Introducing the Global Call to Action Against Poverty

Preliminary Communiqué from Africa Consultation of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty,
March 30-31st 2005, School of Monetary Studies, Nairobi, Kenya version 4

At the start of the 21st century more than a billion people are trapped in abject poverty. We face an AIDS emergency, with 40 million people already infected by the disease. 104 million children don’t go to primary school, and 860 million adults (most of them women) cannot read or write. Hunger is a daily reality for many. In parts of the world the death of mothers in childbirth and children in infancy is still routine - deaths that could be prevented by the availability of simple healthcare. 1.4 billion people don’t have access to safe water. This poverty is a violation of human rights on a massive scale; it is compounded by the trade injustice that keeps people poor. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the rights of all people to an adequate standard of living and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care: rights whose achievement are undermined by unjust trade practices.

Efforts to tackle poverty and deliver sustainable development, as pledged in the Millennium Declaration, are grossly inadequate. Governments too often fail to address the needs of their citizens, aid from rich countries is inadequate in both quality and quantity, and promises of debt cancellation have not materialized. Rich countries have yet to act on their repeated pledges to tackle unfair trade rules and practices. For the first time in history, we have the means to turn this situation around. 2005 is the year when we can make governments take action…..

There is great diversity among our group, but we know that we will be more effective when we work together. We do not endeavour to reach absolute agreement on a detailed global policy platform, but we do want to pressure governments to eradicate poverty and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. We want
* Trade justice
* Debt cancellation
* A major increase in the quantity and quality of aid
* National efforts to eliminate poverty and achieve the Millennium goals that are sustainable and developed and implemented in a way that is democratic, transparent, and accountable to citizens

Extract from the Johannesburg Declaration, September 2004

Preamble

We 70 representatives from international, continental and national organizations and coalitions working in over twenty-six countries from all the regions of Africa met in Nairobi to review global, regional and national progress on GCAP mobilization over 2005 and collectively plan for the global days of white band mobilization (June 16th, July 1st, September 10th and 10th December).

We shared experiences of organising people-centred advocacy and campaigning and plans for holding national governments and international institutions accountable to poverty eradication, public participation and human rights. Delegations also met with community leaders in Korogocho, a neighbouring urban informal settlement and lobbied Kenyan based G8 Ambassadors and Kenyan Ministries on April 1st in line with the global G8 action. We also engaged the Kenyan public in a forum at the University of Nairobi. This communiqué captures the main decisions from the workshop.

With this workshop, we assert ownership over GCAP campaigning in Africa and commit ourselves to playing a leading role in the global campaign. Building on the Johannesburg Declaration and informed by the four GCAP policy demands, we will adapt our programming and policy demands to our specific national circumstances. We note that an environment of peace, equality and democracy is necessary for the full expression of the campaign in Africa. Nevertheless, we reaffirm our commitment to the struggle for peace, equality and democracy in Africa.

DECLARATION FROM JOHANNESBURG SEPTEMBER 2004

PREAMBLE
At the start of the 21st century more than a billion people are trapped in abject poverty. We face an AIDS emergency, with 40 million people already infected by the disease. 104 million children don’t go to primary school, and 860 million adults (most of them women) cannot read or write. Hunger is a daily reality for many. In parts of the world the death of mothers in childbirth and children in infancy is still routine - deaths that could be prevented by the availability of simple healthcare. 1.4 billion people don’t have access to safe water. This poverty is a violation of human rights on a massive scale; it is compounded by the trade injustice that keeps people poor. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the rights of all people to an adequate standard of living and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care: rights whose achievement are undermined by unjust trade practices.

Efforts to tackle poverty and deliver sustainable development, as pledged in the Millennium Declaration, are grossly inadequate. Governments too often fail to address the needs of their citizens, aid from rich countries is inadequate in both quality and quantity, and promises of debt cancellation have not materialized. Rich countries have yet to act on their repeated pledges to tackle unfair trade rules and practices.

For the first time in history, we have the means to turn this situation around. 2005 is the year when we can make governments take action. Acting on this opportunity, a group of NGOs, international networks, trade unions, religious groups and other civil society actors met in Johannesburg and agreed to launch a Global Call to Action Against Poverty.

The last few years have seen great global fragmentation and division. People all over the world feel less secure and less safe than ever. We believe that the world can unite again in solidarity against poverty. We have agreed to undertake joint action and mobilization at key times in 2005. We plan to link our actions symbolically by the wearing of a white band.

There is great diversity among our group, but we know that we will be more effective when we work together. We do not endeavour to reach absolute agreement on a detailed global policy platform, but we do want to pressure governments to eradicate poverty and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. We want
• Trade justice
• Debt cancellation
• A major increase in the quantity and quality of aid
• National efforts to eliminate poverty and achieve the Millennium goals that are sustainable and developed and implemented in a way that is democratic, transparent, and accountable to citizens

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty is an alliance of both South and North; it is not a membership organization. Any non-profit organization willing to support the core message and joint action is invited to become involved. The main level of co-ordination will be national platforms, layered under regional networks. National activities will be home grown, will include national priorities and national demands and will build on existing initiatives. Mass mobilization and people-centred advocacy will be key to the campaign.

An International Facilitation Group was established in Johannesburg to take this work forward, in consultation with all involved.

(1). POLICY CHANGE OBJECTIVES

There is great diversity among our group, but we know that we will be more effective when we work together. We do not endeavour to reach absolute agreement ona detailed global policy platform, but we do want to pressure governments to eradicate poverty and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. We want

• Trade justice
• Debt cancellation
• A major increase in the quantity and quality of aid
• National efforts to eliminate poverty and achieve the Millennium goals that are sustainable and developed and implemented in a way that is democratic, transparent, and accountable to citizens
• While specific objectives will be determined by national priorities and contexts, the following texts reflects the Johannesburg meeting policy discussion
• We recognise that meeting the MDGs is a first step to achieving the goal of eliminating poverty.

Trade
Trade has become the vehicle for the indiscriminate liberalization of developing country economies and the imposition of harmful conditions, instead of supporting sustainable development, poverty eradication and gender equity.

We want trade rules and policies that ensure the right of developing countries to pursue their own development agendas, putting their people’s interests first.

In 2005, we will call on the WTO, international financial institutions and national governments to:
- Enact measures to protect public services from enforced liberalization and privatisation, secure the right to food and affordable access to essential drugs, and strengthen corporate accountability.
- Increase accountability and transparency of governments and international organisations to their grassroots constituencies in the formulation of international trade rules and national trade policies, while ensuring consistency of trade policies with respect for workers’ rights, and human rights more broadly.
- Immediately end dumping and rich country subsidies that keep people in poverty.

Aid & Debt
Governments and international institutions must urgently provide the major increase in resources necessary for the eradication of poverty and the achievement of the MDGs, through:
- Aid and debt cancellation that is not tied to contracts with donor countries, or linked to economic conditions that hurt people in poverty.
- A total cancellation of the unpayable debt of poor countries, by way of a fair and transparent process.
- Realisation of the 0.7% target on aid and ensuring aid is directed to achieving development objectives.
- Ensuring that aid supports rather than undermines, community and country defined development priorities.
- Exploring innovative taxes and mechanisms for raising finance for development.

National-level Action
We call on governments to:
- Adapt the promises in the global Millennium Declaration and apply the Millennium Development Goals to the national context.
- Reflect the rights of all citizens (women and men), in the legal, policy and budgetary frameworks and processes, recognising historical gender imbalances.
- Actively involve civil society and the poor, particularly socially excluded groups, in the formulation of national development priorities, policies and plans.
- Ensure that adequate domestic and external resources are allocated to providing accessible quality public services for all.
- Be fully accountable and transparent in the use of public resources and aggressively fight corruption.
- Exercise the right to nationally determine policies and practices that benefit the majority of citizens, and resist potentially harmful, externally driven conditions imposed by international institutions and agreements.

MDG Process
The Global Call to Action Against Poverty campaign will develop specific policy objectives for the UN Summit to maximise the impact of the Millennium Declaration and the MDG process on poverty alleviation These objectives will, in particular, allow national campaigns to drive specific policy and crosscutting objectives in addition to trade, aid and debt.

Crosscutting Issues
In all the aforementioned objectives, we call on governments, international institutions and civil society actors to uphold principles of human rights and accountable governance, to oppose social exclusion and discrimination based on race, caste, HIV status and minority classification (including on sexual and religious grounds), sustainable development and, further, to ensure gender justice and uphold women’s rights as well as child rights.

(2). TITLE, SLOGAN, LOGO

A single global title for the mobilisation is needed to provide focus, cohesion and to maximise impact of activity. National and sectoral campaigns will have differing emphases and names: these can be used in conjunction with the global title. National and sectoral campaigns will include more motivating language, with the global title being broad and significant.

Friday, 1 April, 2005

Press Release

AFRICAN CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS TO ISSUE AN ULTIMATUM ON DEBT TO THE G8

Over 70 representatives of African Civil Society Organisations drawn from over 20 countries meeting in Nairobi to consult on the Global Call Against Poverty (GCAP), will organize simultaneous demonstrations of solidarity and protest across Africa on July 1 if significant movement on Africa’s debt is not made at the World Bank and IMF spring meetings in April.

This ultimatum comes ahead of the meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington DC on 16th and 17th April. The G8, the group of the world’s richest and most powerful nations, holds more than half the votes in the World Bank and IMF. Campaigners are demanding that they seize the opportunity at the spring meetings to cancel Africa’s debt.

Reform of global trade rules, increased and better aid, and cancellation of Africa’s debt are key thresholds against which the G8, World Bank, IMF and other multilateral institutions must be held to account.

“Africa demands immediate action, not further procrastination. Decisive action on debt, aid and trade in 2005 is critical in reversing the continent’s decline”, warns Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of Johannesburg-based CIVICUS.

The African civil society groups have also demanded:
• Trade justice to reform unfair trade rules
• A major increase in the quantity and quality of aid
• National efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve the Millennium goals be implemented in a way that is democratic, transparent and accountable.

For further information, please contact:

Gichinga Ndirangu, for GCAP, Cell: 0721 790 164
Njuki Githethwa, Kenya Debt Relief Network, Cell: 0722 474 221

Appendix 3: GCAP Letter to Ambassadors

www.whiteband.org
Thursday, 26 May 2005
Dear Ambassador,

Re: Global Call for Debt cancellation

Global Call to Action Against Poverty believes that your country will have a major opportunity to take action against poverty at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF.

With our fellow citizens and those of other countries around the world, we are calling on you to ensure that the April 2005 meetings are remembered as a turning point in the struggle to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The IMFC and World Bank Development Committee must agree bold action on debt, aid and trade, and establish a comprehensive financing package that will set the world back on track to reach these goals.

Global Call to Action Against Poverty believes that, at the Spring Meetings, governments must reach a firm agreement to cancel the debts of the poorest countries, where this is needed to reach the MDGs. The IMF and World Bank must go beyond the existing group of HIPCs, and cancel the debts of other low-income countries, using the MDGs as a basic yardstick in any assessment of debt sustainability.

We look forward to the Bank and Fund presenting robust debt relief proposals for agreement at the Spring Meetings, whether financed through IMF gold reserves or other additional resources. We urge governments to reach agreement on a debt cancellation mechanism that is financed in ways that do not reduce the resources available to the poorest countries through the IFIs.

This year, the first MDG target will be missed: the commitment to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education. At the same time, developing countries’ education plans continue to languish unfunded. The Education For All Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI) provides a powerful mechanism to ensure that all girls and boys can attend school in those countries which have sound plans in place to achieve this. We call on you to lead a dramatic expansion of the FTI, by announcing the funding commitment that is needed to make these plans a reality. In particular, we ask you to enable developing countries to abolish fees and charges for primary education, as these constitute a major barrier to girls’ education.

Global Call to Action Against Poverty believes that 2005 presents a key opportunity for governments to get back on track for achieving the MDGs. A substantial increase in aid and other resources will be required to accomplish this. Governments need to build on the Monterrey consensus and establish an ambitious timetable for providing 0.7% of GNI as aid, in order to ensure that all countries will reach the MDGs by the 2015 deadline. Other innovative financing mechanisms could also potentially serve as elements of a financing package to achieve the MDGs.

This April, millions of citizens in both rich and poor countries will be watching carefully to see whether governments finally deliver on their promises. We urge you to follow through on the commitments that have been made to date, by reaching agreement on key elements of a financing package to achieve the MDGs, the first of which must be a fully-financed agreement on 100% multilateral debt cancellation for the world’s poorest countries.

Yours sincerely,

Jubilee 2000
Radio Ecclesia
UGEAFI
Pax Romana
Plan International
AACC
Oxfam
Fahamu & Pambazuka News
CIVICUS
Oxfam International
Action Aid Africa
AACC
ACORD
UNDP/MDGs
AWOMI
Millennium Campaign
NOVIB
Action Aid International - Kenya
ActionAid International - Ethiopia
AWEPON
ANCEFA
AHED
Creative Storm
McCann Kenya
Kenya GCAP Coalition/
KENDREN
Islamic Relief Nairobi
AFRODAD
Groots Kenya
Consultant (Soteni Twaweza)
KEFEADO
Pax Romana
Kenya Youth
CONGOMA
Coalition des Alternatives Africaines Dette et Development
Espace Associativ
Mozambique Debt Group
FAWEMO
Economic Justice Forum
ABIODES
Namibia Non-Governmental Organisation Forum (NANGOF)
Adolescent Health & Information ProjectS (AHIP)
ANCEFA/CSACEFA
TACOSODE
CONGAD
Ecumenical Service for Socio Economic Transformation/SACC
Masimayane
Environmental Justice Networking Forum
MWENGO
MISA
MWENGO
MWENGO
TANGO
Oxfam International
AWEPON
Sustainability Watch Network
Uganda Debt Network
CEEWA
SEATINI - Uganda
Uganda National NGO Forum
Pax Romana/Anti Corruption Coalition
ANCEFA
Zambia Trade Network
One World Africa
Zambia Jubilee debt Campaign
Girl Child Network
TACOSODE
Kenya Youth
Uganda National NGO Forum
Jubilee-Zambia Debt Campaign
GCAP IFG

These organizations are part of The Global Call to Action against Poverty, an alliance of over sixty national coalitions made up of civil society organisations including trade unions, faith based organisations, women and youth associations among others across the world.