Swedish Ambassador Witnessed Bohol Poverty Fair in the Philippines

In Bohol, at least a thousand voices thousand echoed inside the Bohol Cultural Center on October 16, 2007 while Swedish ambassador to the Philippines Inger Ultvedt and representatives from international and national funding agencies witnessed.
Bohol Poverty Fair, the second in the annual series gathers all municipal local governments in one venue to allow them to showcase priority developments that would cause a dent on poverty. The venue also acts as a marketplace of poverty reduction proposals for possible funding from agencies and donors.
The fair also invites international funding agencies and institutions, non-government organizations, and other well meaning organizations that can help local governments tie up with funders.
The witnesses also reiterated their intent to commit their countries and agencies’ help to, “stand up and speak out” versus poverty.
“We wish to set a local record today of the number of people standing up to demand action on poverty – but the record we really want to break is the world’s record of breaking promises and just ignoring the poor,” they recited.
Pointing to the fact that the Millennium Development Goals have been made, this year, Bohol organizers said the Philippines attempts to set a new Guinness world record for the most number of people standing up against poverty for the second year in a row.
Bohol activities is just a speck in the country’s effort to mobilize at least three million Filipinos to stand up against poverty in this year’s campaign to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *