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Highlighting the Plight of the Poor
 

This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post as a rebuttal to "Is The Global Poverty Project's 'Live Below the Line' Campaign An Effective Way to Help The Poor?"  

The Global Poverty Project welcomed the recent post, "Is The Global Poverty Project's 'Live Below the Line' Campaign An Effective Way To Help The Poor?"

GPP staff, volunteers and supporters ask this question every day.

This is important -- debating the merits of what we do and why we do it is integral to who we are. This is because GPP's purpose is more than just raising awareness about extreme poverty; it is about inspiring debate and raising the pressure to do something about it. We don't just want people to know the problems, we want them to act in realistic, informed and highly focused ways to force solutions.

More than anything, we don't want business as usual.

This week, people have been taking real action around the globe to fight extreme poverty with the Live Below the Line Campaign. They've used social media and reached out personally to friends, family members and their communities. Over 10,000 people have taken part in the campaign -- raising over $1.2 million globally to help lift people out of poverty.

Our partner in this campaign is CARE. A leading humanitarian organization, CARE works in 87 countries, implementing long-term programs to fight poverty, responding to humanitarian emergencies, and advocating for policy change to improve the lives of the poorest people. Working together, GPP has used our unique strengths to help bring attention to global poverty, inspiring everyday people to live below the line and fundraise for CARE -- who are the experts at doing this work on-the-ground and doing it successfully.

But we don't stop at fundraising. We are interested in systemic change. Global poverty is the product of reversible policy failures overseen by politicians, past and present. The poorest of the poor don't vote in American or European elections. They don't make donations to political parties or hire lobbyists in D.C., London or Canberra. In an environment of budget-slashing austerity measures, funding allocated to development assistance is ripe, low-hanging fruit.

The Global Poverty Project's mission is to stand up for the world's poorest people. We fight for the full funding of Millennium Development Goals and advocate meaningful change to government and corporate policies that block progress and entrench injustice. We get there by inspiring and educating people, expanding the number of informed voices calling for change. This can include celebrities like Hugh Jackman and Charlize Theron, but more often it is our friends, family, classmates, neighbors and colleagues.

Live Below the Line raises real money to help the world's poorest people but it is also a symbolic demonstration aimed at highlighting -- not replicating -- the plight of the world's poor. Mocking participants for the mildness of their hardship may be good fun, but it misses that point. History shows that all protest movements rely on symbols -- boycotts, strikes, sit-ins, flags, songs. Symbolic action on whatever scale -- from the Montgomery Bus Boycott to wearing a simple wristband -- is designed to disrupt our everyday complacency and force people to think.

GPP has made real, tangible progress in this fight. We played a pivotal role in the government's decision to double aid and development spending in Australia -- an additional $4.3 billion for the world's poorest. We worked alongside other organizations to persuade Cadbury to adopt fair trade practices, improving the livelihood of 40,000 farmers in Ghana. Our U.S. co-founder led a movement to end America's involvement in the war in Northern Uganda through the passing of the LRA disarmament act through U.S. Congress.

Funds raised for GPP are helping fight the root causes of poverty. This fall, we'll also focus on creating systemic change by educating and engaging over 15,000 Americans in advocacy campaigns that target issues like preventable diseases like Polio, transparency and corruption, and making trade fair.

Together, we have so much more to do.

 
Posted by Hugh Evans in Poverty, What Can I Do? for column Live Below the Line on May 21st 2011, 05:53
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It's Not "Playing Poor," It's Symbolic Action!
 
The following is a response to "What Do "Pretend to Be Poor" Experiments Really Teach Us?" and was originally posted on GOOD Magazine.

Earlier this week, Cord Jefferson criticized the Global Poverty Project’s Live Below the Line campaign. Having just completed the challenge, I agree that it is ridiculous to claim that cutting down your food budget for a week can replicate the experience of 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty. I can confirm that a $1.50-a-day diet, while modest by my usual standards, is a very manageable sacrifice. It is certainly far removed from what I can only imagine is the grinding and thankless day-to-day reality for the world's poor.

 However, the Global Poverty Project does not claim, and has never claimed, to reproduce the experience of living in poverty, except in a symbolic way. If we had, we would have deserved every bit of the cynicism directed our way and then some.

Jefferson called Live Below the Line a "pretend to be poor experiment," the first indicator that he may be missing the point. Firstly, no one is being asked to pretend to be poor. In fact, the effect of living below the line for a week is to make us realize how rich—and lucky—we actually are. Live Below the Line aims to shed light on the poverty of others, not mimic it ourselves.

Secondly, Live Below the Line is not an experiment but a demonstration. Like any advocacy organization, our mission is to build a case for change, partly by highlighting the injustices we aim to correct. We don’t apologize for using symbolic action as a means to achieve this. In fact, what is the alternative? History shows that all protest movements rely on symbols—boycotts, strikes, sit-ins, flags, songs—because if we had the power to change policy immediately, then we wouldn't need to protest. Symbolic action on whatever scale, from the Montgomery Bus Boycott to wearing a simple wristband, is designed to disrupt complacency and force people to think.

Live Below the Line is an effective way to get our message through the static. New audiences are being reached because thousands of supporters take the campaign's message to their network of friends, family, classmates, and co-workers. By personalizing the issue a little, we can make it relevant and memorable. Celebrities like Hugh Jackman have also supported the campaign, bringing the message to millions of new eyes and ears.

We live in a world that could fix the problem of extreme poverty—not overnight, but sooner than most people realize. The global community, through the Millennium Development Goals, has even laid out a realistic plan to make it happen within a generation. Of course no one believes it will be easy. It will take courage and vigilance. At the Global Poverty Project, we won't stop thinking of new and different ways to keep current and future supporters informed and energized for the battles ahead. 
Posted by Hugh Evans in What Can I Do?, Poverty for column GPP - United States on May 20th 2011, 07:12
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Kicking off GPP UK
 

Dear GPP friends and supporters,

I hope that you are all well and that your 2010 has gotten off to a great start. It certainly has for GPP. After months of planning the Project has finally launched in the UK with a series of incredible presentations!  

The first event of the UK’s 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation to the UK public was at the One Young World Summit in London at the beginning of February. It was an incredible honour to present alongside Bishop Desmond Tutu, an absolute hero of those working to end poverty. It was my first time meeting Bishop Tutu and it was lovely to speak in Zulu with him. One of the most profound things he said to me was when he told be about his involvement in the apartheid movement. In his words, he didn’t mind when he was attacked because he had signed up for the struggle, but it was very difficult when they hurt his family, his son in particular. I was moved by the lengths that he went to and sacrifices he and his family had to make along the way.

The presentation at One Young World went so well and received the only full standing ovation of the day from a packed audience of 1000 young representatives. We also received great feedback through all of our digital channels like twitter and facebook. It was a wonderfully affirming way to kick-start operations as we geared up for larger launch events and awesome to meet people from all around the world who want to bring GPP to their respective communities.

The second big event was the launch of our Church presentation at St Pauls’ Cathedral in London to an audience of 1000 people including Mr Douglas Alexander MP and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu. Once again thanks and congratulations must go to Elisha London for setting up such an amazing opportunity for GPP.  Having the opportunity to present in such a stunning venue has been unparalleled. The highlight was definitely when Arshbishop Sentamu broke bread emulating an act of Mother Teresa’s to symbolise the responsibility we all have to our brother and sister.

The final launch event was our presentation at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge. Cambridge is really where it all began in the UK and is the town I’ve called home for the past year and a half. It really was the best example of what GPP is all about because a group of volunteers worked tirelessly to pull together an audience of 1000 people demonstrating what grassroots movements can do to mobilise and engage an audience (it should be noted the population of Cambridge is just over 100,000). The highlight of the night for me was when the Master of St John’s brought along the candlesticks that William Wilberforce donated to the College when he was an undergraduate. The Master lit the candles in ceremony and they remained lit for the duration of the presentation. As you will know if you’ve seen 1.4 Billion Reasons, Wilberforce is a man who features prominently and is a personal hero of mine. It was a deeply touching symbol and was capped off with an amazing rendition of Amazing Grace by ‘The Gents” who created an arrangement specifically for the event.

It really was one of our best presentation to date. I’d like to make special mention of Laura O’Reilly who led the Cambridge team and was responsible for organising a remarkable evening. Thanks so much Laura!


We also took some time last month to meet with some of GPP’s Global advisors at St John’s College Cambridge for a strategic planning review of GPP operations for 2010-2011. It was an awesome few days with a group of very dedicated individuals and I look forward to operationalising the work we laid out over those few days. Thanks to Clive Burcham, Michael Smellie, Lisa Fox, Laurie Lee, Wei Soo, Simon Moss and Elisha London who travelled long distances to meet with us.

 

Some points in summary that I would like to share with you are:

  • The plans to roll-out in the USA from mid-2010 are taking shape!
  • Financial sustainability for Australian and International teams is a key priority.
  • The GPP Film – Clive and the team at TCO have been working hard. Watch this space!
  • Communications strategy for Australia, UK and USA – we are moving to centralise all communications and accelerate our digital strategy.
  • 2010 Global Strategy – we are bringing together a plan to support our country teams in a unified way

We’ve got a lot of exciting campaigns and projects coming up this year and we can’t wait to share them with you. Make sure you keep tuning into the website and blogs for updates.  

 
Posted by Hugh Evans in for column GPP - United Kingdom on Mar 16th 2010, 22:12
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New Year's Message
 

                                               

Dear GPP Supporters,

Welcome to 2010! Wishing you all the best for a safe and prosperous year ahead.

Safely back in the UK and having had a wonderful two week break in the highlands of Scotland with my beautiful new fiancé Tanyella, I have had some time to reflect on the year that was, and more importantly look ahead to an incredible 2010.

Let me share with you in some detail our plans for the year ahead focusing on a few specific regions- Aus, NZ, UK and USA.

Australia and New Zealand

Having successfully completed the Project Seed & Launch in 2009, including the hugely successful launch tour of Australia and New Zealand, GPP has been given a clear mandate from both our project partners and the Australian public to continue the momentum and generate a grassroots movement in Australia.

Our next chapter, can be divided into three focus areas:

Presentation Reach 

Activator Training

Activator training is focused on achieving three key objectives, to:

·      Train 100 advocates to deliver the GPP presentation in a scalable manner that will activate their grassroots communities.

·      Provide opportunities for community action and provide ongoing support to advocates in this area.

·      Develop training materials to support the ‘Activators’ and activated grassroots communities.

 

Corporate Presentation

Together with our partners at Opportunity International we are in the process of developing a version of the 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation that is tailored to the corporate sector. We are planning to launch this in May rolling out to boardrooms across Australia.  The presentation focuses on the sustainability of micro-finance and its role in poverty alleviation. 

 

Youth Activation 

Responding to strong demand from parents, schools and youth groups across Australia, we have developed a Youth Activation Program.

The objectives of this program are:

·      Inspire youth to take action with our youth focused version of 1.4 Billion Reasons

·      Connect inspired youth who want to create change with existing resources, programs, people and organisations that are already creating change.

Following a successful pilot from October to December 2009, to over 1500 students, we will take the program nation-wide in 2010.

Church Presentation 

With our partner Compassion Australia we have developed a Christian presentation. We are seeking to activate this presentation nationally.

 

 Communications

 Campaigns

 The Global Poverty Project is currently developing a number of high profile campaign strategies for 2010. 

·      A partnership with News Limited to increase news space on issues of extreme poverty

·      Drive a campaign in the lead up to the Australian Federal Election to ensure issues of extreme poverty are on the agenda.

·      In September the UN will reconvene to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals and outline plans for the future. We will be campaigning to ensure that plans are put in place and poverty remains a high priority issue.

Supporting those who have made a commitment

To support the people we have already presented to and who have made a commitment we are launching a 12 month campaign strategy which will target various issues of extreme poverty, and lead people to action through different tasks – it may be through buying fair trade at Christmas, or signing a petition to increase aid contributions.

 

The Film

The Global Poverty Project is also producing a documentary film for release in 2011. There will be opportunities to invest in the 1.4 Billion Reasons film in the near future.

 

United Kingdom

Following the UK launch in London on February 9th, we will convene a meeting of the International Secretariat and Global Advisory Activation Panel where we will outline our strategies for branding and sustainable business over the next 12 months.

At the end of February I will be making a particularly special presentation at St Paul’s Cathedral London to a great audience, which will provide an incredible platform from which we can activate country-wide.

 

United State of America

After a very successful preview at Donna Karan’s Urban Zen in December hosted by Deborra-lee Furness, Hugh Jackman and Lisa Fox, we have made some strong contacts to pursue activating there towards the end of the year. 

We aim to present 1.4 Billion Reasons across the USA in community groups, businesses, schools, universities and places of worship

Currently we are looking for advisors in the US who can work with the team to tailor the presentation to a US audience.

We are also looking for professional support and philanthropic support form individuals, companies and businesses willing to offer their services pro bono.

 

The World

We are also planning some exciting work in the Netherlands, Canada, Portugal and Germany throughout the year.

With 2010 being the year of review for the Millennium Development Goals, this year counts more than any other. We can end extreme poverty within a generation, we have the framework and the means, all we need is the will.

Today I invite you to start this year afresh, leave a legacy and make a strong commitment and help end extreme poverty.

Make a New years Resolution today to take action on extreme poverty. Whether you’re going to change your buying habits and only buy fair trade coffee, or whether you’re going to join an advocacy group like Amnesty and write letters to your government representatives on issues of poverty, let 2010 be the year that YOU make a difference.

Every generation is called upon to make its mark on the planet and its people, let this be ours.

Hugh Evans

Founder and CEO

The Global Poverty Project

                                                                                                                                             
Posted by Hugh Evans in for column Global Poverty Project - International on Jan 13th 2010, 16:01
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Toronto, Canada - Global Poverty LAUNCH
 

 

 

 

 Dear GPP Supporters,
 
A quick note from Toronto to let you know how the North American Launch went on Thursday. 
 
Thanks to the amazing support of Centennial College, Chris Adams, Hugh Jackman, and the tireless work of our very own Erin Deviney, the launch was a huge success!
 
We had between 600-700 people there at 11am on a Friday morning, a phenomenal turnout. One guest drove past 4 times, thinking they were in the wrong spot, and that they must have accidentally gone to a rock concert venue because of all the people outside. The auditorium was packed. 
 
Media coverage was great- Toronto knows about this project now due to our coverage on EZ Rock/Virgin Radio (top-rated morning show in Toronto), CBC Radio (top rated talk radio show in Toronto), The Torontoist (most-read blog in the Toronto) and tonight, CBC TV News at Six. And much more. Here are a few links to the media coverage- 
 
GPP's Producers, Clive from TCO and Chris Adams worked with more than 20 students to film the presentation, creating content that can be fed into the film and promotions content that we'll be creating.
 
The presentation itself went really well. We were very encouraged to receive a standing ovation at the end of the presentation, and a long line of people wanting to chat afterwards. Thank you to everyone who attended. 
 
Special thanks also need to go to Clive, Jo Melling and the entire team at TCO, who have spent the last few weeks pulling very long hours to get Mach II of the presentation ready. It looks stunning, and after the team pulled an all-nighter before the presentation getting the final touches ready. 
 
We are excited to take the project across North America later this year and towards the start of 2010. 

Warmest regards,
 
Hugh Evans and Simon Moss
 
Posted by Hugh Evans in for column GPP - Canada on Sep 16th 2009, 04:21
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