It is a great honour and a privilege for me and the thousands of UNV volunteers throughout the world to participate in this historic and very important global event.

Today, all over the world, people like us, people who care are going to stand up as a reminder to the commitments and agreements that our governments made at the UN Millennium Summit in New York in 2000 to fight poverty and improve the welfare of society. It is for this reason that we are standing here today to be counted and to demonstrate our resolve towards meeting this development challenge.

In a world of ever-diminishing resources and resurgent levels of poverty there is no better opportunity than this, to make our voices heard and have our efforts counted.

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals will not be an easy task. The eradication of poverty by 2015 will remain an elusive target unless we double our efforts and adopt specific actions and decisions. In this regard, ensuring participation and inclusion is fundamental, engaging as many people as possible.

Fighting poverty and the attainment of the MDGs is a global responsibility where everyone has a role to play. National governments, bi-lateral and multilateral development organizations, civil society and ordinary people must all stand together in a deliberate cause for common purpose. We all can keep pressure on our governments to ensure that measures are taken and that there is a broad based approach in which all concerned are made accountable and advocate for a common development aspiration towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Civil society has an important role to play in helping to develop policy that is informed by what works, and what doesn’t, especially at the local level. And through its networks it can ensure widespread dissemination of information about the MDGs and their significance.

Beyond advocacy, civil society can play a vital role in mobilizing people to dedicate whatever time they can give to join in community voluntary action that will help us move in the right direction. At the end of the day, achieving the MDGs will require the ingenuity, solidarity and creativity of millions of ordinary people, young and old, through all forms of voluntary action.

Indeed, efforts on the part of national governments, supported by the international community, can only complement what ultimately will depend on the full involvement of people all over the world.

I feel especially privileged to be in Kenya today, home of harambee, a practical and longstanding tradition of community voluntary action. The UNV programme is working closely with local communities to build on this tradition to strengthen capacity to address poverty reduction issues. Such is the case, for example, with the support to the Kenya Alliance of Residence Associations (KARA) in Nairobi which is lending assistance to disadvantaged communities in order to attain decent shelter and livelihoods and to the Centre for Minority Rights Development (CEMIRIDE) initiative for mobilizing communities in the north for sustainable usage of water resources in rivers Kerio and Ewaso Nyiro.

The UNV programme, with its core mandate of promoting volunteerism for peace and development, has a long association with Kenya through the assignment of UNV volunteers in poverty-related programmes at home and through engaging Kenyan nationals as UNV volunteers abroad.

Let me close by thanking everybody here today for volunteering to stand up against poverty. Your presence is a strong and symbolic act which, added to many more similar acts around the world, will help keep the MDGs and the eradication of poverty on top of the global agenda. Let the numbers of people involved in this campaign when announced on Tuesday remind and inspire all those that can and should make a difference.

The slogan used to be "think globally, act locally". In acting locally, volunteers have always been at the forefront. As we move forward in a globalizing world people also have to think locally and act globally. Today is one of those occasions and we see that volunteers are again on the front line.

Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to participate in this important event and congratulations to the organizers of this event.

Asante sana.