Poverty is not inevitable. In its effort to fight poverty, UNESCO has mobilized all programme Sectors to work towards the first of the Millennium Development Goals as defined by the United Nations: the eradication of extreme poverty.

As the year 2006 brings to a close the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006), the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on 17 October, will be the first opportunity to assess UNESCO's programme on the eradication of poverty, especially extreme poverty.

On Tuesday 17 October at 5 p.m., at UNESCO in Room XII, a short film will be shown, giving an overview of the programme's action in the field over the past five years. Then, at 5.30 p.m, National Delegations and all staff members are invited to attend the opening of an exhibition of photographs illustrating exemplary projects from around the world.

The exhibition will run until 26 October in the Miró Room at UNESCO Headquarters. The current issue of SHS Views, the magazine of UNESCO's Social and Human Sciences Sector, devotes several pages to the programme against poverty, which brings together all Sectors of the Organization. The issue also includes an interview with Monique Ilboudo, Burkina Faso's Minister for the Promotion of Human Rights, who calls for the same recognition to be given to economic, social and cultural rights as to political and civil rights, in order to overcome poverty.

Organizer UNESCO
Location UNESCO Headquarters
Contact Chifa Tekaya
c.tekaya@unesco.org