Over 900 people gathered at Al-Sabaeen Square Park, for a celebration organized by the Yemeni Coalition for Combating Poverty through the cooperation and support of UN Agencies in Yemen. The event included speeches by high officials and songs performed by local bands. The celebrations started by a "Stand Up" ceremony for two minutes saying “No to Poverty”.
During the celebration, speeches were delivered by the UN Resident Coordinator, the Head of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Network as well as UN representatives. In her speech Ms. Pratibha Mehta, the UN Resident Coordinator, said: "the World has six years left until 2015 to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, indicating though the goals are especially difficult to achieve in Yemen, - however, it is possible, if people have the will.
Ms. Mehta added that the human development index issued by the UNDP ranked Yemen 140th of 177 countries, indicating that Yemen needs a strong move towards reforming its economy, creating job opportunities, developing water fields, and improving education and health in the rural and urban areas.
Head of CSO's network, Ms. Ramzia Al-Iryani made it clear that combating poverty is one of the Millennium Development Goals that the countries across the world are working on to achieve it by the year 2015. Ms. Al-Iryani added that combating poverty would be useless if there were not successful strategies for development, good ruling and combating corruption, especially in Yemen.
During the event T-shirts and hats printed with the "Stand Up and Take Action" slogan were distributed to the participants. Also, information materials containing Secretary General's message on the World Food Day were distributed to the audience.