Today, the Civil Society Development Forum has started. It is a conference of Non-Governmental Organizations taking place in Geneva. I am attending here together with a lot of youth organizations. Its main focus is to reach the Millenium Goals
Salil Shetty, Director of the UN Millenium Campaign, was pleased that some of the Millenium Development Goals are actually on track of being achieved. However, on the whole he was quite disappointed that there is no more activity towards eradicating poverty. His conclusion: There is lack of political will. Both in poor and rich countries. Many governments in poor countries rather spend money for arms and military than improving the education system. On the other hand, rich countries do not keep their own promises of raising support for development. However, the world itself is so rich. Nobody has to be hungry: “This is the first generation that can eradicate poverty.”
The Director General of the UN office in Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, contributed an interesting number: Worldwide 1.3 Trillion US Dollars every year are spent for military and arms! If just a fraction of this money would be spent on people: There would be no poverty.