Poverty
Combating poverty: Keeping the needs of children in mind
Combating poverty is one of the central topics in Kindernothilfe's lobby and campaign work. One of the focuses in this field are the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). Kindernothilfe carried out two surveys on these strategy papers in combating poverty in developing countries which attracted international attention. These showed clearly that child rights must play a more important role in strategy papers for the future. Kindernothilfe is a member of VENRO, the Association of German development non-governmental organisations participating in their campaigns.
Picture: Alexandra Höner
The action campaign "Your Voice against Poverty" is the German contribution to the international "Global Call to Action against Poverty" which is an alliance consisting of organisations from over 60 countries. At the millennium summit of the United Nations in New York in 2000, states undertook to achieve eight important development goals by 2015. The symbol of the campaign to achieve this is a white band, which can be worn as a wrist band or wrapped around buildings. Kindernothilfe supports the yearly White-Band Day on the 10th December.
300 000 Signatures
In 2005 "Your voice against Poverty" collected around 300 000 signatures for the implementation of the eight millennium goals and handed them to the German chancellor Gerhard Schröder - Kindernothilfe collected 33.000 of these. The signatories urged the German government to put pressure on the heads of state and heads of government at the UN summit "Millennium + 5" in September 2005 not to deviate from their fight against global poverty. Although the results were disappointing, the campaign managed to have the millennium goals for combating poverty and for development work given enhanced status in the final document. A further success was achieved at the G8-Summit in Gleneagles/Scotland: The heads of government agreed on debt cancellation measures totalling 50 billion US Dollars for the 18 poorest countries. This was no doubt a result of the global campaign and the pressure it exerted.
Picture: Christoph Engel
For some years now the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (short: PRSPs) have been a focus point of Kindernothilfe's work. The first survey which Kindernothilfe published on this topic in 2004, met with a large response. In summer 2005 the follow-up study "Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: Children First!" was published. It comes to the conclusion that in the medium term strategies for combating poverty, Ethiopia, Zambia and Kenya have largely neglected the needs of children. As children and young people in these countries make up more than half the population, this means that the greater part of the population of these countries are simply ignored. Kindernothilfe demands that child rights be given more importance in future strategy papers. Kindernothilfe passed these demands on to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The World Bank published them on their website. On September 22, 2005, Kindernothilfe submitted these to the German president Horst Köhler.
Talks with Members of Parliament and Ministers
Kindernothilfe continues its technical discussions with members of parliament and the German Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development to improve measures for combating poverty.
Download:
Survey: "Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: Children First!"(pdf)
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