Overcoming poverty is not an act of charity, it is an act of justice. Act of justice, as everyone deserves the chance to live in a world which is equal and sustainable for all, providing everyone an equal opportunity to grow.
According to reports there are 736 million people across the world who are living in extreme poverty. These people are in utmost need of help. So, with the motive to help these people and end extreme poverty by 2030 an organization named “Global Citizen” was formed. Global Citizen is a group of people who care for the world, takes an active role and work with others to make the world more fair, equal and sustainable for everyone. It is a movement of citizens across the world who are collectively raising their voice , with the aim to end extreme poverty by the year 2030 once and for all.
This organization was co-founded by Hugh Evans, Simon Moss, Wei Soo in 2008. The organization is headquartered in New York and has offices in Canada, South Africa, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Global Citizens across the world take actions to compel world leaders to make significant changes and commitments to end poverty. They firmly believe that problems like gender inequality, health, food and nutrition , water sanitation, education etc. are also the causes leading to extreme poverty and in order to get rid of extreme poverty actions should be taken for these issues too.
What is extreme poverty?
We have often heard about poverty and might have an idea about what poverty is. But poverty and extreme poverty both are not same and there’s a huge difference between both of them. While Poverty is the living condition of not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. On the other hand, extreme poverty is something much more than just living without an income or shelter. According to the World Bank, living in extreme poverty means surviving on less than $1.90 a day in low income countries, $3.20 in middle income countries and $5.50 in wealthier countries.
People who live in extreme poverty are severely deprived of basic human needs and often do not have access to service aids like food, access to clean water, access to health care resources , sanitation, education, jobs, community development and more. Their whole energy is spent focusing on surviving : gathering food and water , getting their families through each day.
The majority of people living in extreme poverty are located in rural areas and lack access to adequate education and work. The root causes of poverty are often lack of basic necessities, bad governance, conflicts and crisis , climate change, discrimination and exclusion and lack of access to social services.
While poverty rates have declined in all regions, progress has been uneven. Most of the world’s extreme poor, up to 42% live in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the lack of available resources pose greater threats of instability.
The global goal aims to ensure that all people have access to basic human needs in order to reach their full potential.
What other issues are Global Citizens dealing in order to end extreme poverty by 2030?
Global Citizens have the aim to end extreme poverty by 2030. For this it has constantly been taking certain actions. It has a view to mobilize $1 billion people across the world. These people , referred as the global citizens will take actions to compel the world leaders to make significant changes and commitments to end poverty once and for all.
Global Citizens are taking actions on the issues which are also the causes of extreme poverty. They have taken action in the field of gender equality, health, water and sanitation, education and food & nutrition. Let’s take a broader look on them-
- Education– According to the reports 264 million children, including 131 million girls don’t attend schools. Out of these , 75 million miss schools due to conflicts and crises. Lack of education increases the risk of child and maternal deaths, exploitation , sexual violence and child labor. The “Education Commission” has found that bringing quality education to all kids by 2030 requires $1.8 trillion investment. And to fill this gap global citizens have raised a campaign and have raised over $1.2 Billion from the governments and other donors and are helping to support sufficiently in education.
- Gender Equality- Over 90% of countries have at least one sexist law . And there’s not a single country where girls and boys are totally treated equal. Girls and women are not given the same treatment as male members of society. Women don’t have access to necessary assets. Every day thousands of women and girls across the world die due to pregnancy complications or through diseases occurring due to lack of hygiene. Women are more likely to be poor than men as they do not get as many opportunities to receive an education, work or own property. All this doesn’t help in economic growth and leads to extreme poverty. Global Citizen has raised a campaign to seek funding of $200 million for women’s health and to empower women to increase their income , economic independence and their family’s well being.
- Health– More than 400 million people across the world lack access to essential health services and some tropical diseases like elephantiasis etc. affect 600 million people in Africa and 1.5 billion globally. Such diseases and other health issues don’t let people earn a regular income and trap them in the cycle of poverty. To bring a change in health sector globally, Global Citizen is planning a campaign to raise $300 million to support universal health coverage, $250 million annually to deploy treatments and routine immunizations for neglected tropical diseases and $100 million in funding for pandemic prevention. Global Citizen feels that these efforts will reduce child and maternal deaths and will lead to eradication of preventable diseases which will result into economic growth and a healthier global workforce.
- Hunger & Nutrition – Poverty and conflict are major reasons for hunger and famine. Every year 3 million children die from malnutrition and 815 million people go to bed hungry each night. Global Citizens with different campaigns had asked governments to improve the whole system from farm to fork, from field to plate. The $450million funding from African nations to support better nutrition and agriculture will improve the condition and break the cycle of hunger and poverty.
- Water, Sanitation & Hygiene– According to a survey 4.5 billion people lack access to clean water and sanitation. Girls and women are worst affected. They spend long hours collecting water, the time which could otherwise be utilized in some fruitful manner. Also due to dirty water consumption and diseases they miss out on school or work. Also due to lack of resources and proper information , they lack sanitation & hygiene which leads to poor health and disease . All this leads to poverty. Global Citizen has raised a campaign to raise $450 million to fund clean water and sanitation in the poorest communities. So, that everyone could live a life of dignity, especially the girls.
What work does the Global Citizen organization do ?
Now, a question arises that in this whole campaign of removing extreme poverty what role does the global citizen’s organization play ?
The organization, Global Citizen campaigns to improve all of the conditions that determine a person’s welfare. The global citizen interested in building a beautiful world for all , can get information about these campaigns and current issues leading to extreme poverty by visiting Global Citizen’s website ,or their app or through the events like music festivals etc.
Next, they can take actions such as signing petitions or sending emails to government officials to show their support and call for change. When global citizens take part in a campaign , government institutions and other organizations get pressured to make lasting changes, either by committing money or by amending laws.
Global Citizen’s organization then holds leaders to account for their commitments. The team monitors each commitment to make sure they are being achieved. Sometimes , these campaigns are for short term goals while other times they are aimed at more systematic changes.
Since 2011, until now millions of global citizens around the world have taken over 24 million actions targeting world leaders to end extreme poverty by 2030. Till date, the actions by global citizens have resulted in commitments and policy announcements at over $48 billion.
How can you become a global citizen?
Global Citizen is a community for people who are concerned about the world. It is for those people who want to learn and take some action on the world’s biggest challenges and are ready to join the movement for social change.
To join the movement , first of all you need to sign up and create an account . You can do that either by visiting their official website www.globalcitizen.org or you can also download their app from the app store and can sign up through that. After signing up and creating an account you become a Global Citizen.
Now , to be an active member of the organization keep checking the contents and videos published every day. For the issues you are concerned about, you can take action by sending petitions, emails or tweets to world leaders. You can call the government or can join certain rallies. Global Citizens organization provide you lots of options to make your voice heard.
And as a bonus, for every action you take, you get points in your account which can be redeemed for rewards, like attending a global citizen festival or seeing other music performances , sporting events and more.
Being a Global Citizen simply means to have a belief that extreme poverty and all of its related symptoms and causes can be eliminated if enough people take action collectively. It means that when we use our voices collectively , it will inspire lasting change for people living in extreme poverty around the world.
If you want to play a role in ending extreme poverty, you can get involved and ask governments and international institutions to transform their commitments into action.
