Editor's note: This article was originally published in July 2022, and is updated regularly. 

As a Global Citizen, you’re changing lives every day.

When you take action, you're standing up for millions of people around the world who still don't have access to the most basic needs, like food, education, civil rights, and more. We’re campaigning to end extreme poverty by making sure that commitments made on the Global Citizen stage during our festivals are delivered to organizations on the front lines, ensuring protection, equality, and equity for the world’s most vulnerable communities. This means that each day the Global Citizen Impact team is following up by holding commitment-makers accountable and checking in with beneficiaries to see progress on every single pledge. 

In addition to our regularly published impact stories, each month we'll be bringing you a monthly recap of the latest impact updates provided by our global partners, who are busy making the world a better place.

March & April 2023

Global Citizens Take 33.5 Million Actions Over a Decade, Helping 1.29 Billion People Fight Poverty

Eliminating extreme poverty, ending hunger, tackling climate change, and achieving true equality for all — these are the beliefs at the heart of Global Citizen’s mission, and the driving force behind your advocacy and ours. As a Global Citizen, each action you take is supporting organizations and activists that are working to improve the living conditions of communities in hardship.

And every day, millions of Global Citizens unite to fight for causes they believe in, taking more than 33.5 million actions across a decade, and helping 1.29 billion people fight extreme poverty in all its forms.

People fleeing war, seeking education, health care, and a place to call home are profoundly affected by actions taken on the Global Citizen app and website that support urgent campaigns, and partners like UNICEF, The World Health Organization, Education Cannot Wait, and many others. All over the world, Global Citizens from all walks of life defend our planet, advocate for the vulnerable, and make the invisible visible for world leaders and decision-makers when it counts most.

And you're not doing it alone. From the Global Citizen app to the Global Citizen Festival stages, you join the world's biggest artists, dedicated activists, and thought leaders with a purpose to change the world.

As a result, hundreds of commitments made on the Global Citizen Festival stage have helped deliver $43.6 billion to global organizations on the front lines of the world's biggest crises, and into the hands of people who need it most. But the work is far from over, we must continue to call on world leaders to take action to achieve the UN’s Global Goals and end extreme poverty NOW. In 2023, we're rallying leaders to break systemic barriers, take climate action, and uplift women and girls by taking action together.

Remember When Lady Gaga and Global Citizens Mobilized Millions to Fight COVID-19? Here's someone it helped:

In 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak devastated lives, livelihoods, and entire economies, pushing an additional 124 million people into extreme poverty. Superstar Lady Gaga knew we needed action — and fast — so that’s why, in partnership with the World Health Organization, she joined Global Citizen to launch the One World: Together At Home campaign and global broadcast special, announcing $127.9 million in urgent funding to help the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, and more than 140 frontline local and regional responders from around the world.

Local and regional response organizations in the US and around the world received funding to support more than 1 million families affected by COVID-19. This included 230 families threatened by eviction who accessed emergency rental assistance, including Mr.Knight and his brother who received housing support from La Casa de Don Pedro, an organization based in New Jersey, providing emergency services to primarily Hispanic and African-American communities across greater Newark and Essex County.

"I was incapable and unable to pay rent, [and] then pondered, like who can I get to help me? And I remembered La Casa de Don Pedro," Knight told Global Citizen in August. "When we were younger, my mom told me, no one's going to look out for your brother — so when I'm gone, take care of him for me — so I took that up."

Read the full story with Knight and Lady Gaga here.

January and February, 2023

Global Citizens Help Deliver $2 Million in Humanitarian Aid to People Impacted by the War Against Ukraine

Since war broke out in Ukraine in February 2022, more than 8 million Ukrainians have fled their country, while 6.5 million internally displaced people are living without adequate shelter, medical care, food, or water.

The war against Ukraine has brought immense human suffering and has left a lasting impact on the entire world. Global organizations like UNICEF, Education Cannot Wait, and the International Rescue Committee have stepped up to help refugees and people caught up in the conflict by providing emergency aid, food, and medical supplies. Those who are not caught up in the conflict, but want to know how they can help, can donate directly to local organizations through GlobalGiving — a nonprofit connecting donors to grassroots projects around the globe.

The organization formed the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund days before Russia officially launched its invasion in February last year, mobilizing $65 million in donations to hundreds of community organizations on the ground in Europe providing emergency relief to people fleeing the war.

In April, Global Citizen’s Stand Up For Ukraine social media rally and an in-person pledging event held in Warsaw, Poland, brought together hundreds of thousands of Global Citizens with activists, artists, and global leaders to support the humanitarian effort following the invasion. The event mobilized $10.1 billion in commitments to help humanitarian agencies respond to the Ukraine crisis and support refugee communities globally.

More than 7,000 Global Citizens from 66 countries have made individual donations to the GlobalGiving Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, raising $935,000 to help with shelter, food, clean water for refugees, health care and psychosocial support, access to education, and economic assistance.

Read the full story of Global Citizen action with Global Giving here.

How Global Citizens Helping Venezuelan Refugees in Colombia Get Back to School

Global Citizens take action every day to provide education to children in crisis around the world. This includes the more than 2.5 million Venezuelan citizens — including over 320,000 school-age children — who now live in neighboring Colombia, the world’s second largest host country after Syria.

That’s why Global Citizen traveled to Colombia in 2022 to meet Venezuelan refugee Camila and school principal Solangellie, who, thanks to the incredible work of Global Citizen partners Education Cannot Wait and Save the Children, has continued her schooling after she and her family arrived in Colombia in 2020.

At the height of the crisis, Camila and her two siblings traveled with her father and grandmother from the Northeastern state of Anzoátegui, searching for work and school in Colombia.

"I decided to come to Colombia for a better future, and a better future for my children," Camila's father, who chose not to be named, told Global Citizen in August. "Things were not easy in Venezuela, you were not just worried about the economic issues; you were worried about your children's school situation."

Now Camila’s days are filled with math, science, and friends, spending her time in school and an extracurricular learning program provided by Fundación de Chile, to help her catch up on missed classes.

Thanks to Global Citizen commitments made to Education Cannot Wait, more than 6 million children in crisis are now able to access education every day, and build the life and dreams they deserve.

You can read more about Camila’s story and Education Cannot Wait here.

November & December 2022

Global Citizens Take 3.3 Million Actions in 2022, to Announce $12.5 Billion to Help End Extreme Poverty Worldwide.

Global Citizens worked hard in 2022. You signed petitions, tweeted world leaders, phoned your political representatives, uploaded videos, and took 3.3 million actions to defeat poverty, demand equity, and defend the planet, leading to $12.5 billion being announced in cash grants and loans to support vulnerable communities everywhere.

To protect refugees worldwide and those impacted by the Ukraine crisis, Global Citizens, artists, and advocates joined the campaign in April to Stand Up for Ukraine, in partnership with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, leading to $10.1 billion pledged to support organizations and communities worldwide.

In May, Global Citizen convened over 300 leaders across the private sector, advocacy, entertainment, government, and philanthropy at the first-ever Global Citizen NOW summit, and celebrated eight “unsung heroes” championing and uplifting their communities as part of Global Citizen Prize.

In September, Global Citizen Festival traveled to Black Star Square, Ghana, for the first time and celebrated a decade of impact from New York City’s Central Park. The campaign called on the world to End Extreme Poverty NOW, and saw more than $800 million announced to end extreme poverty, and $1.6 billion announced by the European Commission and Canada as part of the seventh replenishment of the Global Fund on Sept. 21, to support its work fighting AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Five companies also signed on the UN-backed Race to Zero climate initiative, leading the way ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 in November, where Global Citizen campaigned alongside environmental activists to call on leaders to combat climate change, protect the environment, and deliver on a transformative adaptation agenda.

Stronger health systems, education for all, equality and equity for every individual, and a healthy planet for this generation and the next — ending extreme poverty is within our reach, and it starts by taking action. Global Citizen is on a mission to End Extreme Poverty NOW in 2023, so will you join us?

On the 4th Anniversary of Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100, We Met the Bug Expert Helping Save Millions of People's Sight in Benin

To celebrate the anniversary of Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100, we spoke with Sightsavers entomologist, Pelagie Boko-Collins, to learn how more than 5 million Global Citizen actions in 2018 are helping her work to fight blindness in Benin and Togo.

At the 2018 Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 in Johannesburg, Global Citizens took more than 5 million actions to end extreme poverty, culminating in 60 commitments and $7.2 billion in funding from world leaders, helping to make a difference in the lives of millions of people today. During the festival, held in honor of Nelson Mandela, the Sightsavers-led Accelerate program was launched, aimed at eliminating trachoma — the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness — across 14 African countries.

"Sightsavers is a leading nonprofit working across 30 countries, which has supported the delivery of 1.5 billion disease-fighting treatments, and helped deliver 8.3 million eyesight operations for people from vulnerable communities.
Trachoma can be traced back to the Ice Age but still impacts more than 125 million people today across 42 countries — including Benin. In December, we traveled to Benin with Boko-Collins, who joins teams to eliminate and provide treatment for trachoma and other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), while helping whole communities regain eyesight and protect generations from disease. 

Today, more than $6.1 billion of the total $7.2 billion in funding announced during Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 has now been disbursed to crucial organizations and communities on the front lines of ending extreme poverty — many of which, like Sightsavers, prioritize the prevention, treatment, and elimination of all NTDs across Africa.

Read the full story with Boko-Collins here.

Sabrina Dhowre Elba, Global Citizen, and 11 Organizations Call for Urgent Action to Help Children's Education in Crisis 

Did you know that 222 million children's dreams are on hold due to preventable factors like the climate crisis, war, forced displacement, and conflict? Today, a generation of young people is at risk of being left behind, either missing out on education or not learning the basic skills needed to develop and help build peaceful, prosperous, and healthy countries. 

Nevertheless, the world can make a difference in these children's lives.
With an increasing number of children affected by conflict and crisis, they need support from world leaders; that's why the United Nations organization Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is urgently working to provide access to education for the world's most vulnerable children, from Yemen to Afghanistan. 

In December, in support of ECW, a broad coalition of civil society organizations, led by Global Citizen Europe Board Chair Sabrina Dhowre Elba, reached out to the European Commission with an urgent call to continue its long-standing support for ECW by pledging EUR 160 million. These resources would directly support over 2 million children and youth affected by crises to receive an education and would bring the EU closer to achieving its target of investing 13% of its development budget in education. 


The letter, signed by Global Citizen and 11 Civil society organizations, urges the European Commission to support ECW's 2023-2026 Strategic Plan goal of educating 20 million children and youth in crisis, and show the EU leadership again as an education champion for a successful high-level Financing Conference in February 2023.

Read the full open letter and take action here.

Global Citizen and Ban Ki-moon Join Forces in 2022 to Support Smallholder Farmers & Fight Climate Change. 

As a committed and outspoken champion for the world’s smallholder farmers, Ban Ki-moon and the Ban Ki-moon Center for Global Citizens (BKMC) worked with Global Citizen throughout 2022 to bring attention to the crucial role smallholder farmers play in the fight against climate change. This meant calling on world leaders to meet the financial need to support essential climate adaptation measures that promote global food security. 

Throughout the year, Global Citizen positioned smallholder farmers at the heart of our campaigning for the UN’s Global Goal 2 for zero hunger, collaborating with BKMC to elevate agricultural adaptation and unlock financial commitments — led by institutions like global food security partnership CGIAR, that directly benefit rural communities. BKMC members attended Expo2020 in Dubai in March, and published articles in the Independent (UK) and Welt (Germany) in May and June calling on world leaders to take much-needed steps ahead of the G7 meetings. This was followed by more than 35,000 Global Citizens signing an open letter urging world leaders to fight food insecurity and equip rural communities to support themselves, and the world as climate change places more demands on the environment and global food security. 

The work continued throughout 2022 with Global Citizens exploring the effects of transformative adaptation in the agricultural sector and in the fight against climate change, as well as taking action on food security. 

"Nature never forgives," Ban Ki-moon told the Independent in September, ahead of the COP27 meetings in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, where Global Citizen joined BKMC, youth activists, and delegates from 198 countries to call for a transformative adaptation measure and meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, in line with the Paris Agreement.

Find out more here about how we worked with BKMC to fight food insecurity and climate change in 2022. 


October 

In Kano State, Nigeria, Global Citizen Explores the Impact of Polio Eradication Over a Decade

In 2020, Africa was certified free of wild poliovirus, four years after Nigeria — the last polio-endemic country on the continent — recorded its final case of wild polio. As a disease threatening some of the most marginalized communities in the world, polio has long been at the top of the Global Citizen agenda since 2011. Even now, progress to eradicate polio once and for all takes still requires ongoing collaboration with impacted communities, global institutions, and world leaders to help deliver vaccines to the world's hardest-to-reach populations. When it comes to polio, failure isn’t an option.

In August, Global Citizen traveled to Kano State, Nigeria, to meet Hafsat Ibrahim, WHO polio core trainer, and Dr. Mayana Sanusi Abubakar, state coordinator of the WHO polio eradication effort for the region. In Nigeria, where vaccine hesitancy is common and often magnified by community leaders, both Ibrahim and Abubakar have played key roles in helping to eradicate polio and change communities' attitudes toward vaccination. “I worked with WHO to make sure every child is immunized [and] all my five children have got the vaccine … I'm very happy because their immune system [has] increased and also they are healthier,” Ibrahim told Global Citizen in August.

Thanks to partnerships with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary International, Global Citizens have taken millions of actions over multiple campaigns to help eradicate the deadly disease and calling on governments and the private sector to support polio vaccine delivery to communities at risk of an outbreak. A decade of action on the issue has helped to deliver $2.6 billion in commitments to partners like the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization (WHO) that have helped prevent millions of deaths with dedicated vaccine campaigns.

Read the full story here.

This Fund Is Delivering Urgent Legal Aid to 49 Grassroots Activist Groups

Almost 5 billion people across the world lack access to justice — that’s two-thirds of the global population at risk of discrimination, unable to exercise their rights and have their voices heard.

The Legal Empowerment Fund (LEF), operated by The Fund for Global Human Rights, was officially announced at Global Citizen LIVE in New York City in September 2021, thanks to financial contributions from Namati, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, which collectively committed US$20 million as seed funding. Improving the justice system's efficiency in cases of environmental justice, human rights protection, and civic space in defense of the world’s activists and organizations on the front lines of change is at the heart of the LEF’s mission.

In addition to providing core funding to grassroots activists and organizations working to address systemic injustice and advocate for increased law protection, LEF recently announced $2 million in funding to 49 grassroots activist groups advocating for issues ranging from gender rights to environmental injustice, located across 31 countries globally. Grantees and activists who will receive the critical funding include Uganda-based LGBTQ+ advocates with the organization Her Internet; Tunisian clean water access nonprofit Association Nomad08, Brazil-based anti-gender discrimination advocacy group Themis, and many more. All 49 grantees share a common goal to empower their communities and fight systemic injustices through legal empowerment strategies, in regions where marginalized communities are unable to access help and, in some cases, excluded from justice systems entirely. 

September 2022

Global Citizen Festival in New York and Accra Culminates in $2.4 Billion to End Extreme Poverty

On Sep. 24, Global Citizen held the annual Global Citizen Festival, live from New York City and Accra, Ghana, calling for urgent global action to end extreme poverty NOW while also celebrating its 10th anniversary in Central Park.

Livestreamed globally, and featuring incredible performances from Mariah Carey, Usher, Stormzy, Metallica, Rosalía, and many more, more than 2 million actions were taken by Global Citizens in the lead-up to the event, more than doubling the 1 million campaign goal. Over the course of this year’s campaign, celebrities joined Global Citizens, activists, and organizations to call on world leaders to urgently address the world's most pressing issues across gender equity, climate change, and civic justice.

The event culminated in US$2.4 billion to end extreme poverty, with more than US$440 million earmarked exclusively for initiatives to end extreme poverty in Africa. More than $800 million was announced to end extreme poverty NOW and $1.6 billion was announced by the European Commission and Canada as part of the seventh replenishment of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria on Sept. 21, in addition to the announcement of five companies signing on to the UN-led Race to Zero initiative to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

As part of a celebration of 10 years of Global Citizen impact, the 2022 Global Citizen Festival honored five stories and partner-led campaigns that demonstrated the power of action and impact from across the world.

Global Citizen worked with partners including the World Health Organization (WHO), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), Education Cannot Wait, the Global Partnership for Education, Save the Children Colombia, Yuva Unstoppable, Global Citizen International Festival Curator Chris Martin of Coldplay, La Casa de Don Pedro, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and IFAD Goodwill Ambassador and Global Citizen Advocate Sabrina Dhowre Elba.

The world's leaders honored and recognized the calls for action by millions of Global Citizens by announcing impressive commitments, via video message and on stage, in support of the United Nations’ Global Goals from Accra and New York. Pledges were made by Canada, Belgium, Denmark, the European Commission, Germany, Ghana, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, United Nations, and the United States. Financial and policy announcements were also made by many corporate, philanthropic, and NGO partners including Accenture, Cisco, Citi, Delta, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, Ford Foundation, Gavi and Girl Effect, the Global Menstrual Equity Hygiene Accelerator, Lego Foundation, Procter & Gamble, Rotary International, Verizon, WWT, YouTube, and Google.org.

“We have a limited window of opportunity to act decisively to lift millions of people out of poverty, promote inclusiveness and equality, and safeguard the health of our planet,” said His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, president of Ghana, from the Global Citizen Festival: Accra stage. “Each one of us has a sacred and moral obligation to bequeath to the next generation a healthy planet, free from poverty, conflict, discrimination, hunger, and disease.”

August 2022

Global Citizens Called 'Code Red' on Climate in the US, and It Worked

On Aug. 16, US President Joe Biden signed into law the much anticipated Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that will devote $374 billion to climate and energy measures and sustainability in the US over the next 10 years. In 2021, Global Citizen joined partners from around the world to declare a “Code Red for Humanity,” urging the United States Congress to address the climate crisis and support President Biden’s 2021 Build Back Better Act.

More than 30,000 Global Citizens took action alongside Jennifer Lopez, Rachel Brosnahan, Damian Marley, and many more to call on the United States Congress to pass strong climate legislation in the lead-up to our 24-hour global event Global Citizen Live on Sep. 25, 2021.

“After 40 years of talking about the dangers of climate change, the US government has acted — passing its most consequential climate legislation in history,” said Julia Frifield, Strategic Adviser for Global Citizen and former supervisor and Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs at the US Department of State.

Global Giving Delivers Urgent Funding to Ukrainian Communities in Need

In April, Global Citizen’s Stand Up for Ukraine social media rally and an in-person pledging event held in Warsaw, Poland brought together hundreds of thousands of Global Citizens with activists, artists, and global leaders in support of the humanitarian effort in Ukraine.

Hosted by Global Citizen in partnership with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the pledging event mobilized $10.1 billion in commitments to support refugees and internally displaced people impacted by the war — which this week entered its sixth month.

Global Giving — a nonprofit that connects donors with grassroots projects around the world — joined the campaign in March as a partner to help mobilize individual contributions to frontline organizations working throughout the region to support communities impacted by war. As of today, over $916,000 in individual contributions have helped refugees and people at risk in the region with food, financial support, and emergency relief thanks to individual donations made to the nonprofit. Among those organizations receiving funding are Ukraine-based children’s shelter, Fundacja Centrum Praw Kobie (Bright Kids Charity), and Fundacja Koalicja Dla Mlodych youth foundation, providing medical care, psychosocial support, shelter, and more as the crisis continues.

Safe Households and Social Housing for the Citizens of Paris

Commitments tackling urban poverty and social welfare announced at Global Citizen Live in 2021 by The City Of Paris are now reported to be progressing according to plan. During her speech from the Eiffel Tower, Paris Mayor Anna Hidalgo promised to provide more than 5,000 social housing units every year to the city's 2.1 million inhabitants, as well as resources dedicated to combating the daily and seasonal effects of climate change, like extreme heat and fuel poverty.

Paris became the first city in the world to declare its metropolitan area as carbon neutral in 2018, yet climate change continues to damage critical infrastructure like water reserves, energy, and transportation. These commitments come at a time amid growing concerns that the health and well-being of the world’s cities, and their people, face increased risk of urban inequality due to climate change.

In Namibia, Ending Violence and Harassment on the Job Are a Priority

Namibia pledged at the Global Citizen Festival 2019 in New York, to ratify the International Labor Organization’s Violence and Harassment Convention — making the African nation only one of 12 countries to have ratified the convention.

By 2020, Namibia had followed through with the ratification, launching a nationwide campaign to ensure the workplace stays violence and harassment free, and follow guidance that prioritizes gender equality. In February that year, Namibia’s Minister Erkki Nghimtina of Labor, Industrial Relations, and Employment Creation addressed a high level briefing workshop, assuring attendees that Namibia was committed to the pledge.

“Ministry and the Social Partners have begun the long process of implementation of the Convention and Recommendation,” Nghimtina said, adding that “violence and harassment in the world of work, including gender-based violence, are threats to human rights, to equality and nondiscrimination, and to the health and well-being of workers.”

As COVID-19 Continues, Canada and Sweden Deliver & Governments Prioritize Global Health Care

The Canadian government continues to make global health care a top priority ahead of the Global Citizen Festival this year, following the completion of three commitments made during Global Citizen’s 2020 event Global Goal: Unite for Our Future, and 2021 event, VAX LIVE. More than $456 in combined pledges will go towards key agencies on the front lines of COVID-19, including Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, The Global Fund, UNICEF, Unitaid, and FIND, and further assist community-based health care facilities with the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, and the global emergency health care response.

A €46 million commitment to the World Health Organization, by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, at Global Citizen’s Global Goal: Unite for Our Future in 2020, is also now delivered in full, helping the organization deliver COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics to vulnerable communities most at risk from the pandemic.

Gavi and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative continue to play an essential role in providing access to immunization around the world, especially to the world's most vulnerable communities. Many of the pledges made on the Global Citizen stage by countries such as Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK continue to be disbursed, helping millions of people around the world stay protected and healthy.

725 Rural Nigerian Households Receive Emergency Flood Assistance

International Rescue Committee(IRC) has continued its emergency disaster work around the world thanks in part to pledges made by Google, Zendesk, and Duolingo at Global Citizen Live in 2021. With Duolingo support, 5,000 individuals continue language learning amid crisis; Google and the IRC provided pre-shock cash transfers to 725 households in communities in Nigeria; and Signpost expanded to support people affected by the crisis in Ukraine with a digital platform powered by Zendesk.

Global Goal: Unite for Our Future in 2020, Spain disbursed €5 million to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) as part of a commitment made by President Pedro Sánchez. Originally delayed for budgetary and administrative reasons, this commitment is seeing progress helping vulnerable communities to sustain agribusiness and food systems amid crises like war and famine.

After delays linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, Marriott International has also begun delivery of its commitment to spend $100 million to prioritize women-owned businesses — 51% of which in developing countries — as part of its membership with WEConnect International. The pledge was made in 2019 as part of an event co-hosted by Global Citizen and the Government of Ireland, on the sidelines of the 63rd Commission on the Status of Women. Today, more than $27.5 million has been disbursed to women-owned businesses outside of the US as part of the international supplier diversity program.

July 2022

‘Girls Not Brides’ Expands Protections to Latin America and the Caribbean

Global Citizen launched the #SheIsEqual campaign in 2018, at an event Global Citizen co-hosted alongside the European Development Days held in Brussels. The country of Luxembourg pledged $400,000 to the organization Girls Not Brides, a global coalition of civil society organizations committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to reach their full potential.

This month, Global Citizen can report that this pledge from Luxembourg has helped Girls Not Brides to expand its membership in Latin America and the Caribbean. This initiative is also helping protect children's rights around the world, including within the country of Tanzania, to end child marriage and female genital mutilation. The organization also launched the Child Marriage Research to Action Network (CRANK) with the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Program to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage, to help communicate global evidence on the issues and international strategies via shared learning.

Criminal Justice Reform Sees Progress Across the United States

$2.1 million commitment to equity and racial justice initiatives, pledged during Global Citizen’s 2020 broadcast event Global Goal: Unite for Our Future. This supported a range of partners, including Acumen, Pyxera, Jobs for the Future, and the Equal Justice Initiative.

These partnerships also supported initiatives such as the Skill Immersion Lab, the Acumen Emergency Fund responding to COVID-19 around the world, and the Pro Bono for Economic Equity program, which supports Black-owned businesses with actionable pro bono consulting and prepares SAP’s employees to be diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ambassadors and inclusive leaders.

Global Citizens Take Action to Protect Small Atlantic Island

Ascension Island is the second most populated green turtle breeding ground in the Atlantic Ocean, but overfishing, climate change, and ocean pollution are just some of the factors threatening the endangered green sea turtle along its journey to this remote sanctuary.

This World Oceans Day, on June 8, Global Citizen celebrated the success of a UK and Blue Marine Foundation 2016 commitment to support the Great British Oceans Coalition’s campaign to help preserve Ascension Island's waters and 6.8 million square kilometers of territorial waters.

precious sea life.

Sanitation and Health Care for Millions of Students Across India

Yuva Unstoppable is a non-profit organization in India that leveraged corporate funding to commit on the Global Citizen Festival stage that it would reach 400,000 more students with improved hygiene and sanitation facilities in schools across the country. Since then, Yuva Unstoppable has also adapted to COVID-19 to support students through initiatives that support health, nutrition, and vaccination campaigns.

Mexico Continues to Work to Eradicate Gender-Based Violence

At Global Citizen Festival 2019 in New York City, artist and activist Becky G joined Mexican Vice Minister of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights Martha Delgado Peralta to announce the country’s new feminist foreign policy program linked to Global Citizen’s #SheIsEqual campaign. While the government acknowledges the challenges Mexico faces regarding gender equality, progress on this commitment is underway in the three years since the festival.

In 2021, Mexico co-hosted the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico City to urgently call for action and accountability on gender equality, spotlighting the power of women's rights activism, feminist solidarity, and youth leadership to achieve transformative change.

Mexico also campaigned and was present at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow in 2021, calling for action on climate change, women’s rights, and more.

Mexico is also facilitating the elaboration of a Gender Action Plan in the current negotiations of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs fostered the signature of two agreements to eradicate gender-based violence.

The second of these was signed, in May 2021, between the 10 Consulates of Mexico in California and the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls of California, which will help strengthen the consular services to eradicate gender-based violence.

We continue to hold world leaders accountable for the pledges made by millions of Global Citizens worldwide. But in order to end extreme poverty NOW, more needs to be done to achieve the United Nations Global Goals. Every action counts, and by signing up on our website or by downloading the Global Citizen app, you can join us and millions of others to speak up for the most vulnerable people around the world — now.

TopicsClimate ChangeGlobal Citizen FestivalImpactGlobal GoalsGlobal Citizen Impact#GCimpact

Impact

Demand Equity

Global Citizen Impact: The Latest News on How Your Actions Are Helping to End Extreme Poverty

By Camille May