The annual “Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!” world­wide event begins tomor­row. For the fourth year in a row, demon­stra­tions will take place through­out the world to show sup­port and raise aware­ness on the Mil­len­nium Devel­op­ment Goals. Over 116 mil­lion peo­ple par­tic­i­pated last year to show their sup­port for fight­ing poverty.

This years “Stand Up Take Action” runs from Octo­ber 16th to 18, to find an event near you, go to the Stand Up web­site that fea­tures an inter­ac­tive map that pin­points all the demonstrations.

From All Africa, reporter Abim­bola Akosile sets up the “Stand Up” effort tak­ing place in Nigeria.

As the count­down starts tomor­row, all Nige­ri­ans have been called upon to fully par­tic­i­pate in this year’s 4th annual global ‘Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now’ mobil­i­sa­tion, which comes up from Octo­ber 16 to 18.

The period coin­cides with the Inter­na­tional Day for the Erad­i­ca­tion of Poverty, when mil­lions of peo­ple across the coun­try are expected to call on the nation’s deci­sion mak­ers at the local, state and national lev­els to erad­i­cate extreme poverty and achieve the Mil­len­nium Devel­op­ment Goals (MDGs).

Mak­ing the appeal in Lagos dur­ing the week, the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Nige­ria Net­work of Non-Governmental Organ­i­sa­tions (NNNGO) Ms. Yemisi Ransome-Kuti, said this year’s mobil­i­sa­tion coin­cides with the Inter­na­tional Day for the Erad­i­ca­tion of Poverty.

In 2008, the mobil­i­sa­tion cam­paign recorded global par­tic­i­pa­tion by 116.9 mil­lion peo­ple, major­ity from poor coun­tries like Nige­ria, and thus break­ing the Guin­ness World Record for the largest mobil­i­sa­tion of human beings in recorded history.

She explained that with just six years left until the 2015 dead­line by which world lead­ers have pledged to achieve the MDGs, “Nige­ri­ans are demand­ing that our lead­ers deliver on the promises they made in the year 2000 to erad­i­cate extreme poverty and its root causes.”

“The MDGs com­mit­ments relat­ing to women’s empow­er­ment, includ­ing the promise to reduce mater­nal mor­tal­ity by three-quarters by the year 2015, have seen the least progress”, she lamented in an infor­ma­tion pro­vided by Mr. Kunle Idowu, NNNGO’s media consultant.

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