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GCAP eletter 8 February 2008

 

GCAP Together for Equality English

 

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THE GCAP E-LETTER 2008

 

February 8th 2008 - Edition #17

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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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Dear Friends,

Welcome to the first GCAP internal newsletter of 2008.  I hope the year has started well for your campaigning. Already, GCAP West Africa has met and started planning around the upcoming ACCRA Summit on Aid Effectiveness and the Global Support Team has had a face to face in The Hague with Regional Secretariats and partners which was very helpful in planning tangible and positive outcomes for 2008.  We were also fortunate to attend the farewell celebrations for our co-chair Sylvia Borren who leaves her post as Executive Director of Oxfam Novib. We wish her well and look forward to her ongoing participation in GCAP.  There are more complete regional updates below.

Now some updates:

2007 Report - Many thanks to everyone who sent in their mobilisation and media reports for 2007.  We are starting to pull all this information together and hope to produce a report by March.  This will be made available for printing locally and we will also order some hard copies for distribution at events and in outreach efforts.  Those who still have information to include in this or who would like to suggest contributing a chapter to it should contact Ciara (ciara.osullivan@civicus.org)

2008 Mobilisation – By now you should all have seen at least some outline of the dates and thematic focuses for GCAP in the year ahead.  As well as the usual days of action and Stand Up, there are some new advocacy moments including the EU Latin America & Caribbean Summit (see below), Accra Summit and the UN MDG Conference among others.  As we get more details of this intense period of action through September and October this year we will communicate details to all.

WSF Day of Action & Davos: Below are details of some great activities in Europe, Africa and Asia which marked both GCAP’s 3rd Anniversary and World Social Forum Global Day of Action on Jan 26th.  Simultaneously, in Davos the World Economic Forum was the backdrop for a renewed commitment to achieving the MDGs when Ban Ki Moon and others launched details of the MDG conference which will take place in New York in September. See www.wsf2008.net and www.whiteband.org for details

International Women’s Day - With just a month to go to IWD 2008 we would love to hear what GCAP coalitions are planning and how we can support these initiatives with materials or media activity.  There will be activities in the Middle East around the issue of Women’s Rights which we hope to link to and we look forward to hearing more.

Japanese G8 – GCAP’s G8 group members in Japan, Italy, Russia, US, Canada and the UK got the year off to a great start sending a traditional New Years card to Japanese embassies.  This action appears to have opened the door for substantial discussions on health and poverty reduction in most countries so we congratulate all involved and hope it’s a sign of things to come.  Kumi was also invited to join a closed door rountable discussion with the Japanese delegation in Davos and will feed back to the G8 Group on that: http://www.whiteband.org/about-gcap/reports/g8-team/documents-from-g8-team

Every Human Has Rights Campaign - This global campaign initiated by The Elders (http://www.theelders.org/) to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been endorsed by the IFT so efforts are underway to shape GCAP’s support.  This will offer coalitions opportunities to link rights messaging into their work this year, tell their stories to a wider audience via a unique Google Earth layer initiative and sign the pledge to  support the Declaration. There is a great toolkit in the final stages of development and also information on www.everyhumanhasrights.org

We take this opportunity to welcome our new intern, Frida Hjalmarson, a recent graduate of Political science, Global and Environmental specialising in Media and Communication. She will work with the GCAP team in Johannesburg from February until the end of April.

Regards,

Irfan Mufti, GCAP Campaign Manager & the IFT Support Team

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MOBILISATION Update

GCAP Activities on World Social Forum Day of Action

Philippines:  January 26th was both an opportunity to mark the 3rd Anniversary of GCAP, look back on where we have come since the WSF in Porto Alegre in 2005 and mark the World Social Forum’s first Global Day of Action.  Despite the increasingly limited space for civil society mobilization, around 1,000 people marched through downtown Manila ending at the Presidential Palace.  Many of the country's left-wing political parties and social movements were represented, including a sizable women's contingent.  United under the call "On with the struggle: Jobs and justice, land and freedom!," the march capped a week-long series of actions that saw almost daily rallies by landless farmers, workers, and anti-war groups and a one-day camp of forums, exhibits, film-showings, and concert held in the middle of an urban poor community in the city. People's March and March to Presidential Palace: http://www.wsf2008.net/eng/node/599

Brussels: GCAP Africa Coordinator Christophe Zoungrana was a guest of the Belgian Social forum in Brussels where he spoke about GCAP, the challenges for Africa, the current aid debate and invited the Belgian public to join the whiteband movement and hold their leaders to account in 2008.  He also gave an interview in French to RTBF radio & TV which will be broadcast later this month in Africa and in Europe. http://www.wsf.be/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=74

West Africa:  In West Africa the World Social forum event in Togo was a big success gathering more than 1500 participants from all west African civil society members under the theme: Governance and Food sovereignty.  Over tree days, the WASF participants worked on the theme: Governance and Food sovereignty with an emphasis on EPA agreement on West Africa Economic Integration (ECOWAS).  See the statement from GCAP West Africa on this: http://www.whiteband.org/regions/africa/gcap-west-africa-communique-to-ecowas-chair. The Prime Minister of Togo, the UN resident representative and the president of WASF and others important guests opened the event and a march for PEACE in AFRICA closed it.  GCAP Togo gave a session on Economic Partnership Agreements and displayed banners calling for Trade Justice. They also had a special stand to inform participants about the campaign and how to join coalitions in their respective countries.

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MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS UPDATE

Media coverage was secured in Japan, Canada, Italy and the UK for the GCAP G8 card campaign.  The G8 group is working closely to plan other media opportunities between now and the Japan Summit in July.

The World Economic Forum in Davos provided some great opportunities where Kumi Naidoo was a guest of the NGO Forum and gave several interviews to international media outlets including France 24 TV and as p[art of the BBC World TV debate.

GCAP has also issued media statements on global news events in countries where coalitions are active:

•    The violence in Kenya since the disputed election outcome was announced on December 31st.

•    The rising humanitarian crisis in Palestine while Israel holds Gaza under siege.

•    The instability in Pakistan after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Irfan Mufti gave interviews at the beginning of the year to South African media.

•    The outcome of the trial of our Ethiopian colleagues was announced and will be followed up with media activity on the day of their release – date still to be announced.

Contact:  ciara.osullivan@civicus.org  for more information on GCAP media activities.

 

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REGIONAL UPDATE

GCAP WEST AFRICA PLAN OF ACTION 2008-2010

The Africa Secretariat of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) organized a three-day campaign planning meeting for representatives of its National Coalitions in West Africa from the 17th-19th of January 2008 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.  The theme was “Towards a GCAP West Africa Framework for Engaging Governmental and Intergovernmental (Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ) structures on Poverty Eradication”.

The meeting brought together 40 participants, mainly from GCAP National Coalitions in eleven countries in West Africa, sought to provide a platform for GCAP Coalitions in West Africa to strategize on key mobilization dates and activities that would inform and guide GCAP campaigns at the West Africa sub-regional level. In addition to the above-mentioned a delegation of artistes, media personnel, representatives from partner organizations and ECOWAS were also present at the meeting.

The West Africa planning meeting resonates with the global objectives for 2008 which among others, acknowledges the need for “further development of regional, national and constituency-based actions”; and its outcome is intended to complement both the Pan-African and Global mobilization strategies. The specific objectives of the planning meeting were to:

1) Provide GCAP National Coalitions in West Africa the space to share experiences as well as explore opportunities for leveraging the fight against poverty and inequalities in West Africa,

2) Assess the current state of poverty in West Africa and identify clear roles/interventions for GCAP at the sub-regional level, and

3) Increase level of awareness of ECOWAS social and economic agreements among GCAP National Coalitions in West Africa in order to better strategize on policy demands and develop effective policy monitoring matrixes.

Discussions and debates during the meeting, as well as the action planning revolved mainly around four main issues which participants deemed as critical for the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eradication of poverty and sustainable development in the sub-region.


Latin America & Caribbean

Preparations are underway for the Alternative Summit of the People in Lima, Peru in parallel with the Summit of Latin American & Caribbean & EU leaders in May.  GCAP Peru is leading the organising committee of this People’s Summit and will be involved in the programme, mobilisation, logistics and communications. The initial agenda for the Summit is Poverty & Inequality, the environment, climate change and energy. For additional information on the Summit contact Osver Jaime Polo Carrasco gcap_peru@yahoo.com or contacto@llamadoperu.orgWeb: www.llamadoperu.org

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Some useful links

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The GCAP IFT Support Team

 

Contact us:
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