GCAP Romania - Learning Brief 2008

Romania’s new status as a donor country since 2007 underlines its commitment to support developing countries and the fight against global poverty. The Romanian NGDO Platform, supporting the GCAP campaign in Romania has as one of its main objectives, to make people more aware of the situation around the world and how they can bring a contribution to poverty alleviation.

Although Romania does not have an established national coalition, there are several members of FOND (Romanian NGO platform) who are interested in GCAP and be part of a GCAP focal point. This group has organised events to support the GCAP Stand Up actions.

In 2007, on the eve of October 17, an MDG conference gathered over 100 people including representatives of FOND member organisations, Romanian civil society, UNDP Romania, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Parliament, Prime Minister’s Office, UK Embassy, public institutions and mass media. GCAP Romania focal point spoke about GCAP and the worldwide initiative striving to beat a new world record to support the fight against poverty and inequality. Stand Up and Speak Out posters were put inside the conference hall and at the reception and informational material was given at the entrance to the participants.

In 2008, more than 800 students in Cluj, north-west Romania stood up against poverty on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, to raise public awareness for the Millennium Development Goals and to express their concern about deepening poverty worldwide. The Romanian initiative continued by sharing information about the eight MDGs in high schools and universities, organising a discussion forum hosted by the Political Sciences Faculty at Babes-Bolyai University, and offering statistics about poverty worldwide during the Stand Up and Take Action event in Cluj. The event was organised by World Vision Romania and Peace, Action, Training and Research Institute in Romania (PATRIR), in partnership with the British Embassy in Bucharest, the Centre for the Study of Democracy and the UN Information Centre. The purpose of the campaign was to make pupils from different high schools in the city of Petrila aware of the MDGs and of the gravity of the situation of extreme poverty and how can they fight against it.

The GCAP supporters in Romania are very interested to elevate the campaign to a national level and try to gather all the interested organizations to formalize a national coalition.

For more information about GCAP activities in Romania, please contact:

FOND Romania
Adela Rusu
Email adela.rusu[at]fondromania.org
Tel. +40 21 3100 177
http://www.fondromania.org/eng/pagini/index.php