By: Chris Michael, Posted: Sep 24 08

Regions: Global

Issues: Education, Environment, Poverty

Tags: actionaid, climate change, develoment, Environment, GCAP, global warming, hearings, MDGs, Poverty, testimony, The Elders, UN

As 192 world leaders (and their entourages) shuffled into the UN this morning to commence the General Assembly, members of civil society gathered across the street at the UN Church Center for “A Day of Voices: Poverty Hearings on the UN Millennium Goals”. Building on the foundation of a series of poverty hearings that the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) has helped organized on three continents in recent months, the event provided a rare opportunity for people living in poverty to be listened to directly. The three-hour event featured testimonies from witnesses and expert opinion, providing recommendations for specific action in three themes: poverty and hunger, education and environmental sustainability.

Witnesses directed their testimonies to a distinguished panel of advocates that plan to carry the messages forward in their respective UN meetings and events that they will be attending this week, as well as working to amplify the voices in the press and in their organizing work. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the current President of Realizing Rights, joined her fellow member of The Elders Ella Bhatt, the founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India. They were joined by religious leaders Archbishop Winston Ndungane of South Africa, founder of African Monitor, and Serigne Mansour Sy, member of the African Council of Religions and co-President of Religions for Peace and President of the Federation of Islamic Association of Senegal.

GCAP founder and co-Chair Kumi Naidoo started and closed the event and highlighted the design of these hearings and tribunals as tools for advocacy that GCAP is planning to replicate – which we hope are archived with video and shared through online channels like the Hub and offline screenings before key decision makers (more on that later!).

Below, please find a few of my personal highlights from the powerful event. More importantly, to learn more about the hearings, and help make (poverty) history this October 17-19 by breaking last-year’s record of 23.7 million people taking action against poverty, join our friends at GCAP and get involved!

Throughout the event, the note on urgency and the need for action was a constant and resonated with all in attendance. In summation of the poverty and hunger testimonies, Archbishop Ndungane stated, “hunger is unjust and violent…these testimonies inject in all of us a sense of urgency. Words don’t feed the poor – we need action.” In light of the proposed bail-out of over-bloated financial institutions here in the United States, Mary Robinson noted a sharp contrast when it comes to a sense of urgency and money in how there are always “two areas where there never seems to be a shortage of money: arms and bailing-out large financial institutions”.

Linking to financial commitments and contributions to address barriers to education in India, Lysa John of Wada Na todo Abhiyan discussed the innovate work of the Nine is Mine Campaign that brought youth from all corners of India together to demand 9% of GDP be allocated health and education (check-out their campaign video)

Climate change was another common thread in testimonies and intertwined throughout all three themes. Ene Taki, Masai mother of eight children called for the cancelation of debt and noted there is “drought in our community and people are starving because of global warming” during her testimony on poverty and hunger in Kenya on behalf of Narok Development Initiative. Serigne Mansour Sy linked climate change with education by noting how recent floods in Senegal have turned “schools into shelters”, postponing the school year.

Colom O’Cuanachain of ActionAid International called for all to embrace the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the rights-based framework to address poverty noting that “food is a right; it’s unequivocal and it’s binding.” He went on to add that “hunger is not irrevocable and poverty is not irreversible.” With over 950 million hungry, up 150 million since the signing of the MDGs, O’Cuanachain summed-up with a focus on ensuring and promoting women’s rights, “as long as women’s rights are denied, it will be impossible to end hunger.”

In the coming days and weeks we will be joining the call for action against poverty by featuring poverty-related videos and blogs on the Hub - and urging you to join us by standing up and taking action against poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals this October 17-20.

Pertinent links and resources

• GCAP's Stand Up Against Poverty
• GCAP's blogs and updates about the poverty hearings