Actions and voices against poverty

1. Actions and voices against poverty

2. Poverty What do we actually mean?

3. Facts • One third of deaths – some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day – are due to poverty-related causes. That’s 270 million people since 1990, the majority women and children, roughly equal to the population of the US. • 535 million still subsist on levels way below the poverty line – earning less that US$1 a day. • For every US$1 in grant aid to developing countries, more than US$13 comes back in debt repayments. • For every three seconds that pass without action, one more child will die from poverty.

4. The devastating effect of poverty on women • More than 40% of women in Africa do not have access to basic education. • If a girl is educated for six years or more, as an adult her prenatal care, postnatal care and childbirth survival rates, will dramatically and consistently improve. • Educated mothers immunize their children 50% more often than mothers who are not educated. • AIDS spreads twice as quickly among uneducated girls than among girls that have even some schooling. • The children of a woman with five years of primary school education have a survival rate 40%higher than children of women with no education. • A woman living in sub-Saharan Africa has a 1 in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy. This compares with a 1 in 3,700 risk for a woman from North America. • Every minute, a woman somewhere dies in pregnancy or childbirth. This adds up to 1,400 women dying each day – an estimated 529,000 each year-from pregnancy-related causes.

5. Poverty Some see the term as subjective and comparative, others see it as moral and evaluative, while others consider that it to be scientifically established. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$1 per day, and poverty as less than $3 a day.

6. Poverty? Everything Bachau and Mashre Yadevown—including two beds, three bags of rice, a broken bicycle, and their most cherished belonging, a print of Hindu gods—appear in this photograph.

7. What can I do?

8. Sustainable Human Development “The sustainable human development approach starts with the recognition that people’s knowledge, skills, experience, culture, energy and inventiveness are every country’s most valuable resource, and that people and their traditions must be regarded as assets, not liabilities. This approach gives prime emphasis to the role of human beings in their social context. For this reason, a strong civic society, in which norms of reciprocity, co-operation and trust are respected, would be the best way to underpin sustainable human development”. Stefan de Vylder

9. Public goods • The term public good is often used to refer to goods that are non-excludable as well as non-rival. This means it is not possible to exclude individuals from the good's consumption. • Common examples of public goods include: defense, public fireworks, lighthouses, clean air and other environmental goods, and information goods, such as software development, authorship, and invention. • Some say that health and education are public goods.

10. Millennium Development Goals • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger • Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women • Reduce child mortality 5. Improve maternal health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability 8. Develop a global partnership for development

11. Only with your voice

12. Millennium Development Goals • International compact between rich and poor countries • Achievable goals and targets: measurable progress at international and national levels • Interdependence between growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development • Bring clarity to the shared and individual roles and responsibilities of key parties

13. Clear Roles on the MDGs • Governments are responsible for achieving or enabling the achievement of the goals and targets. • Networks of international organizations are responsible for marshalling their resources and expertise in the most strategic and efficient way possible, to support the efforts of partners at global and country levels and to monitor progress. • Citizens, civil society organizations and the private sector are required to contribute their unique strengths for motivation, mobilization, action and evaluation.

14. Governments We demand: • Public accountability, just governance and the fulfilment of human rights, and of previous commitments

15. Governments We demand: • Trade justice • Debt cancellation • A major increase in the quantity and quality of aid and financing for development

16. Corruption • Universal • Cultural • Unacceptable People are fighting against it: • Transparency International • “Publish what you pay”

17. Group of 8

18. France 0.4% U.K 0.34% Percentage of ODA against GDP of G7 countries (2003) Germany 0.28% Canada 0.23% Japan 0.20% Italy 0.16% USA 0.14%

19. Percentage of defense budget against GDP of G7 countries(2003) USA3.82 % U.K2.06% France1.94% Italy1.38% Germany1.13 Japan1.09%

20. Civil society Civil society can play a role by: • Raising awareness about the MDGs. • Engaging in actions to put pressure on decision-makers and monitoring what government is doing and/or supporting your government by providing examples of how it can be done. • Strengthening existing local and national campaigns by linking them to an integrated international campaign. The MDGs provide a focus for building networks and partnerships. • This includes the challenge of linking current campaigns and activities to the global campaign.

22. Corporate Social Responsibility?

23. Global Call to action Against Poverty

24. October 17World Poverty Day On October 17th, 1987, through the initiative of the International Movement ATD Fourth World, 100,000 people gathered around these words carved in the marble of the Commemorative Stone in Honour of Victims of Extreme Poverty in the Trocadero Human Rights Plaza in Paris, where the Human Rights Declaration was signed in 1948. By doing so, they made a personal commitment to join forces in abolishing poverty. Coming from all walks of life, some of the people who gather live in extreme poverty and survive on a day-to-day basis. Others represent public, local, national and international institutions. On December 22, 1992, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared the 17th of October the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This Day is the opportunity to honour the pride and courage of the people living in extreme poverty. It is also a chance to express solidarity with them.

25. Building social capital together It is clear that in the interest of a more harmonious world, business and civil society are challenged to work together in a more pro-active way in the risk-taking aspects of building more stable communities. Such communities will be healthier ones in which to do business, and to live more just and equitable lives. Social entrepreneurship then is a core part of this transformation. Social entrepreneurship essentially means using social capital as if it were financial capital and using it as a means of building up financial capital too. Thank You! Henri Valot Henri.Valot@civicus.org