This document outlines three requirements and six demands for tackling poverty and its causes, illustrated through twelve real-life experiences of initiatives run on the ground by Emmaus groups around the world. This important analytical and creative work is just the first step in our long-term advocacy strategy to make our voices heard, and it concerns all the members of our movement!
The idea of producing this report came about after the 2016 World Assembly in Jesolo, as part of the 4-year strategy voted on by the Emmaus International Board in November 2016 outlining the implementation of the resolutions from the chapter “Tackling the causes of poverty”. In 2018 and 2019, the Board refined its strategy and established the objectives of this report. This report is intended to be used both to address the media with a counterargument to government statistics on poverty, in addition to being used as a common tool by all the movement’s members for their advocacy work, to lobby political decision-makers, to hold debates with other organisations and civil society movements based on our analyses and proposals.
The groups present at the World Forum of Alternatives led with the most excluded in 2018, reaffirmed the importance of producing this first Global Report and inspired its content.
In an effort to develop this report in a participatory way, the Board, together with an ad-hoc working group, launched a call within the movement for “real-life experiences” that could be included in this report. Out of a hundred or so responses received from across our four regions, 12 initiatives were selected, with the main criterion being that they should be replicable on a large scale to clearly demonstrate that structural alternatives are possible. Based on these real-life experiences, it was possible to identify six important demands, which also highlight the three requirements that Emmaus International and its member groups are able to promote together, explaining how and under what conditions it is possible to tackle the causes of poverty.
Despite the pandemic, and the travel restrictions in place, the articles showcasing the twelve real-life experiences were written by a journalist during the first half of 2021, and video reports were produced for six of them with the help of local contacts on the ground.
The 60-page report will be made public on 17 October 2021, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
While this publication marks the completion of significant analytical and creative work, it is only the first step in our long-term advocacy plan. The requirements and demands presented in this report should then be taken to public decision-makers at all levels. We also hope to present it to international organisations, along with states and local authorities, thanks to the involvement not only of Emmaus International's elected representatives but also of our regions, national organisations and each of our groups. As it is only by working together, through our joint action, that we will manage to bring about change!
Abbé Pierre and the Emmaus founders carried out advocacy work for many years. It is now the time for each of us, wherever we are, in our groups or our decision-making bodies, to take up this collective effort for a fairer and more united world.
>> Find out more about the communication campaign that will be launched for the release of this report
