Global Poverty Project's 1.4 Billion Reasons premiered at inaugural One Young World Summit in London

  • Charity's founder receives Summit's first full standing ovation for presentation that tackles extreme poverty
  • Guest speakers of the event included Bob Geldof, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu
  • For high resolution images please click here and here

London, UK – 10th February 2009 – At this week's One Young World Inaugural Summit, Hugh Evans, the founder and CEO of the Global Poverty Project, launched a groundbreaking presentation, 1.4 Billion Reasons, which, through words, pictures and film, graphically illustrated the need to eradicate extreme poverty.  Evans received the only full standing ovation of the day from a packed audience of some 1000 young representatives attending the One Young World Summit. Guest speakers included Bob Geldof, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Evans urged delegates to look beyond stereotyped views of trade and aid to help the 1.4 billion people who are still living on less than $1.25 per day. He argued that tackling extreme poverty is 'this generation's greatest challenge'. This requires a complex mix of tackling corruption, boosting aid and removing trade barriers. Evans drew renewed attention to the UN Millennium Goals and warned that, despite pledges on the issue, the global community was in danger of falling considerably short of the objectives by 2015.

"At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, 189 world leaders pledged to end poverty by 2015 and agreed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). More recently, at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in 2005, $21.5 billion was promised by world leaders to double aid to Africa in support of these goals," commented Evans. "However, to date, only $7 billion has actually been delivered and recent economic developments saw some leaders comment that international aid was no longer affordable. Yet what about the $11.6 trillion provided by the US for recent bank bail-outs? Only $165 billion a year would be required to meet all the MDG targets."

The One Young World event was the platform for the premiere of 1.4 Billion Reasons. The presentation will be rolled out across the UK in 2010. It will be launching to church communities on Wednesday 24th February at St Paul's Cathedral. For more information, please contact Louise Sambells on either 01780 721433 or at lsambells@iba-international.com

About the Global Poverty Project
The Global Poverty Project (GPP) is a project designed to reinvigorate the campaign to end extreme poverty by informing, inspiring and activating individuals to take action, and to draw renewed attention to the UN Millennium Development Goals. This is a grand-scale project has already inspired thousands across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. For more information, please visit: http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/

About One Young World
One Young World is a global leadership summit for young leaders age 25 and under, united from all the world's 192 countries to address major global challenges. The Inaugural Summit of One Young World is taking place from Feb. 8-10, 2010, in London. More information can be found at: http://oneyoungworld.com/

Contact information:
Matti Navellou   
UK Activation Coordinator, Global Poverty Project
Tel: +44(0)7 917 680 716
Email: matti.navellou@globalpovertyproject.com

Louise Sambells
IBA – PR for Global Poverty Project
Tel: +44(0)1780 721433
Email: lsambells@iba-international.com


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