Кампания «Прекратим бедность»: история и цели

Anti poverty campaigns

Make Poverty History were organizations in a number of countries, which focused on issues relating to 8th Millennium Development Goal such as aid, trade and justice. They generally formed a coalition of aid and development agencies which worked together to raise awareness of global poverty and achieve policy change by governments. The movement has existed in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Romania, South Africa, Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. The various national campaigns were part of the international Global Call to Action Against Poverty campaign.

Make Poverty History set out a timescale revolving around the 31st G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland on July 6, 2005. The campaign was given a high profile launch on British television on New Year's Day 2005 in a special edition of The Vicar of Dibley, written by Richard Curtis, who pledged support for the campaign during 2005. The same issues were highlighted in Curtis' television drama The Girl in the Café, in an episode broadcast on June 25 on the BBC One channel in the UK on the HBO channel in the U. S. and on ABC TV in Australia. Britain assumed presidency of the G8 on January 1, 2005, and hosted the summit with poverty in Africa being, at least nominally, a major topic for discussion. The Commission for Africa, launched by Tony Blair in February 2004, aimed to help create a strong and prosperous Africa. Their report, published in March 2005, was a focal point for the British presidency of the G8. In the second half of 2005, Britain held the EU presidency. July 1, 2005, was the first international "White Band Day", a worldwide day of action. July 2 – Over 225,000 protesters demonstrated in Edinburgh to promote the campaign's demands. The movement was characterised by rifts between Oxfam and the other participating organisations, partly over tactics and partly due to concerns that Oxfam was too close to Tony Blair and New Labour.

In April 2005, a commercial began airing in the United States with several celebrities in black and white stating the pledge of the American ONE Campaign, their version of Make Poverty History. The commercial featured 33 celebrities and personalities; names as diverse as religious leaders Pat Robertson and Frank Griswold; singers including Bono, P. Diddy, Mos Def and Jewel; and various actors including Brad Pitt, Susan Sarandon, Al Pacino and Antonio Banderas. At the end, Tom Hanks states, "We're not asking for your money. We're asking for your voice." The general goals of the ONE campaign in the United States are to end extreme poverty, hunger and AIDS. The founding sponsors of ONE are Bread for the World, CARE, DATA, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Plan USA, Save the Children US, World Concern, and World Vision. They have strong ties with the NBA, MTV's Rock the Vote, and the United Nations Millennium Campaign.

The Nigerian campaign was started by Gospel to the Poor Agency on October 18, 2007, as a public action at their 7th annual anti poverty rally called Walk4Jesus. Walk4Jesus is the largest youth anti poverty rally in Nigeria, where more than 7 million campaigners participated in StandUp Against Extreme Poverty. Gospel to the Poor Agency jumpstarted the Make Poverty History campaign in Nigeria which led to the official registration of the Make Poverty History Initiative in Nigeria as an NGO by April 2008. Aligning with the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) and the United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC), the Make Poverty History Initiative brought more than 350 organizations, faith groups, churches, youths, civil societies and NGOs across Africa that keep the MDGs Campaign and advocacy a formidable coalition in Africa. The same year, Make Poverty History Nigeria led the largest campaign in Nigeria at the StandUp Against Poverty Campaign with a 10,000 man march to the governor's office in Lagos, Alausa to demand the fulfillment of the MDGs. In 2019, Make Poverty History Initiative Country Director Joseph O. Peters initiated remarkable programs and impactful projects that facilitated the MDGs – most especially Goal 1, 2, 3 and 7 through community based development programmes, skill and business development training, massive advocacy for human capital development in Africa, and partnerships to sponsor the education of hundreds of impoverished schoolchildren – known as Project Eduguide. Nigeria has 13.5 million children out of school.

The Australian campaign is coordinated by the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and is a coalition of more than 60 member organisations, drawn mainly from the Non Government Aid and development sector, including World Vision, Oxfam, Caritas, The Oaktree Foundation and Engineers Without Borders. In November 2006, Melbourne hosted the Make Poverty History Concert to align with the G20 Summit. Since then, the Make Poverty History campaign has continued to create awareness for the need for increased overseas aid and greater measures of effectiveness, through the yearly Stand Up Against Poverty campaign, as well as major campaigns for the federal elections in 2007 and 2010, including Make Poverty History Roadtrips. They also continue to incite social mobilisation among people in Australia, often being present at social and music events such as Falls Festival and Big Day Out, as well as having a great range of opportunities to organise their own campaigning events.

Some critics, such as Theodore Dalrymple, allege that debt relief and aid are used to fund lavish lifestyles for the ruling class (although efforts are made to exclude these countries from the G8 debt relief). Other critics were Mariéme Jamme of Africa gathering and Dambisa Moyo. Moyo argues that a campaign to reduce poverty in Africa should be undertaken by Africans, and the Make Poverty History was not, thereby undermining the leadership of African rulers. Others were critical of the ending of the Make Poverty History coalition; the academic Alex Callinicos wrote in the Socialist Worker newspaper that "disbanding of MPH has a lot to do with the interests of the big NGOs that dominated it" and that "scrapping MPH was an utterly shameful decision. It can only promote the belief that those who currently dominate the world are benevolent figures who will, with a few pushes from below, continue to take 'small steady steps forwards'". Some criticism also emerged from the campaign's wristbands, specifically from the fact that some of these were proven to have been produced by forced labourers in Chinese sweatshops.