News Archive LAST UPDATE  January 19, 2010
January 16, 2010 Working together to end poverty – Peace Boat Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Campaign
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Peace Boat Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Campaign logo
Peace Boat has long been involved in initiatives to eradicate poverty from the world. Particularly in recent years, as an NGO with special consultative status to the United Nations, Peace Boat has been actively carrying out projects towards the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and has now officially launched its MDGs Campaign.

The Millennium Development Goals are a set of eight goals adopted by world leaders in 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit, in which nations promised to commit to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty, and to set time-bound targets with a deadline of 2015. The eight goals that make up the MDGs aim to eradicate poverty by this deadline, and include targets such as halving the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day.
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The United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) logo displayed proudly on the side of SS The Oceanic
Peace Boat is now partnering with the United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) to carry out a series of projects in cooperation, to raise awareness about the MDGs and the role of civil society in the achievement of these goals. In 2009, the inaugural African Youth MDGs Forum was held onboard the 64th Global Voyage, in which youth from Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa discussed how young people can contribute to ending poverty and achieving the MDGs. Then, on the 67th Global Voyage Mr Minar Pimple, Deputy Director of UNMC Asia, joined the ship to carry out an MDGs Campaigners Training Programme, together with Ms Tomita Toko of 'Ugoku
Ugokasu' (GCAP Japan: Global Call for Action Against Poverty Japan).

Symbolising the strength of the collaboration between Peace Boat and the United Nations, the UNMC’s logo “End Poverty 2015” was painted on the body of the Peace Boat’s vessel in 2009. See the report from the 67th voyage for more information (http://www.peaceboat.org/english/voyg/67/spe/091023/index.html).
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Peace Boat's MDGs dance team performing at the departure of the 68th Voyage from Yokohama, Japan
The MDGs continue to be a key theme of the programmes onboard the ship, and on the current 68th Global Voyage the second African Youth MDGs Forum is taking place between Mombasa, Kenya and Cape Town, South Africa. Twelve youth from ten countries in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mozambique, South Africa, Malawi, and Nigeria) will join the ship, and together with participants from Japan, hold a series of seminars, workshops and presentations about issues related to development and the MDGs of their respective countries, and create a joint Youth Action Agenda as a final outcome. The Agenda will be brought back and presented to the governments of the youths' home countries upon their return.

Furthermore, an MDGs Dance Project is also taking place during the voyage, to explore the ways art and music can be used as a tool to raise awareness about the MDGs and related issues. The dance group, consisting of around 30 youth from across Japan, created the project in an effort to highlight and inspire action towards the eradication of poverty.
While performing in various ports throughout the journey, they will collect messages of support for the achievement of the MDGs.
&As 5 years before the deadline for achievement, 2010 is a key year for the Millennium Development Goals. In September in New York, the UN MDGs Review Summit will be held to evaluate progress and set out a concrete road map for the realisation of the goals. The Peace Boat MDGs Campaign will continue to actively carry out projects to encourage the governments and citizens of the world to work to eradicate poverty from the world, to realise the MDGs by 2015, and create a world in which people can live with dignity.

Reports on the progress of the Peace Boat MDGs Campaign can be seen on the campaign blog here in both English and Japanese: http://peaceboatmdgs.wordpress.com