FAQs
Please note that due to the high volume of enquiries we are receiving, we cannot respond to questions sent to the globalcitizen@globalpovertyproject.com account that are addressed in the FAQ section below.
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Global Citizen
What is Global Citizen?
Global Citizen is a website and app that revolves around a simple premise: that every person can play a role in realizing the end of extreme poverty. Put simply, we want to help you find effective and relevant ways to create change, as individuals and as a community. Read more about what makes a Global Citizen, and find out what type of Global Citizen are you?
How does it work?
Global Citizen will help you learn more about issues you care about, see how you fit in with a global movement to end extreme poverty, and most importantly, how you can take action to make a difference.
Read more about how we'll end extreme poverty and the NGO partners that make our actions count.
How can I navigate the site and best understand the elements of extreme poverty?
Start your journey with our handy Global Citizen Level Guide, which can help you find the best journey for you and help you move through the 13 important issues and related actions.
Who is behind it?
Global Citizen is powered by the Global Poverty Project. We're an education and advocacy organisation working to increase the number and effectiveness of people taking action to end extreme poverty.
Our vision is much like yours: to live in a world without extreme poverty. We know that right now there are millions of people – in developed and developing communities – working to address extreme poverty. We’re getting behind these efforts, and inviting Global Citizens to join us, to find the part they can play in realising the end of extreme poverty.
Find out more on our website.
When is it launching?
Global Citizen has launched in the United States. It has been launched in conjunction with the Global Citizen Festival – an advocacy event that will showcase a generation taking action to tackle extreme poverty.
Launches are scheduled in Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand soon. To be the first to find out about these releases, make a commitment to take action on the Global Poverty Project website.
How can you earn action points for donating?
You are able to make donations to organisations helping address extreme poverty through Global Citizen and earn points for non-tax deductible donations. However Global Citizen does not offer points in recognition of tax-deductible donations, due to restrictions within United States tax law.
Government aid plays a crucial role in addressing development issues, and operates at a scale that individual giving often cannot match. For example, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative faces a $945 million funding gap that needs to be filled in the next 18 months. This is not something individuals can achieve through their personal donations. But collectively, we can work with governments to ensure stronger international commitments to tackle issues such as the eradication of polio.
ENDING EXTREME POVERTY
What makes you think we can end extreme poverty?
The world has halved extreme poverty in the last thirty years, and we have what it takes to end it within a generation.
For the first time in human history we have the knowledge and the resources to end extreme poverty, and the Millennium Development Goals give us a framework for action that can help us make even more progress. But we need the will power and energy of a movement, an active audience: you.
The world’s poorest are working hard to lift themselves out of poverty, but right now they face a series of roadblocks – around issues like trade, governance, debt and aid – that keep them in poverty. Together, we can build a movement to change the systems and policies that keep people in poverty by showing our governments that they must take action as we citizens take action. You can learn more about the Global Poverty Project’s view on ending extreme poverty here.
It won’t be easy. But incredible progress has already been made, particularly when it comes to preventable disease. The progress that has been made towards polio eradication demonstrates that we can reach every child in the world with basic health interventions. Polio can be used as a stepping-stone to tackle other diseases and issues, enabling us to guarantee every child a greater start in life.
How will my actions have impact?
Extreme poverty persists in part because of our own actions and beliefs - including the existence of international policies and systems that keep people living in extreme poverty.
If we learn more about why extreme poverty exists, make informed consumer decisions, and use our voices to advocate for change, we can ensure that the businesses, organizations and governments in our lives are contributing to a world without extreme poverty. The Global Poverty Project and our partners have a track record of running programs and campaigns that have real impact on the lives of the poor – and we hope that you’ll join us.
Global Citizen encourages you to learn more and take action on a range of issues related to extreme poverty, helping to build the movement that will end extreme poverty. We're not going to end extreme poverty by ourselves, and we're not going to do it in a day, a week, or even a year. But, by being a part of a diverse movement of many organisations, all around the world, we can play our part in ending extreme poverty within a generation.
Is Global Citizen just another 'clicktivist' site?
In an age of online connectivity, online action plays an important part in affecting change. In fact, last year online action helped our campaign, The End of Polio, secure $118 million of additional funding for global polio eradication efforts.
Global Citizen harnesses the power and reach of online and mobile technology to provide passionate people with opportunities to learn about issues and take online action anytime, anywhere. It will also provide a variety of offline action opportunities – offering users pathways and journeys to more, and more varied, action.
How does an online platform relate to social movements?
Throughout history, ordinary people have created extraordinary change. By standing up against injustice, raised their voices and shared their vision for a better world, they have formed movements that have shaped history.
Right now, across the globe, millions of people are taking action to fight the injustice of extreme poverty - tackling some of the biggest issues of our time, and making remarkable advances. They have helped achieve massive progress, halving extreme poverty in the last thirty years, and bringing polio to the brink of eradication.
Our generation has the opportunity to finish the job – to see an end to the injustice of extreme poverty. But to do it we’re going to need to build the movement of people taking action. Global Citizen has been designed to serve this movement.
We’ve partnered with leading organisations to provide existing change makers with the information and opportunities they need to take effective action (now and into the future); and provided a dashboard to allow those taking their first action to find action opportunities that appeal to them. Put simply – we’ve created a platform to unite, and amplify the calls of the movement.
Why do you promote advocacy rather than fundraising?
The money we give as individuals is important, but to bring about the end of extreme poverty, we also need governments and businesses to play their part: by changing rules, practices and giving money themselves.
For example, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative faces a $945 million funding gap that needs to be filled in the next 18 months. This is not something individuals can achieve by themselves. But collectively, we can work with governments to ensure stronger international commitments to tackle issues such as the eradication of polio.
That’s why Global Citizen both supports individual charities, whilst also asking you to use your voice to encourage governments and others to play their part too.
What about corruption?
Corruption is a huge issue for the world’s poor, and we have a role to play in supporting changes to systems and policies that make corruption possible. We need to ensure that our businesses, governments and citizens are not party to corrupt practices, by ensuring that our country adopts the right laws and policies. And, we need to support those fighting corruption in the world’s poorest countries.
Over time, Global Citizen will introduce a range of content and actions to help you take action against corruption, but the in meantime you can learn more about corruption, and what you can do about it, on the Global Poverty Project blog or on the Fight Corruption issue page.
What about domestic poverty issues?
The Global Poverty Project believes that extreme poverty is the greatest injustice facing our time. We believe that a world that sees approximately 1.4 billion people survive on the equivalent of US$1.50 a day and deprived of their basic rights and opportunities is unjust, and unacceptable.
We believe that domestic issues of poverty and injustice are also important, and we believe that our society has the ability, and the resources, to address both.