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Poor Filipinos embark on a campaign for social protection
Friday, 13 March 2009

Pushing for a “bailout package” for the nation’s poor under the banner “Social Protection for the Poor,” urban poor groups lead a campaign to draw attention on the need to implement programs and provide policies for social protection in a time of global economic crisis.

by Lani C. Villanueva

MANILA, 9 March – Civil Society organizations in Manila marked International Women’s Day with a mobilization demanding “Pagkain” (Food), “Trabaho” (Jobs), “Pabahay” (Housing), “Kalusugan” (Health), “Unemployment Insurance Scheme,” and “Subsidy for Jobless Women.” There were rallyists holding giant representations of a lightbulb and a faucet, signifying the demand for access to essential services.        

Women leaders and campaigners belonging to the GCAP coalition in the Philippines joined the mobilization led by the Welga ng Kababaihan (Women’s Strike), a coalition of more than 50 anti-poverty and anti-globalization NGOs and campaign centers. 

Amid the sweltering heat, poor working women, mothers with their children in tow, girls and grandmothers, marched in slippered feet chanting:  Women are suffering under the escalating violence of the global crisis! Pagkain! Trabaho! Pabahay!       

Discontent is sweeping the nation that calls for the government to address the basic needs of the poor in the midst of the crisis is gaining ground. And urban poor groups are leading the call.  The National Urban Poor Coalition (NUPCO), a coalition of several urban poor groups, some of which are affiliated with GCAP-Philippines, is poised to launch a campaign to exact concrete actions from the government to provide social protection for the poor. NUPCO says the groups under its umbrella realize the value of advancing this campaign in terms of consolidating their ranks and building political and economic strength towards reclaiming the poor’s “full rights to a dignified living.”

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Madrid talks: In the right direction but lack urgency and fund
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
27-01-09: As UN Secretary General, General Ban ki Moon and Spanish Premier, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, close the Madrid High Level Meeting on Food Security and Agriculture, the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) calls for a move from the right words to urgent action by making sufficient funds available immediately, particularly to local governments and local civil society. GCAP also demands that unfair trade, food dumping as well as financial speculation on food, be stopped immediately.

GCAP Poverty Hearings in Southern countries in 2007 and 2008 have shown the daily reality of unaffordable staple foods for millions of people.  The global financial crisis is directly affecting those working in informal economies.  As families starve, domestic and communal violence increases and criminal networks increase their hold on vulnerable populations.  Meanwhile, this Madrid Declaration is focused on spending another year building a Global Alliance for Agriculture and Food Security. Southern governments are diplomatically calling this progress ‘slow’ and GCAP is not convinced the best interests of food producers and poor consumers will be represented.
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