GCAP eletter - 8 April 2008 - Edition 21

 

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THE GCAP E-LETTER 2008

8th April 2008 - Edition #21

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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

Welcome to the latest GCAP internal newsletter.

The OECD-DAC Official Development Assistance (ODA) figures came out Friday confirming a decline in aid delivery by the world’s richest countries and prompting a strong response by GCAP. A global GCAP press release was issued and open for adaptation with nationally- relevant data.  

GCAP Europe and CONCORD (European Confederation of Development and Emergency NGOs) also issued a press release reacting to the DAC figures, focusing on the commitments made in terms of ODA by the 27 EU Member States. See more below in Regional overviews.

GCAP Russia has enjoyed some very positive advocacy outcomes in the past few weeks.  The first was a meeting with the Japanese Ambassador and the second was policy advancement on poverty reduction inside Russia in the area of health.

GCAP Africa representatives met in Dakar at the end of March to agree a new 3–year strategic plan for GCAP Africa and advance their 2008 mobilisation and advocacy plans. They held a very lively and positive meeting with concrete outcomes and which will be communicated shortly. See more below.

The GCAP Arab Region Arab region, South and South-East Asia and LAC are all busy planning upcoming regional face-to-face meetings as well.  The next one will take place in Bangkok in April.  See the regional reports below. The Arab Region has also decided international peace day (September 21) to its 2008 regional mobilization agenda.

Also this week, GCAP’s Climate Change Working group celebrated its inaugural telephone con-ference to develop a strategy for GCAP engagement on this important issue. The door is still open to new members, if you would like more information contact Ben Margolis.

Mobilisation and advocacy strategies are starting to take some shape now with progress made on the options open to GCAP for engagement around the G8, September’s Call to Action on the MDGs, materials for this year’s Stand Up, Take Action and the year-long discourse on aid effectiveness. The next opportunity for mass action is on April 23 as part of the The World’s Biggest Lesson, coordinated by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE). More details on these available below.

Regards,

Irfan Mufti, GCAP Campaign Manager & the IFT Support Team

Regional updates

Africa - At the successful Africa face-to-face meeting in March, there was a good dis-cussion on African engagement in Africa Union, UNCTAD and the Accra aid-effectiveness processes this year and a working group on ‘the road to Cairo’, the next AU Summit, is being put in place. Among the outcomes was the election of the 11-member African Governing Council as part of the new transition process.  Working groups have documents for the way forward that include a task team, and will be circulated with a report of the meeting for further actions.

Europe - The press release on the OECD DAC report is available on CONCORD website with media tools and information about the issue. A spe-cific Aid Watch report scrutinizing European ODA commitments will be released by CONCORD at the end of May with support from GCAP Europe.

In Russia, the meeting with the Japanese embassy received positive feedback and the Embassy expressed interest in having regular consultations with GCAP Russia and Russian and agreed that GCAP Russia will present the Tanabata action there on the eve of the G8.  The second advocacy success was on healthcare in Russia.  The GCAP coa-lition handed their recent report on access to health by poor and marginalized groups in Russia, to the Minister of Health. Parts of the report were subsequently cited in a Minis-terial speech leading to legislative reforms on the rights of invalids, homeless people and poor families that will take effect shortly. GCAP Russia can be proud of pushing through some significant and concrete legislative amendments that will affect thousands of poor and vulnerable people in Russia.

Arab Region - GCAP coalitions in the Arab region had their first regional telecall on Thursday March 20 during which they discussed:  (1) the GCAP new structure, (2) the regional mobilization for 2008, (3) the mobilization strategy for 2008, and (4) the regional communication mechanisms. During this call, participants decided to add international peace day (September 21) to the regional mobilization agenda. Coalitions believe it is of high importance that the issues of war and occupation and their impact on poverty are considered as main mobilization topics for the region. This event, which is aligned with the UN declaration for Human Rights and efforts to eradicate poverty, could be a main date around which GCAP coalitions will mobilize locally and internationally.

Moreover, Arab coalitions will meet in Beirut for a regional face-to-face meeting in early May. This meeting aims to formulating a regional mobilization strategy for the upcoming years, enhancing regional coordination, discuss and vote representatives for the new GCAP structure and deal with problems undermining the work at the regional and na-tional levels, especially resource-related constrains. A common statement on peace and poverty will also be adopted in the meeting and participants will agree on joint activities on September 21.  For more information on mobilization activities in the Arab region, please visit the regional website.

Asia – Planning is well underway now for the regional GCAP face-to-face meeting in Bangkok, Thailand from April 19th to 22nd. More detail will be posted in the next newsletter.

GCAP LAC will have their regional meeting in Asuncion, Paraguay at the end of May.  A planning meeting of sub-regional representatives to draft the 3 year strategy and back-ground documentation is taking place in Santiago, Chile in April.

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Mobilisation

The World’s Biggest Lesson, coordinated by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), will take place on April 23. The lesson is titled Quality Education to End Exclusion and is an attempt to get officials, media and decision makers back to school, and to get the largest number of individuals taking a lesson at the same time. GCAP national coalitions are encouraged to get in touch with GCE in their country or go to campaignforeducation.org to find out more and get involved! More information will be sent to national coalitions shortly.

The Mobilisation Task Force is undertaking a restructure and is now calling on nomina-tions from national coalitions to join. Please contact your regional secretariat or sarah.gregory@civicus.org if you are interested in joining.

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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, Web and New Media Coordinator  
• Caitlin Blaser, Campaign Officer
• Frida Hjalmarsson, Intern
• Christal Du Pont, Admin

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