Africa, Civil Society, Development & Aid, Europe, Headlines

DEVELOPMENT: ‘Global Poverty Is Not Acceptable’

Busani Bafana

STOCKHOLM, Oct 22 2009 (IPS) - The economic crisis is a fresh reason to meet Millennium Development Goal targets, not an excuse to miss them, said European Commission president Jose-Manuel Barroso, opening the dialogue at the fourth edition of the European Development Days (EDD).

“The poorest countries in the world are hardest hit by the crisis, and we shall not leave them behind,” Barroso said.

The fourth edition of the EDD – a platform for global dialogue on development issues – opened in Stockholm, Sweden on Oct. 22. Over three days, 4,000 people and 1,500 organisations from the development community will discuss democracy and development, the economic crisis and climate change.

Critical development publications such as the European Report on Development, Commitment to Development Index 2009, World Development Report 2010 will be launched during the EDD, adding to grist to the mill of three days of discussions and roundtable debates.

Delegates from 125 countries are represented, including heads of state and leading world figures, Nobel Prize winners among them

Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt welcomed participants by calling for cooperation to reduce poverty while acting on climate change, which will hit the world’s poorest people the hardest.

“Countries must put narrow national interests aside and not fall into cynical calculations of how to avoid lowering one’s own emissions. The challenges are too serious and great to be bargained with,” said Reinfeldt.

“Global poverty is not acceptable,” Barroso said. “Nor do I accept, in the 21st century, that people are dying simply because they do not have enough food and clean water. Countries need that solidarity.”