Make Poverty History is the name of a campaign that exists in a number of countries, including Australia [1], Canada [2], Denmark [3], Finland [4], Ireland [5], New Zealand [6], Nigeria, Northern Ireland [7], Norway, Romania [8], the United Arab Emirates [9] and the United Kingdom [10]. The various national Make Poverty History campaigns are part of the international Global Call to Action Against Poverty GCAP was initially a worldwide alliance committed to making world leaders live up to their promises and to making a breakthrough on poverty during 2005. However due to the success of the campaign during 2005, the 170 members of the campaign's International Facilitation Group met in Beirut in early 2006 and unanimously agreed to continue the campaign and similar campaigns exist in other countries under different names.

The campaign is generally a coalition of aid and development agencies which work together to raise awareness of global poverty and achieve policy change by the government. Though the different campaigns focus on different issues according to the circumstances within their country, they generally focus on issues relating to 8th Millennium Development Goal The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include reducing extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global partnership for such as aid, trade and justice.

The UK campaign

The Make Poverty History campaign is a Great Britain and Ireland coalition of charities, religion groups, trade unions A trade union or labor union (American English) is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labor contracts (collective bargaining) with, campaigning groups and celebrities who mobilise around the UK's prominence in world politics, as of 2005, to increase awareness and pressure governments into taking actions towards relieving absolute poverty The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries. The symbol of the campaign is a white "awareness bracelet Gel bracelets or jelly bracelets are an inexpensive type of wristband similar to a large diameter O-ring. They come in a variety of colors, and dozens can be worn on each arm. They have been popular in waves throughout the Western world and elsewhere since the 1980s. One style of these wristbands, known as "awareness bracelets", carry" made of cotton or silicone. Usually on the band the words would be written in black, with the 'Poverty' word a lighter shade. A 'virtual' white band ^[1] was also available to be displayed on websites.

Television advertisements ran for many months, urging people to speak to their representatives about stopping poverty. However, the UK Office of Communications The Office of Communications or, as it is more often known, Ofcom, is the independent telecommunications regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established in the enabling device, the Office of Communications Act 2002, but received its full authority from the Communications (Ofcom) banned the ads, deciding that the ads were "wholly or mainly political" in nature, since they aimed to "achieve important changes".^[2]

The three demands of the campaign were:

• "Trade Justice" Trade justice is a campaign by non-governmental organisations lobbying for changes to the rules and practices of world trade so that poor people and the environment benefit. These organizations include consumer groups, trade unions, faith groups, aid agencies and environmental groups
• Drop the debt Debt relief is the partial or total forgiveness of debt, or the slowing or stopping of debt growth, owed by individuals, corporations, or nations. Traditionally, from antiquity through the 19th century, it refers to domestic debts, particularly agricultural debts and freeing of debt slaves. In the late 20th century it came to refer primarily to
• More and "better" aid Aid is a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another, given at least partly with the objective of benefiting the recipient country. It may have other functions as well: it may be given as a signal of diplomatic approval, or to strengthen a military ally, to reward a government for behaviour desired by the donor, to extend the donor'

None of these aims were new (there were many attempts over the preceding decades to promote them), but the scale of the 2005 campaign dwarfed previous efforts.

On January 31, 2006, the majority of the members of the campaign passed a resolution to disband the organisation, arguing that the UK coalition had only agreed to come together formally for a limited lifespan, to correspond with the UK holding the presidency of the EU The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the European Communities. With over 500 million citizens, the EU combined generated an estimated 28% share (US$ 16.5 and G8 The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for governments of six countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976, Canada joined the group (thus creating the G7). In becoming the G8, the group added Russia in 1997. In addition, the European Union is represented within the G8,. Approximately forty groups argued against the dissolution.

Events

Make Poverty History set out a timescale revolving around the 31st G8 summit The 31st G8 summit was held from July 6 to July 8, 2005 at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Perth and Kinross, in Scotland and hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The locations of previous G8 summits to have been hosted by the United Kingdom include: London ; and Birmingham (1998) in Gleneagles, Scotland on July 6, 2005.

The campaign was given a high profile launch on British television on New Year's Day 2005 in a special edition of The Vicar of Dibley The Vicar of Dibley is a British sitcom created by Richard Curtis and written for its lead actress, Dawn French, by Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, with contributions from Kit Hesketh-Harvey. The Vicar of Dibley aired from 1994 to 2007. In 2004, it came third in Britain's Best Sitcom, written by Richard Curtis Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a BAFTA-, Primetime Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated English screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, The Boat That Rocked and Love Actually, as well as the hit sitcoms Blackadder,, who pledged support for the campaign during 2005. The same issues were highlighted in Curtis' television drama The Girl in the Café, in an episode broadcast on June 25 on the BBC One BBC One is the primary television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation . It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular public television service with a high level of image resolution. It was later renamed BBC tv until the launch of sister channel BBC2 in 1964, whereupon it was known channel in the UK on the HBO Home Box Office , a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, is an American premium cable television network that broadcasts in over 150 countries channel in the U.S. and on ABC TV in Australia.

• The UK assumed presidency of the G8 The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for governments of six countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976, Canada joined the group (thus creating the G7). In becoming the G8, the group added Russia in 1997. In addition, the European Union is represented within the G8, on January 1, 2005 and hosted the summit with poverty Poverty is the lack of basic human needs, such as clean water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter, because of the inability to afford them. This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared in Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people (as of 2009, see table) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.72% of the world's human population being, at least nominally, a major topic for discussion.

• The Commission for Africa, launched by Tony Blair Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007; he resigned from all these positions in June 2007 in February 2004, aimed to help create a strong and prosperous Africa. Their report, published in March 2005, was a focal point for the UK presidency of the G8.

• In the second half of 2005, the United Kingdom held the EU presidency The President of the European Council is the person responsible for chairing and driving forward the work of the European Council, the institution which provides political direction to the European Union . The President also represents the EU on the world stage.

• July 1, 2005 was the first international Something international mostly means that it involves more than one nation (country). The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally reaching beyond national boundaries. For example, international law, which is applied by more than one country over the world, and "White Band Day", a worldwide day of action.

• July 2 - Over 225,000 protesters demonstrated in Edinburgh Edinburgh (pronounced /ˈɛdɪnbɹə/ ( listen), ED-in-brə or ED-in-bə-rə) (Scots: Edinburgh/Embra/Emburrie) (Gaelic: Dùn Èideann) is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland after Glasgow and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government to promote the campaign's demands. On the same day, the Live 8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 Conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland from 6–8 July 2005; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. Run in support of the aims of the UK's Make concerts took place before the G8 summit to encourage activism and debate within the G8 member countries, with the aim of increasing political pressure on the leaders.

• July 3 – boats set off to Cherbourg Cherbourg-Octeville is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France in France to pick up protesters as part of Sail 8

• July 6 - The final Live 8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 Conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland from 6–8 July 2005; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. Run in support of the aims of the UK's Make concert, named Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push rocks Edinburgh in the final strike to persuade G8 The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for governments of six countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976, Canada joined the group (thus creating the G7). In becoming the G8, the group added Russia in 1997. In addition, the European Union is represented within the G8, Leaders to double aid in Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people (as of 2009, see table) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.72% of the world's human population. Demonstrators walked overnight up to 20 miles to reach Gleneagles as the A8 had been closed.^{[citation needed]}

• The 20th anniversary of Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue concert that was held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, was on July 13, 2005.

• September 10 was the second international Something international mostly means that it involves more than one nation (country). The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally reaching beyond national boundaries. For example, international law, which is applied by more than one country over the world, and "White Band Day".

• The United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation. Its powers are to oversee the budget of the United Nations, appoint the non-permanent members to the Security Council, receive reports from other parts of the United Nations and make Special Summit on the Millennium Development Goals, September 2005. This summit reviewed the progress since 2000 of the Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include reducing extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global partnership, including halving the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015.

• December 10 was the third international Something international mostly means that it involves more than one nation (country). The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally reaching beyond national boundaries. For example, international law, which is applied by more than one country over the world, and "White Band Day".

Member organisations

The UK campaign had over 540 member organisations including many faith groups, trade unions A trade union or labor union (American English) is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labor contracts (collective bargaining) with and charities A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . The term is relatively general and can technically refer to a public charity (also called "charitable foundation," "public foundation" or simply "foundation") or a private foundation. It differs from other types of NPOs in that its focus is centered. See Member organisations of Make Poverty History (UK).

Whilst the anti-war group CND The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organization that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, and for international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It opposes military action that may result in the use of was a member, the Stop the War Coalition (StWC) asked to join but was refused. The Make Poverty History's governing body, the coordination team, cited the substantial political party affiliations of the governing body of StWC as the primary reason. They also gave the grounds that the issues of economic justice are separate from those of Iraq war PKK: 537 killed , 9 killed (PKK Claim), 230 (official army figures claim), and STWC participation in Edinburgh on 2 July would confuse the message. In a highly critical article in Red Pepper magazine, Stuart Hodkinson claimed that this was ironic since Oxfam Oxfam International is a confederation of 14 organisations working with over 3,000 partners in around 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice a member of the coordination team "is currently leading a worldwide campaign for an international arms treaty on the basis that uncontrolled arms fuels poverty and suffering." Hodkinson, Stuart (July 2005). "Make the G8 history". Red Pepper.

The Canadian campaign

The Canadian Canadians are citizens of Canada. Canada is a multiethnic society, home to people of many different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, some Canadians don't take their nationality as an ethnicity. Aside from the indigenous Aboriginal peoples, who according to the 2006 Canadian Census enumerated 1,172,790, 3.8% of the country's total Make Poverty History campaign was launched in February 2005 by a coalition coordinated by Gerry Barr, President and CEO of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation. The campaign is supported by a coalition of charities, trade unions, faith groups, students, academics, literary, artistic and sports leaders such as actor Mary Walsh, musician Tom Cochrane, Olympian The Olympic Games are a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Games are currently held every two years in even-numbered years, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating, although they occur every four years within their respective seasonal Anna van der Kamp, actors Roy Dupuis and Pascale Montpetit, and United Nations The United Nations Organization or simply United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of special envoy Stephen Lewis Stephen Henry Lewis, CC is a Canadian politician, broadcaster and diplomat. He was the leader of the democratic socialist Ontario New Democratic Party for most of the 1970s. During many of the those years as leader, his father David Lewis was simultaneously the leader of the Federal New Democratic Party. After politics, he became a broadcaster on.

Make Poverty History has four main objectives in Canada:

• More and better foreign aid Development aid or development cooperation is aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, social and political development of developing countries. It is distinguished from humanitarian aid by focusing on alleviating poverty in the long term, rather than a short term response. The term development cooperation, which is
• Trade justice Trade justice is a campaign by non-governmental organisations lobbying for changes to the rules and practices of world trade so that poor people and the environment benefit. These organizations include consumer groups, trade unions, faith groups, aid agencies and environmental groups
• Cancellation of all debts Debt relief is the partial or total forgiveness of debt, or the slowing or stopping of debt growth, owed by individuals, corporations, or nations. Traditionally, from antiquity through the 19th century, it refers to domestic debts, particularly agricultural debts and freeing of debt slaves. In the late 20th century it came to refer primarily to owed by poor countries to developed countries like Canada
• Elimination of child poverty in Canada

The French-language version of the Make Poverty History is "Abolissons La Pauvreté". While this literally translates to "end poverty", neither the English- nor French-language versions of the Canadian campaign should be confused with End Poverty Now. The former represents the Canadian Make Poverty History campaign; the latter is a stand-alone organization that, while remaining affiliated with the campaign, was created independently by a small grouping of MPH Canada's member base.

See related article, Poverty in Canada Poverty in Canada remains prevalent with some segments of society. The measurement of poverty has been a challenge as there is no official government measure. There is an ongoing debate in Canada about whether a relative measure of poverty, or absolute measure of poverty, is more valid

The US "ONE" Campaign

In April 2005, a commercial began airing in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language with several celebrities in black and white stating the pledge of the American ONE Campaign The ONE Campaign is a international, nonpartisan, non-profit organization which aims to increase government funding for and effectiveness of international aid programs, their version of Make Poverty History. The commercial featured 33 celebrities and personalities; names as diverse as religious leaders Pat Robertson Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a prominent political spokesman for the Christian right in American politics and a highly visible spokesman in the media for Fundamentalist religion. He is the founder of numerous organizations and corporations, including the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the Christian Broadcasting Network ( and Frank Griswold; singers including Bono, P. Diddy, Mos Def and Jewel; and various actors including Brad Pitt, Susan Sarandon, Al Pacino and Antonio Banderas. At the end, Tom Hanks states, "We're not asking for your money. We're asking for your voice."

The general goals of the ONE campaign in the United States are to end extreme poverty, hunger and AIDS.

The founding sponsors of ONE are Bread for the World, CARE, DATA, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Plan USA, Save the Children US, World Concern, and World Vision. They have strong ties with the NBA, MTV's Rock the Vote, and the United Nations Millennium Campaign.

The Norwegian campaign

The Norwegian campaign was started by Norwegian Church Aid on June 9. Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway and Kjell Magne Bondevik are some of the celebrities in Norway that wear a white Make Poverty History band.

The three demands of the Norwegian campaign are:

• "Trade justice"
• Drop the debt
• More and "better" aid

The shops in Norway that sell Make Poverty history bands are Cubus and Dressman, two Norwegian clothing shops.

The Nigerian campaign

The Nigerian campaign was started by Gospel to the Poor Agency on October 18, 2007 as a public action at their 7th annual anti-poverty rally called Walk4Jesus.

Our Vision "To fight extreme poverty with passion and professionalism through a comprehensive wealth creation development framework in Nigeria."

Walk4Jesus is the largest youths anti-poverty rally in Nigeria, where more than 7 million campaigners had participated in the StandUp Against Extreme Poverty. Gospel to the Poor Agency put it upon themselves to jump start the Make Poverty History campaign in Nigeria which led to the official registration of the Make Poverty History Initiative in Nigeria as an NGO by April 2008. Now, there are more than 350 organizations, faith groups, churches, youths, civil societies and NGOs that keep coalition with Make Poverty History Nigeria. Make Poverty History Nigeria tends to facilitate the MDGs, runs community based development programmes, skill/business development training, and massive advocacy for human capital development of Africans.

In 2008, Make Poverty History Nigeria commanded the largest crowd in Africa at the StandUp Against Poverty Campaign with a march to the governors office in Lagos, Alausa. Professor Pat Utomi sits as one of the patrons of the initiative. Joseph O. Peters, an international advocacy specialist, diplomat, computer analyst and a creative business development consultant, played a very significant role in the official start of the GCAP StandUp Campaign in Nigeria. Make Poverty History Nigeria also keeps a coalition with all other Make Poverty History and GCAP network globally.

The Australian campaign

The Australian campaign is coordinated by the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID).

The Australian campaign remains popular with many national Non Government Organisations (NGO's) including World Vision, Oxfam, Caritas (charity), The Oaktree Foundation and Engineers Without Borders promoting the campaign.

In November 2006, Melbourne hosted the Make Poverty History Concert to align with the G20 Summit.

Criticism

Some critics allege that debt relief and aid are used to fund lavish lifestyles for the ruling class^[3] (although efforts are made to exclude these countries from the G8 debt relief). Debt relief advocates respond that if international funds are being used to pay for lavish lifestyles of the ruling elite, that this is in fact odious debt, which the public of poor nations (rather than the corrupt beneficiaries of the debt money) have no obligation to repay.

Others were critical of the ending of the Make Poverty History coalition; the Left-wing activist Alex Callinicos wrote that "disbanding of mph has a lot to do with the interests of the big NGOs that dominated it" and that "scrapping mph was an utterly shameful decision. It can only promote the belief that those who currently dominate the world are benevolent figures who will, with a few pushes from below, continue to take ‘small steady steps forwards’".^[4]

Some (minor) criticism also emerged from the campaign's wrist-bands, and how they had apparently become fashionable amongst people who cared little about the original message (see the MakePovertyFashionable parody ^[5]). Further criticism derives from the fact that some of these wristbands were proven to have been produced by forced labourers in Chinese sweatshops.^[6]

See also

• Dissent!
• G8 Alternatives
• Make Poverty History Emirates
• Make Poverty History Nigeria
• Global Call to Action Against Poverty
• ONE Campaign
• Poverty in Canada

References

1. ^ Make Poverty History Campaign - Get Involved
2. ^ Gibson, Owen (September 13, 2005). "Broadcast ban on Make Poverty History ad campaign". guardian.co.uk (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/sep/13/g8.advertising. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
3. ^ Feeding the War in Sudan
4. ^ Winding up Make Poverty History|18Feb06|Socialist Worker
5. ^ make.poverty.fashionable :::: ::: :: :
6. ^ Mccormack, Helen (May 30, 2005). "Anti-poverty bands made with forced labour, Oxfam says". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/antipoverty-bands-made-with-forced-labour-oxfam-says-492573.html. Retrieved March 27, 2010.

External links

• "Make Poverty History: Around The World" Website Links
• Global Call to Action Against Poverty - Official Website of the Global Campaign
• Live 8
• BBC News - About Make Poverty History
• BBC News - 225,000 campaigners march in Edinburgh
• Make Poverty History Nigeria
• The Times - Critique of Make Poverty History
• The 2010 Make Poverty History Roadtrip

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