ANTANANARIVO, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The international day against poverty was marked in Madagascar on Friday with the theme proposed by the United Nations "Stand Up Against Poverty".

    "Strengthening of good governance and education is the cornerstone in eradicating poverty" is the main point of the address by Peter Metcalf, UN resident coordinator to Madagascar, during the celebration of the day in the town of Ambalavao, 26 km south of the capital city.

    The day was marked by an awareness campaign around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the rural town of Ambalavao, where poverty in Madagascar is shown in black on white.

    The awareness, which was led by the young scouts under the patronage of the UN office here, was among others on hygiene, reproductive health, the fight against AIDS and healthy eating.

    The celebration showed that poverty in Madagascar is expressed by the number of youth under the age of 18, who leave school due to financial difficulties of their parents.

    The latest statistics issued by the National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) on the evolution of the poverty ratio in Madagascar showed that in 1993, 50.1 percent of urban population was classified poor against 74.5 percent of rural population.

    The data updated in July by the INSTAT website showed the poverty rate for 2007 was 48.8 percent of urban population and 71.4 percent of rural population.

    Data for the last two years are not yet available. The ongoing political crisis has plunged the poor country into extreme poverty since December.