Launch of global poverty movement sets challenges

Launch of global poverty movement sets challenges to world leaders

The Global Call to Action against

Poverty (GCAP), the biggest ever global mobilization to hold governments

accountable for the promises they made to eradicate poverty, was

launched today at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, expressed his

solidarity and support for the global call and delivered a speech before the

12.000 people that gathered at the Gigantinho stadium wearing white bands,

the symbol of the campaign.

The Global Call to Action against Poverty is a worldwide alliance of

hundreds of organisations. These comprise grassroots organizations, trade

unions, women's groups, non-governmental organizations, human right

advocates, international civil society and faith groups. The campaign is

calling on world leaders to fulfill their commitments on trade justice,

more and better aid and full debt cancellation. It is also demanding

transparency and accountability from all governments in their plans to

eliminate poverty and reach the Millennium Development Goals.

"This should be the year in which governments keep their promises and

respond to the more than one billion people who are living in absolute

poverty, who demand justice," said Guy Ryder, GCAP representative and

General Secretary of the ICFTU, a founding member of the campaign. At the

launch today, Ryder highlighted that achieving more and better jobs for

workers, with full respect for their basic rights, as the most

important single means of increasing poor peoples' incomes and cutting poverty.

Speaking at the launch today, John Samual on behalf of GCAP said, "We

need a shift in national and international policies and agendas. At a

time when bombs, security and terror dominate the political agenda it's

imperative to bring poverty into the centre of government thinking. We

just can´t afford to keep quiet when 50,000 people die of poverty

related causes every day and the rich and the powerful chose to ignore it.

GCAP is a wake up call to people in both rich and poor countries to

mobilize and force their governments to take action."

Leaders around the world have made endless promises to end poverty. In

2000, they committed to halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 by

signing the Millennium Development Goals; to establish fair trade rules

at the World Trade Organization development round in 2001; and to end

the burden of debt that forces low income countries to pay $100 million

every day to their creditors.

"The truth is that little has been done. At the current rates of

progress, it will take more than a 100 years, not ten, for many countries to

achieve the Millennium Development Goals", says Wahu Kaara, a GCAP

representative from Africa.

During 2005 millions of people are expected to demand that world

leaders fulfill their promises at three key "White Band Days": the G8 summit

in July in UK, at the UN General Assembly in September and in December

at the WTO Ministerial meeting in HK. The white band is a symbol of the

united call to end poverty once and for all.

"This is a really crucial moment in the global fight against poverty.

We are a massive and diverse group which has come together this year to

demand change. It is high time for action on trade justice, improved

aid and debt cancellation. So, our message today is that united we cannot

be ignored by our governments," said Coumba Toure from GCAP Africa who

presented President Lula with a white band during the launch event.

The GCAP demands that in 2005 world leaders:

* Immediately end dumping and rich country subsidies that keep

people in poverty.

* Enact measures to protect public services from enforced

liberalisation 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 organizations in the formulation of international trade

rules and national trade policies.

* Give more, untied and better aid now to achieve the

Millennium Development Goals.

* Meet the agreed target of 0.7% of national income in overseas

aid.

* Ensure aid is directed towards achieving development

objectives.

* Cancel debt - rich countries, the World Bank and the IMF

should cancel 100% of the debt of the poorest countries in order to reach

the Millennium Development Goals.

* National efforts to eliminate poverty and to reach the

Millennium Goal that are developed and implemented in a way that is

democratic, transparent and accountable to citizens.

Website: http://www.whiteband.org/

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