THE GCAP E-LETTER 2007 - July 27th 2007 - Edition #5

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THE GCAP E-LETTER 2007

27th July 2007 - Edition #5

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The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is a global 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 GCAP friends,

Welcome to the 5th edition of the GCAP e-letter.

We were delighted to hear of another successful performance of the Poverty Requiem in Berlin this week at the Education International Conference. Dutch singers were joined by children and percussionists from Berlin and performed three parts of the choral piece in front of an audience of thousands of education professionals and trade unionists.  The German President and Education International Presidents both referred to it in their opening speeches later and delegates received information about how to get involved in STAND UP and SPEAK OUT.  A video recording of the performance will be uploaded onto the Poverty Requiem website www.povertyrequiem.org and will be posted alongside previous performances on You Tube as well.

The GCAP South East North Central Asia office this week opened their conference entitled Building an Asian People’s Agenda on Aid: a conference on Official Development Assistance (ODA). The location is Quezon City in the Philippines, where some 80 delegates from various aid recipient and donor countries in Asia are critiquing aid policies and assess aid effectiveness in Asia.  Already, delegates have issued strong statements on falling aid for housing, health and education will conclude with a Quezon City Declaration on ODA, forming the basis for a regional campaign agenda of the various peoples’ organizations and coalitions in Asia.

Some members of our IFT support team met recently in Oxford, UK and pledged their commitment to making October 17 a day when people around the world stand up against poverty AND have their voices heard so that politicians and other decision-makers are held to account by civil society.  They produced some helpful draft documents to support mobilisation and communications and are currently going through the various sign-off channels.

The whiteband website is continuing to develop content so it becomes the ‘shop-window’ for all the GCAP sites and source of useful information for anyone interested in learning more about the Call to Action.  We are posting some photos and mini-biographies of GCAP people from the Support team and around the world in an effort to “put a face to the name” so if you would like to send Henri your picture and a few lines about who you are and what you do we would be delighted to include you in the site.

Pressure continues to free our colleagues in Ethiopia and El Salvador.  We are encouraged by the release of some of Daniel and Netsanet’s fellow detainees in Ethiopia and await the outcome of their trial next week.

The e-newsletter is published in four languages and posted at www.whiteband.org/about-gcap/reports. As you are the best judge to decide the content and format for this e-letter, please do mail me contributions, comments and suggestions.

Warm Regards

Irfan Mufti, GCAP Campaign Manager, Irfan.mufti@civicus.org

MOBILISATION Update - Countdown - less than three months to OCTOBER 17TH

Following comments from the IFT, the mobilisation taskforce has agreed with the United National Millennium Campaign on a generic global logo for Stand Up and Speak Out on October 17. There is still discussion about what the shared strap-line will be for this, but on most occasions we are encouraging regions and constituencies to use a strap-line that works best for them. This is the first of a significant amount of material that will be produced by the Grey Global advertising agency in New York who are providing this work for free.

The first meeting was held of the sub-group focusing on the Guinness World Record attempt. Sarah Gregory is chairing this group and is inviting people from all GCAP constituencies and regions to participate. The meetings are usually held via telephone conference on Thursdays at 12:00 noon GMT.

The mobilisation task force would like to select a small number of focus cities for October 17th. These cities should be on each continent and will be supported to carry out a significant action that will enable us to generate global media coverage. If you are from a national coalition and would like to nominate a city or would like more information, please let Sarah know. A paper will be produced soon outlining the role of key cities in more detail.

Contact: Sarah at the GCAP IFT support team for more information.

eCommunications Update

The IFT support team commissioned a review of the whiteband.org to the UK-based company FairSay, which submitted several reports:

1. GCAP online options summary (summary of key decision to be taken now)
2. GCAP online management review (core report)
3. GCAP eCampaigning recommendations (key recommendations for online campaigning
4. GCAP Supplier Decisions for Online Presence (recommendations on existing and potential suppliers – hosting and development of the whiteband.org)
5. GCAP Online Technical Audit and its Summary (Technical Audit of the Whiteband.org)
   

Suggestions for FairSay Support for GCAP online (Potential involvement of FairSay in our future endeavours)
FairSay key recommendations are on the Purpose of GCAP’s online, on the Planning, on the multilingual editorial Approach and on the needed Budget. Based on these findings, our priorities should be to make the GCAP web site, email communications and other interactive media activities more effective for each audience; to use better interactive media for campaigning; to use news feeds to, from and between Whiteband.org and GCAP national coalition sites and to engage whiteband.org ‘supporters’ on the site and with the campaign. The eCommunications task force will be addressing those priorities by taking the following actions:

• Broaden and empower the eCommunications task force
• Establish a core multilingual and experienced editorial team for whiteband.org
• Review all suppliers’ contracts
• Build in close consultation and with the support of regional and national webmasters and communications officers a three years plan for the online activities
• Implement Fair Say relevant eCampaigning recommendations, notably on the Home page, Action and Update Emails, Campaigning Actions, Content Sharing (Syndication), Data Sharing, Supporter Re-engagement and presence on Social Networking Sites

Contact: Henri at the GCAP IFT support team for more information. All reports are available and can be obtained by writing to Henri.

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The GCAP IFT Support Team

Irfan Mufti, Campaign Manager irfan.mufti@civicus.org
Katsuji Imata, Organizational Development Coordinator katsuji.imata@civicus.org
Ciara Osullivan, Media and Communication Coordinator ciara.osullivan@civicus.org
Sarah Gregory, Outreach and Mobilization Coordinator sarah.gregory@civicus.org
Joe Cressy, Mobilisation Officer, Joe.Cressy@civicus.org

Henri Valot, Web and New Media Coordinator henri.valot@civicus.org
Caitlin Blaser, Support Team Assistant, Caitlin.blaser@civicus.org
Ben Margolis, Support Team (Oxfam) bmargolis@oxfam.org.uk

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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