United Nations Millennium Project

Posted by Lesley Arnolda

My daughter Celeste spoke very briefly at last week's meeting about The Oaktree Foundation End Poverty Roadtrip.

She invited members to a couple of events in Melbourne and asked members to support a petition to the Government to honour a pledge made in 2002 to the Millenium Development Goals.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to end extreme poverty by 2015 were created after the Millennium Summit in 2000. To help finance these goals, twenty two of the world’s wealthiest countries pledged to contribute 0.7% of GNI by 2015. (Monterrey 2002). Australia was one of these countries.

The MDG’s are entirely encompassed within Rotary’s own Six areas of Focus, and Rotary works closely both independently and in Partnership with the UN and other organisations (eg. END POLIO) to achieve these goals.

At present, Australia contributes half of what was pledged, with no indication as to whether she intends to fulfil her initial commitment See poverty.com to compare Australia's commitment with that of other countries.

The Oaktree Foundation is running a campaign to call upon the Government to honour its pledge of 2002, and seeks signatures of support an online petition.

To register your support, visit The Road Trip to End Poverty and provide your name, email address and postcode, and click ‘Join the Movement’.

Rotary had a big success last year when Rotary Down Under ran a similar campaign to maintain government. Funding of Polio Plus (contained within the MDG). We can only wish Oaktree success with their campaign.