by the National Platform of Maltese NGDOs (SKOP) in collaboration with Stop Poverty.
On October 22, an online press conference was held by the worldwide campaign - www.standagainstpoverty.org - to report the final number of stand-ups which took place all over the globe. Different actions took place; while some people stood up in clustered groups to form the words 'Stand up', others reflected on poverty issues through speeches, exhibitions and prayers.
Over 100 million people in over 100 countries registered to take part in the campaign. In actual fact, the total number of stand-ups exceeded expectations. A grand total of just under 117 million people stood up (See table for a breakdown by continent). That's almost two per cent of the total world population. It was indeed an impressive figure and a huge leap from last year's total of just over 41 million stand-ups.
With each year that passes, more and more people are taking up this initiative. What does this mean? It is not just an individual and collective challenge to break a new world record.
Rather, it is a sign that more people are becoming aware of the lack of progress, despite the so-called 'development' in countries where human rights are violated on a daily basis, where primary health care is scarce and education is a luxury for most children, where access to water is a daily struggle and women are ill-treated and discriminated against because they are women. Even in rich countries where these rights are safeguarded, there are still people living in shameful poverty.
The year 2015 is closer than we think if poverty is to be eradicated by then. But progress on achieving the MDGs has stalled if not regressed in some countries. One can download the latest report on the progress of the MDGs by visiting http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Default.aspx .
Mr Mercieca is a secretariat member of the National Platform of Maltese NGDOs (SKOP).