International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, 17 October

"Ending poverty in a world of 7 billion takes all of us. Join our team and Take One Action Against Poverty. My One Action? Playing UNDP’s Match Against Poverty to raise money for the Horn of Africa crisis. What’s yours?"
Zinédine Zidane, UNDP Goodwill Ambassador

At the Millennium Summit, in 2000, world leaders committed themselves to cutting by half by the year 2015 the number of people living in extreme poverty — people whose income is less than one dollar a day.

17 October presents an opportunity to acknowledge the effort and struggle of people living in poverty, a chance for them to make their concerns heard, and a moment to recognize that poor people are the first ones to fight against poverty. Participation of the poor themselves has been at the center of the Day's celebration since its very beginning. The commemoration of 17 October also reflects the willingness of people living in poverty to use their expertise to contribute to the eradication of poverty. The theme of the 2011 observance is "From Poverty to Sustainability: People at the Centre of Inclusive Development". With global attention focused on the upcoming Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), it is critical to draw attention to the importance of poverty eradication for building sustainable futures for all.

UNDP: Take One Action Against Poverty

Are you a do-gooder in your community, a people-empowerer, a resilient-nation-builder, a soup kitchen volunteer, a clothes-donator, a fair-trade-products-buyer, a waste-recycler? UNDP are inviting you to share your story with them & inspire others!

UNDP want to show the people behind all these small and big actions that help end poverty world-wide. So smile, take a photo of yourself in action, upload it on Facebook and tag UNDP. The description of the photo should start with "My One Action against poverty is ___", including your name and location. You can also email it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or tweet it to us using #oneaction and @undp.

Additional links:

• International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
• Millennium Development Goals
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• UNDP - Take one Action
• UNDP - Stories, videos, photos & calls to action to help eradicate extreme poverty
• Poverty: Social Policy and Development Division
• Second UN Decade for the Eradication of Poverty

Edited: G. Cornwell