Special Report LAST UPDATE November 24, 2009
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October 23, 2009 Peace Boat keeps the MDGs in focus
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Painters put the final touches on the UN Millennium Campaign Logo in Athens, Greece
Peace Boat has been given a makeover. The S.S. Oceanic and current home of Peace Boat’s Global Voyage now bears the logo of the United Nations Millennium Campaign promoting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The logo serves as a reminder of the urgent need for national and international policies that will improve quality of life for millions around the globe, and a symbol of cooperation towards the awareness and achievement of these goals.

The Millennium Development Goals derive from a UN summit in 2000 and comprise eight targets that together will end extreme poverty worldwide. Heads of state meeting at the summit set a 2015 deadline for achieving the goals. Since 2000, several national and international events, including the global financial crisis, have caused commitment to the MDGs to wane. Peace Boat has been working to reinvigorate interest and activism towards achieving the goals. The NGO has Special Consultative Status to the UN ECOSOC.

From Yokohama, Japan to Port Said, Egypt, 19 participants took part in Peace Boat’s first MDGs Training Programme. The programme was designed to develop an understanding of the contributors to poverty and promote activism for achieving the MDGs. Participants in the programme attended lectures and workshops with several guest educators, including Mr Minar Pimple, Asia Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign and Ms Toko Tomita of the Hunger Free World Development and Advocacy Division in Burkina Faso and Benin.
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Sasho Masaaki sweeps rubbish in a clean up activity at Congoya slum in Mombasa, Kenya
Their appreciation of the challenges faced by the world’s poor was cemented when the programme visited Congoya slum in Kenya. Living in the largest shantytown in Mombasa, thousands of Kenyans lead a meager existence in squalor. Walking through overrun toilets and piles of rotting garbage, 24 year-old Shimoji Wakako said she could now clearly see the connection between poverty and disease.

Ms Shimoji’s most sobering moment did not come from the physical surrounding of Congoya but the outlook she encountered in a conversation with a local family. When she asked about their dream for the future of their children, the parents replied with a question of their own, “In this situation, how can we encourage our children to dream?”

The MDGs Training Programme made it clear to the participants that the goal of poverty eradication should not be compromised. Several participants said they felt a sense of personal responsibility because of the role of developed countries in creating and perpetuating poverty in developing states. The participants were called upon to hold their governments accountable for failing to honor their financial pledges towards the achievement of the goals and for enforcing unfair trade arrangements.
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358 Peace Boat participants took part in STAND UP Against Poverty on October 18.
Photo by Chiga Kenji
For Nohira Shinsaku, Coordinator of Peace Boat's MDGs Training Programme, the achievement of the goals by 2015 remains possible. Mr Nohira said the financial resources required to achieve the goals are available but are being misapplied in military spending. Linking the MDGs to the Global Article 9 Campaign and the promotion of peace constitutions, he argued that a de-militarized world would enable the redirection of funds to poverty eradication. Mr Nohira said he hoped the students would become the voice of the poor in their communities. He said that Peace Boat would offer support to the participants after the voyage and keep them abreast of opportunities to participate in the promotion of the MDGs.

Participants in the MDGs Training Programme organized a number of events onboard to engage other participants on the 67th voyage in poverty eradication. One such event was STAND UP Against Poverty on October 18. STAND UP is an international show of commitment to poverty eradication initiated by Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) in partnership with the UN Millennium Campaign. Participants in the MDGs programme mobilized 358 Peace Boat participants to be photographed and counted with other citizens around the world committed to ending poverty.