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GLOBAL POOR: MORE THAN “FEEL GOOD” FUNDRAISING-NEW INITIATIVE AIMS TO INSPIRE ACTION TO ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY IN ONE GENERATION

GPP

SALLY HOLT talks to former Young Australian of the Year, Hugh Evans, about the Global Poverty Project…

A ground-breaking presentation on extreme poverty – which aims to generate as much clout and discussion as the documentary An Inconvenient Truth – is making its global launch in Australia next month.

The innovation of anti-poverty campaigners Hugh Evans and Simon Moss, the 90 minute slide and film presentation, 1.4 Billion Reasons, will debut in Melbourne on 4th July before a whirlwind tour of the nation’s capital cities, paving the way for culturally-customised presentations around the world.

GPP

THE GLOBAL POVERTY PROJECT: The organisation’s website. 

 

“This is not a 90 minute aid-organisation advertisement – it’s about increasing awareness and creating certain changes…changes in our conversations, our consumption and our giving.”

– Hugh Evans on the Global Poverty Project

Evans and Moss are the co-founders of the Global Poverty Project which launched in September last year at the United Nations’ meeting on Millenium Development Goals (MDG) in New York. 

With the backing of both the UN and the Australian government, the Global Poverty Project is driven by a small management team that includes world-renowned researchers in social justice, international development, sustainability, anthropology and economics. 

In less than 12 months the organisation has also grown to incorporate international base locations and attract thousands of world-wide supporters who network through the project’s network of online social media sites. 

The Global Poverty Project collaborates closely with non-government organisations, governments, multilateral agencies and academics to ensure that each presentation – which will be tailored specifically for each international audience – is delivered accurately and effectively. 

But Hugh Evans – former Young Australian of the Year, and founder of the Oaktree Foundation – says the project is not about feel-good fundraising.

“This is not a 90 minute aid-organisation advertisement – it’s about increasing awareness and creating certain changes…changes in our conversations, our consumption and our giving,” he explains.

Creating changes in the collective thinking, he says, is the first step towards prodding policies that will expedite the MDG to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

“Extreme poverty means those more than one billion people who live on less than $1.25 a day. The aim of the GPP is to inspire people – and the media – to apply pressure to our politicians.”

In 2000, eight MDGs were developed with the objective of improving the lives of the world’s poorest people by 2015. While some progress has been made, one-fifth of the world’s population continues to live in appalling poverty. The task of meeting the MDG’s is now more challenging and confronting due to the global economic slowdown, food security and climate change.

The project has set its sights high: raising the developed world’s aid contribution to 0.7 per cent of GDP, reviving multilateral trade negotiations, and writing off Third World debt. But the organisers believe the targets are realistic and they begin with the grassroots education and engagement of 300,000 global citizens through the project’s presentation.

For the launch of its Australian pilot, 150 presentations will target 30,000 people across Australia, New Zealand and PNG, with the hope of reaching a further six million through media coverage. A feature film is also planned that will document the Global Poverty Project journey.

Hugh Evans says he’s not aware of any similar project that targets extreme poverty. 

“The human face of poverty is the obvious story, and it’s that story that will generate action – it is critically important,” he says.

Since ‘retiring’ from the youth-run Oaktree Foundation that he established in 2003, the 26 year-old has completed an honours degree in law and science at Monash University and last September, with a Sir John Monash Award and British Council scholarship in hand, moved to the UK to complete a masters degree in international relations at Cambridge University.

He says the UK is an ideal base for his role as director of the project.

“One of the best things about living in the UK is that it enables me easy access to Europe and it also means I’m in the same time zone for many of the people I communicate with, including Africa – and that’s a big plus.”

As director, Mr Evans’ tasks are to deliver overall direction to the project management team, help establish teams in other countries, ensure that local presentations and presenters match the cultural criteria, and oversee the international roll-out of presentations. 

But despite the enormity of the task, time and team (along with a looming 30,000 word dissertation) he remains enthusiastically committed and never loses sight of the goal.

“My aim is to achieve community education with the objective of policy change,’ he says. ‘If we have the will, we can eradicate extreme poverty in one generation. It is absolutely possible.”

 

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