With just two weeks to go before International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the biggest ever mobilization against poverty and inequality and in support of the Millennium Development Goals, is geared to take place in almost 90 countries (highlights below). Stand Up and Speak Out is a day when the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) alliance and UN Millennium Campaign call on millions to show courage and demand a more urgent political response to the growing crisis of global poverty.
On July 22nd during the opening ceremony of The Education International World Congress in Berlin, there was an international rendition of the Poverty Requiem. Horst Köhler, President of the Germany Federal Republic, highlighted global poverty in his opening speech and said that industrialised nations in the world should do more in the fight against it. The ceremony was attended by 1700 teachers and educational workers from countries worldwide.
Despite the banning, detention and deportation of delegates to the International People’s Forum versus the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the policies and practices of the IMF-WB will be put on trial at the Poverty and Debt Tribunal that will take place on the 17th of September in Batam, Indonesia.
The Global Call to Action against Poverty is an alliance of millions of people and organisations united in the belief that 2005 offers an unprecedented opportunity for change.
In this advisory note to the media we provide background information on the state of the world at the start of the 21st century. More than a billion people are trapped in abject poverty, but for the first time in history, we have the means to turn this situation around.
Anti-poverty activists from over 50 countries including Africa, America and Asia arrive at Edinburgh airport on 4th July 2005, as part of the Long Walk to Justice and in advance of the G8 summit in Gleneagles.
The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) coalition will undertake one of the biggest weeks of global action ever seen, commencing with White Band Day One on July 1, 2005. Read all about it here.
From Asia to Africa, Latin America to Europe, leaders will be ‘woken up’ by GCAP supporters urging them to keep poverty and development at the top of the agenda at the UN Summit.
More than 40 campaigners from over 30 countries representing the Global Call to Action against Poverty boarded a specially chartered Virgin flight from London Heathrow to Edinburgh to add their voice to the billions of people across the world who are standing up to G8 leaders to call for immediate action against poverty.
On 10 December, three days before the opening of WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong, GCAP campaigners across five continents will be mobilizing to demand that the WTO Ministerial delivers trade justice for the world’s poor. A wide array of actions from rallies to peoples’ caravans to public performances will take place, all with the objective of putting a spotlight on trade injustice.
Africa Standing Tall Against Poverty in concert with Live8 saw Mary Fitzgerald Square, Newtown, Johannesburg filled with thousands of people as a part of a global movement to put pressure on the G8 leaders meeting in Gleneagles on 6 July. Towards the end of the concert, the much loved and respected former President Nelson Mandela graced the stage.
On Thursday, 9 June, dedicated GCAP supporter Claudia Schiffer will meet with leading representatives of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty including the UK’s Make Poverty History coalition, America’s One campaign and Germany’s Your Voice Against Poverty. Kumi Naidoo, Chair of the GCAP will lead the discussions.
Today the Global Call to Action Against Poverty issued an ultimatum to EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to remove the GCAP white band within 24 hours. “As head of the EU Trade Delegation whose conduct this week shows a serious lack of commitment to trade justice, wearing the white band is hypocritical and misleading”, said GCAP spokesperson Kumi Naidoo.
“Rich countries have betrayed the world’s poor in Hong Kong with their bickering and posturing,” said GCAP spokesperson Kumi Naidoo. “By allowing the colossal inequities in world trade to persist, rich countries are trading away the livelihoods of millions of poor women and men seeking a better future for themselves and their children.”
On the eve of the opening of the WTO Ministerial, Nelson Mandela let it be known that he, along with 31 million Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) supporters, will be watching events closely in Hong Kong this week.
As the finance ministers of G7 countries meet in London to discuss trade-related aid for poor countries, the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) warns that these proposals will make no difference in the developing world without serious trade reforms.
Collins Magalasi, Spokesperson for the Global Call to Action against Poverty, today said: “While today’s announcement is a positive first step, more still needs to be done.”
“You cannot score goals when you are standing still”, said Kumi Naidoo, chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. “15 million people around the world have called for action on poverty and their leaders are not listening. We would give this summit a 5 out of ten for rhetoric, and 2 out of ten for action.”
At the UN World Summit, leaders including President Bush and Prime Minister Blair are urging implementation of the G8’s Gleneagles debt deal which promised debt cancellation of 18 highly-indebted countries with a possible increase to 38. But the world’s largest anti-poverty coalition warns that the deal could fall apart at next week’s World Bank/IMF annual meetings.
As leaders from 175 countries arrive for the UN Summit in New York, the world’s largest anti-poverty movement, the Global Call to Action against Poverty, is outraged at the lack of progress and political backtracking on poverty eradication. In last minute negotiations, the GCAP believes several governments are playing politics with the lives of tens of millions of poor people around the world.
Millions of campaigners around the world have expressed disappointment and dismay at the result of the UN Summit. Instead of taking an historic opportunity to take clear steps in the fight against poverty and insecurity, for the large part, leaders have instead simply reiterated promises already made.
The Global Call to Action Against Poverty, the world’s largest ever anti-poverty campaign, joined and lead one of the oldest Labour Day parades in the world in New York City on Saturday, 10 September. Marchers in the parade stood together to say “no to poverty” and “yes to decent jobs and workers’ rights”. GCAP and the Labour Day march organiser both wanted to send a clear and united message to 170 world leaders about to meet in New York at the UN World Summit, to end world poverty.
The world’s largest ever anti-poverty campaign warns today that if world leaders meeting at the World Summit in New York act to weaken already internationally agreed poverty-reduction goals, increased global insecurity will result.
Less than three weeks away from the UN World Summit, the world’s largest ever anti-poverty campaign is gravely concerned that countries including the United States are undermining the Summit outcome, and ensuring its failure.
As the G8 summit begins on 6 July in Gleneagles, Scotland, the largest anti-poverty movement the world has ever seen piled unprecedented pressure on the eight leaders to save millions of lives. “No more excuses,” said Kumi Naidoo, chairperson of the Global Call to Action against Poverty.
More than 40 campaigners from over 30 countries representing the Global Call to Action against Poverty boarded a specially chartered Virgin flight from London Heathrow to Edinburgh to add their voice to the billions of people across the world who are standing up to G8 leaders to call for immediate action against poverty.
Africa Standing Tall Against Poverty in concert with Live8 saw Mary Fitzgerald Square, Newtown, Johannesburg filled with thousands of people as a part of a global movement to put pressure on the G8 leaders meeting in Gleneagles on 6 July. Towards the end of the concert, the much loved and respected former President Nelson Mandela graced the stage.
Some of the world’s most famous landmarks will be adorned with huge white bands on 1st July, as part of a curtain-raiser to a week of global action during which campaigners and the public in 72 countries will use their voices to call for an end to global poverty.
South Africa will host the first in a series of free African anti poverty concerts on Saturday 2 July 2005 at Mary Fitzgerald Square, in Newtown, Johannesburg. This concert will be followed by concerts in Kenya and Ghana during August and September respectively. July 2 will also witness a number of concerts in key G8 capital cities including Philadelphia, London, Rome, Tokyo, Berlin and Paris organised by Live8.
In the week in which anti-poverty campaigners Live8 and ahead of next week’s crucial G8 Finance Ministers meeting in London, a series of open letters from global celebrities to the G8 Finance Ministers are being published in some of the most influential newspapers in the world, calling for decisive action by world leaders to tackle poverty once and for all.
Live8 concerts will take place just a few days before the crucial G8 summit in Scotland, and will challenge leaders of the world's 8 richest nations to honour their commitments on poverty. On the first white band day, 1 July 2005, one day before Live8, millions of people around the world are expected to wear a white band as a symbol of their demands to world leaders.
Over 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day with nearly half the world’s population (2.8 billion) living on less than $2 a day.
Between 1990–92 and 2001–03, the number of hungry people in Brazil decreased from 18.5 million to 14.4 million and the prevalence from 12 to 8 percent of the population.
In 1988 there were some 350 000 polio cases worldwide; by January 2005 there were only 1185 cases reported.
UNESCO say in the 2007 Global Monitoring Report, that Universal primary education would cost $11 billion a year … that's half what Americans spend on ice cream.
Globally, as of 2005, an estimated 15.2 million children under 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS; about 80 per cent of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa.
International trade is worth $10 million a minute. 70% of this is controlled by multinational corporations.
