Make Poverty History

Millennial Commitments

In honour of the new millennium, the 189 nations of the world hammered out a set of important goals at the United Nations. These goals, called the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, represent a hard-won consensus on what needs to change in the world, and what are realistic goals. With a timeline of meeting the goals by 2015, the MDGs set out minimum standards for change in areas like women's equality rights, literacy, environmental degradation and poverty. There were some great commitments.

A Global Call to Action

Move ahead five years. There is little evidence that the world's states are advancing towards meeting the goals they've signed on to. Civil society, individuals and non-governmental groups, anxious that the MDGs represent talk rather than action and good will rather than political will to really make change, launched the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, or GCAP. This campaign, the biggest anti-poverty movement in history, brought together diverse groups with a wide range of views on how to address poverty and inequality in the world. Given the urgency of the issues, they thought it was time to work together. They all share a commitment to raising awareness about poverty, a belief that poverty is not acceptable and is not inevitable, and a desire to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are met.

Making Poverty History in Canada and Beyond

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty is like an umbrella, including dozens of national and local campaigns around the world. In Canada and the U.K., the campaign is called Make Poverty History. The specific demands of the Canadian Make Poverty History campaign are simple, addressing both local and global concerns, and summed up neatly in fourteen words:

1 MORE AND BETTER AID
2 TRADE JUSTICE
3 CANCEL THE DEBT
4 END CHILD POVERTY IN CANADA

A sister campaign in Quebec, called Un monde sans pauvreté: Agissons!, likewise demands the cancellation of debt, fair rules for trade, increased aid and needs-based social welfare protection. For more information, find out what Canada can do.