Vientiane joins the world in making stand against poverty

More than 1,000 Vientiane residents from all walks of life gathered in Vientiane on Friday in a show of solidarity with the rest of the world to demonstrate their strong support for the eradication of poverty.

Government leaders, high-ranking officials, members of the diplomatic corps, representatives from international organisations, soldiers, police officers, monks, students and Vientiane residents gathered at the National Culture Hall to mark the 16th anniversary of International Day for Poverty Eradication, the 30th anniversary of World Food Day and the 6th anniversary of Lao National Week for Poverty Eradication.

The event was co-organised by the Lao government, United Nations Development Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation to Laos.

Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh said in a speech to the gathering that the meeting was a show of national power as Lao citizens joined with the international community to battle poverty and hunger.

Poverty and hunger have been crucial global issues for decades. To tackle these issues, the World Food and Agriculture organisation (WFA) was set up on October 16, 1945, to unite the energy of the international community in fighting against hunger, food shortages and poverty, the premier said.

But poverty and hunger “remain a widespread global issue and will continue to do so, which requires the unity of the international community and joint actions to address these problems,” he added.

Although governments worldwide have done their utmost to address poverty, the issue was still a threat to millions of people across the world.

Today, more than 1.2 billion people worldwide live below the poverty line with incomes lower than US$1 per day. Another 2.7 billion people earn less than US$2 per day. Some 105 million people are still hungry and 1.02 billion people are malnourished.

Some 25,000 people die every day due to starvation, which means one person dies every second, Mr Bouasone said.

World Food Day was proclaimed at a WFA meeting held in 1979 and International Day for Poverty Eradication was initiated at the UN General Assembly in 1993.

The Lao government announced in 2003 that the week of October 7-14 each year would be observed as National Week for Poverty Eradication.

The Party Central Committee and the government have always considered rural development and poverty eradication as their strategic task, as well as being a priority duty of the Party, government and all Lao citizens, the prime minister said.

“This has been reflected by a policy on rural development and poverty eradication, which has been incorporated into each Party Congress resolution,” he said.

“The 7th and 8th Party Congress resolutions in particular set clear goals to pursue for poverty eradication.”

The goals set indicated that poverty must be addressed at the fundamental level, with shifting slash and burn farming to be eradicated completely by 2010. By 2020, Laos must be lifted from the UN’s least-developed country list.

UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Ms Sonam Yangchen Rana also addressed the meeting, saying food insecurity and malnutrition were both outcomes and causes of poverty. Hunger perpetuated poverty and hunger made people more vulnerable to disease.

“Chronically malnourished children cannot develop their physical and intellectual potential and this affects their chances for the rest of their life.”

All development partners and the Lao government had a large task ahead to tackle hunger and malnutrition, and the fight could not be fought with a ‘business as usual’ approach.

“This is why we must work together. Tackling both hunger and poverty in Laos requires strong collaboration among all stakeholders, led by government institutions on all levels and supported by civil society organisations and international agencies,” Ms Rana said.

By Souksakhone Vaenkeo
October 19, 2009
Vientiane Times