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GCAP eletter 18 Eng
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THE GCAP E-LETTER 2008
20th February 2008 - Edition #18
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The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is a growing alliance of
trade unions, community groups, faith groups, women and youth
organisations, NGOs and other campaigners working together across more
than 100 national platforms. GCAP is calling for action from the
world’s leaders to meet their promises to end poverty and inequality.
The white band is our symbol and expression of solidarity against poverty.
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Editorial
Dear friends,
This has been an industrious week while national coalitions and regional secretariats pull together both reports of their 2007 activities as well as plans and funding requests for 2008. There are still some outstanding 2007 country reports so if you want to make sure your hard work is included in the final Global Annual Report make sure you submit something by the end of this week (Friday Feb 22nd). We hope to have the first version in English ready for download by March 8th.
Now some updates:
For those who remember GCAP Germany’s impressive campaign last year during their country’s leadership of the G8 and are looking for inspiration, do take time to look at Deine Stimme Gegen Armut’s brochure covering their work from 2005 – 2007 on http://www.whiteband.org/regions/europe/deu
International Women’s Day - GCAP activity to this years IWD will kick off at the 52nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women at UN headquarters in New York on Feb 28th (http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/52sess.htm). The outcomes of last year’s Women’s Tribunals will be presented, a new e-action for March 8th launched and a press statement released. It was at this same event three years ago that GCAP’s important work on gender began and women’s organizations joined our call to action so it is a great moment for evaluating where we have come and discussing the current the focus of our struggle. See below for more details on March 8th actions.
Climate change Working group – This new group is being formed now so we extend the invitation to all regions and coalitions to submit members with some interest and knowledge in the subject. The group is formed to bring climate change as a key focus within GCAP for our policy and actions in the year 2008 and beyond. Please nominate representatives by Friday February 29th to Ben Margolis on bmargolis@oxfam.org.uk who will be the convener of the working group.
The Aid debate - The OECD
published it’s 2007 Dev. Coop report this week.
It shows that in 2006, the total ODA provided by the members of the DAC
fell to USD$104.4 billion, 4.5% lower than in 2005. In real terms, this is the
first fall in ODA since 1997. The report does suggest that there have been some
improvements in the way aid is delivered, and the way it is managed in the
health and basic education sectors. GCAP has been involved in civil society
discussions in the build up to the Aid Effectiveness meeting in Accra, Ghana in
September - we will keep updating the newsletter and the web site with the
latest information.
http://www.oecd.org/document/32/0,3343,en_2649_33721_40056608_1_1_1_1,00.html
The Global Council election process is now gearing up. Please be aware that your regional secretariat or constituency group convenor will be communicating with you soon on how to nominate representatives, and how the voting process will proceed. Your active participation in this process is important to ensure the democratic and accountable functioning of all GCAP structures.
We welcome some new team members this week as well. Ify Eronini (gcap.africa@gmail.com.) will support the GCAP Africa campaign, media, mobilization and communication work on a part time basis in Dakar until the end of March. Christal Dupont (christal.dupont@civicus.og) has joined the Johannesburg staff temporarily as an Administrative and Finance assistant until our permanent new recruit begins. The selection of a new Web coordinator is also in the final stages.
Regards,
Irfan Mufti, GCAP Campaign Manager & the IFT Support Team
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TEAM UPDATES
MOBILISATION Update
2008 Mobilisation Plans
The 2008 mobilisation proposal has been finalized and is available at http://www.whiteband.org/Action/take-action/gcap-mobilisation-2008/mobilisation-consultation/gcap-mobilisation-strategy-final-2008. It has been updated to include “50 Days of Action”, from 1 September to 20 October to incorporate different mobilisation opportunities taking place during this time including the MDG conference in New York in September and Stand Up. The final proposal will be circulated in the coming days. Please disseminate widely!
International Women’s Day: March 8
As indicated above, GCAP will be launching activities for International Women’s Day at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York on the 28th of February. GCAP actions will include an e-card campaign which will be circulated to all national coalitions for adaptation and distribution, outlining the results of the Women’s Tribunal on October 17 last year and calling for further action on gender justice
We will be circulating a full brief outlining further details of what will be taking place and requesting information from national coalitions that are planning events. We know that the Arab region hopes to issue a parallel statement to the global one and we will be working to disseminate this message widely.
We ask you to also register your events on http://www.internationalwomensday.com.
For more information contact sarah.gregory@civicus.org
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E-COMMUNICATIONS Update
The next eCampaigning Forum, organised by Fairsay will be 10-11 April at St Anne's College in Oxford, UK. The 2008 eCampaigning Forum (http://www.fairsay.com/labs/ecf/2008) brings together e-campaigning practitioners, managers, freelancers, entrepreneurs and bloggers to share the essential and emerging trends and practices in campaigning (advocacy) using interactive media. The experts are the participants and this event ensures those who attend get to spend most of their time engaging with their peers on topics that concern them most.
It would be a good opportunity for GCAP webmasters and online campaigners, especially those with a regional mandate, to meet there and take part to the Forum. In case a large GCAP group is able to meet, we would then consider a pre-meeting. Objectives of the pre-meeting will be to finalize the 2008/10 whiteband.org strategic planning (http://www.whiteband.org/about-gcap/reports/e-communications/whiteband-org-project-2008-10) and coordinate e-campaigning actions in 2008.
If you are interested, please contact Henri.Valot@civicus.org, from the IFT support team.
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The GCAP IFT Support Team
- Irfan Mufti, Campaign Manager
- Ciara O’Sullivan, Media and Communication Coordinator (E-letter editor)
- Sarah Gregory, Outreach and Mobilization Coordinator
- Henri Valot, Organisational Development Advisor
- Caitlin Blaser, Campaign Officer
- Frida Hjalmarson, Intern
GCAP IFT support team
C/O CIVICUS
PO Box 933, Southdale 2135
Johannesburg – South-Africa
Email: info@whiteband.org
Tel: + 27 11 833 59 59 Fax: + 27 11 833 97 79