International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

In 1992, the UN General Assembly, welcoming the fact that certain NGOs, on the initiative of one of them (the French-based International Movement ATD Fourth World) had, in many States, observed 17 October as World Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty, declared that date the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (resolution 47/196 of 22 December). The observance aims to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries - a need that has become a development priority.

News | 17 October 2003




What prospects in life are there for children in Russia who are usually called low-income or “families at-risk”? Blue-collar, hard, unhealthy toil in the best case. It can be worse: They can encounter dangers like child prostitution, juvenile crime, drug addiction, alcoholism … Still a solution can be found for every situation.

In Moscow there is a Center for Computer Education and Development of Youth, which was created by the ‘Street Children’ Foundation. One of its programs is designed to give low-income children and teenagers or so-called “at-risk” children access to the latest advances of computer technology. At the center children can take a free course and obtain basic computer skills necessary for further studies or work.

On October 17 — the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty — employees and young students of the center met with their partners: employees of the Moscow Office of International Labor Organization (ILO) that actively deals with problems of teenagers from low-income social strata. Employees of the center were unanimous in saying that information about how these problems are resolved in this UN agency, as well as practical recommendations provided by the guests, will be very useful for their young students.

Director of the center Aleksandr Poltorak says: “I listened to ILO’s presentation with great attention and I am convinced that we see resolving the problem of poverty in the same way. Like ILO we are convinced that giving away subsidies and humanitarian aid is just a temporary solution. People should get knowledge and skills so that they can find a stable and decent job. For this very reason we opened the children’s computer center — we do hope it will get someone off the street and help someone chose his/her life road. We also liked ILO’s capacious motto “Work for adults, school for children”. If you don’t mind, we will use it as well.

Now children can deepen their acquaintance with ILO on their own with the help of the Web sites of ILO-Geneva (3PLUS-U) and ILO’s Moscow office. Both sites provide a lot of information and useful recommendations to all those who are preparing to start an independent life.

In 2003 the International Labour Organization (ILO) published a report entitled 'Working out of Poverty'. The report was presented during the annual International Labour Conferenece in Geneva (June 2003).

ILO-Geneva press release ILO/03/26 of 6 June 2003, (PDF )

Full text of the Report, (PDF )