WORLD leaders must focus on providing more decent work for women and young people as well as eradicating poverty and hunger, London MEP Jean Lambert has said. In a message for International Day for the Elimination of Poverty the Green Euro-MP has called for the UN to step up efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals – and really make poverty history once and for all.
She said: *“The Millennium Development Goals gave us a great framework for reducing global poverty, by adopting the targets of halving the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day, achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people, and halving by 2015, the number of people suffering hunger and malnutrition.*
“*While the first target has been achieved, we have a long way to go if we are to achieve the second and third by 2015: unemployment is rising across much of the world – especially among young people – and there are estimated to be as many as 800 million people going to bed hungry each night: 100 million of them children under the age of five.*
“*Greens have worked tirelessly to promote work designed to meet these
targets: here in the EU, for example, we have championed the idea of a Youth Guarantee – a promise that everyone aged under 25 in the EU will have either a job or a training place – and, just today, we are hosting a discussion with the European Anti-Poverty Network on how best to ensure social goals are built in to the EU's financial regulations.*
“*But eradicating poverty is a matter for all of us – all over the world.
Austerity measures following the 2008 financial crisis means poverty is, more than ever, a truly global problem – and not just a development issue - and inequality is growing, dividing societies even further.*
“*Just last week I saw for myself the impact of ongoing poverty on the lives of Londoners during a visit to a community food bank in the capital.*
“*I hope we see a renewed focus on tackling poverty and inequality from world leaders today, in the UK and EU as well as in the developing world.”*