The topic for last year’s Blog Action Day was the environment. We talked about Japan’s Cool Biz Initive, which “aims to reduce Japan’s emissions of greenhouse gases”.

Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty

Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty

Japan is dedicated to achieving the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, which includes the eradication of extreme poverty. They’re also a member of the G8 Summit, a group of eight nations.

This year’s summit took place in Japan, where one of the major discussions was about how rising food prices (worldwide) are creating additional hardships on the poor. There’s also a great organization called Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) which is “the world’s largest civil society movement calling for an end to poverty and inequality”.

Japan and the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

At the Millennium Summit in 2000, world leaders committed themselves to the achievement of 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Countries agreed to work towards the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the elimination of gender inequalities, the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, protection of our environment, and the provision of education, healthcare and clean water…Continue reading at endpoverty2015.org

GCAP Korea representative hands over Tanabata wishes to Japanese PM

G8 Summit 2008 in Japan

The G8 Summit is a conference where eight of the world’s heads of government meet to discuss world issues. Participating countries include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

There were a variety of topics discussed during this year’s summit, which was held on July 7-9, 2008 on the northern island of Hokkaid?, Japan. Regarding poverty, the rising cost of food worldwide was discussed:

“With regard to rising food prices, the leaders shared the view that they should come out with a coordinated and coherent action to address this issue, which was severely damaging the poor. They agreed that aid and investment in the agricultural sector, as well as domestic measures to boost output, should be promoted.”

“In the context of development, it was emphasized that support for smallholders should be prioritized. Furthermore, the leaders discussed the removal of export restrictions, the sustainable production and use of biofuels, and the need to address the influence of speculative capital”…Continue reading at g8summit.go.jp/eng/

Although the main topic of the G8 Summit ended up being the economy, I think we can all agree that in addition to affecting the wealthy, it will have a lasting impact on the poor.

Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP)

GCAP is the world’s largest civil society movement calling for an end to poverty and inequality. They’re involved in helping impoverished people throughout the world, including Japan.

For this year’s G8 Summit in Japan, the GCAP G8 Working Group developed a new online action to share with all GCAP national coalitions and supporting organisation’s websites. The action is called Action Now – End Poverty and Inequality and asks people to choose a message on Aid, HIV/AIDS, Climate Change and Education. The messages were sent to the leaders at the G8 Summit and will be sent to other meetings throughout the year.

Reducing world poverty is a difficult challenge, but the dedicated work of these organizations and others could have a positive impact on the situation. If you’d like to learn more about organizations dedicated to ending poverty, here are some additional places for information:

• Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP)
• http://www.whiteband.org/Action/take-action/gcap-mobilisation-2008/g8-japan-2008
• http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/summit/index.html

Write a comment if you have ideas about reducing poverty in Japan (and worldwide)! Also, feel free to post links (there’s a two link limit for each comment) to other organizations that are working hard to reduce poverty.