Global Citizen partnered with 10 organizations to deliver the Zero Poverty 2030 campaign

WHAT'S THE ISSUE?

The last two decades have been the most successful in history in the fight against poverty: the share of people living in extreme poverty has been cut in half worldwide, from 43% in 1990 to under 20% today.

However, it is unacceptable that more than one billion people still live in extreme poverty. We know that with the necessary political will and resources, ending extreme poverty by 2030 is possible. At the World Bank Spring Meetings in April 2013, 188 countries agreed to the World Bank’s goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030. However, more is needed than agreement. Every country needs to act.

For this reason, Global Citizen launched Zero Poverty 2030, a global petition calling on all countries to support all efforts to end extreme poverty by 2030 and you can sign it here.

WHAT PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE?

Moreover, on 10 April we partnered with the World Bank Youth Network to host “End Poverty 2030: Millennials Take on the Challenge”, an event focusing on the role of millennial generation in leading the movement to end extreme poverty, and featuring the Zero Poverty 2030 campaign.

This event premiered and launched a short film created by award winning film writer and director Richard Curtis in support of Zero Poverty 2030 “Heroes Beside You” calling on citizens to join the movement. The film was shared widely online, and has been picked up by media outlets and websites, including Variety. In fact, you can watch us and help us promote it here.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

So far, over 100,000 people have signed the Zero Poverty 2030 petition,with ten partners all around the world, including: Half the Sky, Women Deliver, Brac, KIVA, To Catch a Dollar, World Food Program USA, Platinum Rye Entertainment, Development Initiatives, Global Poverty Project and The Hunger Project.

World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim has committed to hand over the petition to the world’s Finance Ministers in Spring 2015. This means that world leaders and policy makers will be called on to consider Zero Poverty 2030’s critical message in their decision making when budgeting for aid and development, whether in a high income country or in low income countries around the world.

The “End Poverty 2030: Millennials Take on the Challenge” event itself was attended by over 1,000 people including Finance Ministers, NGOs, media and citizens alike, while thousands more people watched online around the world. Taking centre stage, Hugh Evans CEO Global Poverty Project’s CEO proudly announced that more than 100,000 global citizens have already signed the petition. This successfully helped us in gaining the attention of world leaders, including those present, maximising our opportunity to encourage citizens around the world to join Zero Poverty 2030 and to call on their governments to act over the coming year. Subsequently, more than 40 major media outlets ran stories featuring the Zero Poverty 2030 campaign around the world, taking its message to millions of people globally.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon summed up the value of grassroots action by global citizens and the wider public in the coming year as he encouraged the crowd saying “I know that your generation can break this vicious cycle of extreme poverty, and I count on your strong engagement.”

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Over the coming 12 months we need millions more people to sign the Zero Poverty 2030 petition to world leaders at the Spring 2015 World Bank meetings. We will share news of what happens at the Spring meetings soon.

You can help us on this journey now by taking the action and encouraging your friends, family, colleagues and neighbors to do likewise. You can help by:

1) Signing the Zero Poverty 2030 petition, and invite your friends, family and colleagues to sign

2) Watching, talking about and sharing Richard Curtis’ film “Heroes Beside You” for yourself atwww.zeropoverty2030.org as widely as you can

3) Contact us to join the Zero Poverty 2030 campaign as a school, business, or organisation atzeropoverty2030@globalpovertyproject.com.

Every time our 3 actions are taken, global citizens help amplify the Zero Poverty 2030 campaign, drawing us closer to our target of 1 million signatures.