On Tuesday The Forum, together with representatives from SANGOCO, South African Council of Churches, Peoples Budget Coalition and Reisumi Impumelelo, attended an information sharing session on the 2008 The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) mobilisation plans. The meeting was called upon by the GCAP Africa Coordinator, Christophe Zoungrana, and the GCAP Global Support Team, with the aim to investigate ways forward to set in motion the South African campaign.

What is GCAP?

GCAP is a global alliance of trade unions, community groups, NGOs and other campaigners working together across more than 100 national platforms. Through massive campaigning and mobilization of the civil society, GCAP is calling for action from the world’s leaders to meet their promises to end poverty and inequality, particularly demanding solutions that address the issues of; public accountability, just governance and the fulfilment of human rights, trade justice, an increase in the quantity and quality of aid and financing for development, debt cancellation and gender equality (read more on www.whiteband.org).

The campaigns are carried out around important international and national political dates such as International Women’s Day, the G8 meeting in Japan in July, World Day for Decent Work etc with the culmination of activities in a “50 days of action” period starting on September 1st. There is no strict framework for how national campaigns are to be carried out and as long as the objectives correspond with the GCAP core policy demands there are possibilities to adjust the campaigning to the South African political context and core policy issues, as well as participating organisations individual agendas.

Role of The Forum?

For The Forum there are a number of possible ways to engage in the 2008 campaigns and with over 3000 member organisations we have a great potential to reach out and mobilise people. In recognition of the 60 anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights, one focus for the 2008 global campaigns will be freedom from poverty as a human right.

Question:

However one question that was raised during the meeting but was not properly debated was; “what will the campaigning and mobilising bring to the people in South Africa that are living in poverty?” We believe that before The Forum decides how and if we will be part of the GCAP campaign it is of great importance that we can specify how this engagement will be of benefit to our member organisations and the people and communities they serve.  At this stage, it appears that GCAP merely serves to place the issue of poverty on the agenda but does not appear to have any direct impact on the condition, nor on the structural inequalities that underpin poverty in most parts of the world.

A follow-up meeting is scheduled for 19 March, before which the attending organisations are requested to investigate ways of engagement and possible key dates for campaigning. We would like to hear what you think about GCAP and if you feel The Forum has a role to play in the campaign? What form should this role take?

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