What is GCAP?

Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) supports people in their struggles for justice and brings individuals and organisations together to challenge the institutions and processes that perpetuate poverty and inequalities. Together, we defend and promote human rights, gender justice, social justice, climate justice and the security needed for the dignity and peace of all. 

You can see how we do it by visiting our Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and viewing our current campaign, called Faces of Inequality.

Our strengths

  • Strong political leadership from the Global South.
  • A focus on the structural aspects of inequalities.
  • Proven ability to mobilise millions of people in support of rights-based advocacy.
  • A solid grassroots foundation, consisting of thousands of small & mid-sized civil society organisations.
  • A real bottom-up process led by marginalized groups and women’s organisations.
GCAP is a network of over 11,000 civil society organisations (CSOs) organized in 58 National Coalitions and in constituency groups of women, youth and socially-excluded people, among others.

History

A Decade of Campaign Experience

In September 2003, prominent activist on women and children’s issues, Graça Machel, hosted a group of southern civil society activists in Maputo, Mozambique. It was here, that the idea of a Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) was first aired.

Launched in 2005 at the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre with the symbol of the whiteband, GCAP has mobilized hundreds of millions of people and co-organised the world’s largest single issues-based campaign to ‘Stand UP’ Against Poverty – certified by the Guinness World Records with 173 million people in 2009.

GCAP played a key role the creation of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We have organized community and national consultations in 39 countries since 2013. In 2015, we mobilized 32 million people to act against Poverty, Inequality and Climate Change.

GCAP has successfully insisted on the centrality of addressing inequalities and guaranteeing the active participation of people in the Agenda 2030. The standalone goal on inequalities, SDG 10, is one result.

On 25 September 2017, GCAP initiated in cooperation with the UN SDG Action Campaign the Global Day of Action – Act4SDGs to mark the anniversary of the SDGs. In 2018 a million people took part in 1662 actions in 143 countries.

  https://youtu.be/aRUgs2Wpcqc

Mission & Strategy

Mission To build a strong and progressive global action against poverty and inequalities with a Southern leadership to ensure that nobody is left behind.

  1. People – especially from marginalized groups – are aware of their rights and empowered through partnership with local and national CSOs to provide a robust bottom up and citizen-driven process that addresses the structural aspects of inequalities and monitors the SDGs.
  2. All levels of government as well as the private sector are held accountable to address the structural aspects of inequalities and implement the SDGs.
  3. Build a strong global network – from national coalitions, constituency groups and initiatives for advocacy and mobilization – at regional and global levels to influence international processes and institutions.

Themes

  • Gender and Social Exclusion
  • Role and Accountability of Private Sector
  • Redistribution
  • Climate Justice

Main activities

  • Research and Analysis: Inequality Reports and Faces of Inequalities publications
  • Awareness raising and capacity building on inequalities and SDGs
  • Mobilisation and campaigning in a bottom up process
  • Advocacy and Monitoring
  • Civil Society Coordination and Alliance Building

 

Our structure

National Coalitions

GCAP is made up of over 11,000 CSOs, organised in 58 National Coalitions. Each works with grassroots organizations and at national level throughout the year, on the most relevant issues in their own country.
PacificAsiaEuropeAfricaArab regionLatin America & the CaribbeanUSA

Constituency Groups

Constituency groups organize and represent groups in society who are most vulnerable, neglected and left behind and face discrimination and inequalities.



  • Women’s rights and feminist organizations
  • Socially excluded task force
  • Youth
  • Older people

General Assembly

GCAP’s General Assembly is the global decision making body, which includes all national coalitions and constituency groups and meets every three years. The GCAP General Assembly elects the Global Council.



Global Council

The Global Council provides strategic direction and implementation for GCAP, as mandated by the General Assembly and its Declarations, and is headed by three Global Council Co-Chairs. The present GCAP Global Council was elected in July 2016 after an inclusive election process and many candidates in each region. The Global Council serves a term of 3 years as defined by the governance document of GCAP. Salina Sanou, Beckie Malay and Riccardo Morro are the current elected Co-Chairs of GCAP.  



Africa

  • Salina Sanou

    Co-Chair
    Kenya

    Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD)

    Salina Sanou is a renown pan-African expert on education and gender with a particular focus on women, small scale farmers in rural and in conflict settings. She is the Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD), heading a pan African advocacy programme mirroring four thematic areas: livelihoods, particularly right to food; conflict transformation and peacebuilding; gender justice and women’s rights and the right to health. She is also currently the focal point for the post 2015/SDGs agenda process within the organization. She has more than 17 years’ experience in women’s rights advocacy, research and project management. Prior to joining ACORD, she has worked across the African continent with various organisations including FAWE, CARE, Oxfam and the UN Millennium Project. She has authored many publications and position papers including Pastoralist Education in Mali and Niger; Pastoralist schools in Mali: Gendered Roles and Curriculum Realities and Beyond Access: Transforming Policy and Practice for Gender Equality in Education. She is a graduate of both University of Nairobi, Kenya and McGill University, Canada. …Read more

  • Oumar Sow

    Senegal

    GCAP Senegal

    Oumar is the head of GCAP Senegal and is a dynamic and highly experienced person with management and coordination experience. His work with GCAP started in working for GCAP as main person responsible for advocacy. Being responsible for the STAND UP campaign being the focal and coordination point and being a coordinator for the action2015 campaign in Senegal. Ourmar is very familiar in the international NGO sector and has experience leading and coordinating different networks. …Read more

Asia

  • Beckie Malay

    Co-Chair
    Philippines

    Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) / GCAP Philippines

    Beckie serves as the Chair of the GCAP Global Foundation. She worked with the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement for more than 20 years during which she worked with farmers, fisherfolk, women, and youth implementing integrated sustainable development programmes. She is in charge of policy, advocacy and campaigns on issues such as political and electoral reform, debt, trade, climate justice, and the nexus between human rights and sustainable development at the local, national and global levels. Beckie studied development economics and enjoys good music and good food.

    Since 2015 she has been active in the SDG-related UN processes such as the Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development and the UN High Level Political Forum. She is the Regional Organising Partner for the UN NGO Major Groups for Asia. …Read more

  • Mohammad Zia-ur-Rehman

    Pakistan

    AWAZ Foundation, GCAP Pakistan

    Zia leads the Pakistan Development Alliance, PDA and heads the AWAZ Foundation Pakistan.
    Zia was nominated for the prestigious Nelson Mandela-Graca Machel Innovation Awards 2016 and has a lot of experience in campaigning and as GCAP Coordinator.

    One focus of his work are the rights of women and young people. …Read more

  • Katsuji Imata

    Japan

    CSO Network Japan

    Katsuji works as Board Chair of CSO Network Japan and Vice Chair of Japan NPO Center. Katsuji also serves on the Board of Japan Civil Society Network on SDGs (SDGs Japan), a coalition of international development NGOs and national and local nonprofits that leads civil society efforts to promote the SDGs in Japan. Between 2007 and 2013, Katsuji was in Johannesburg, South Africa, serving in a senior management role for CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, which works to strengthen civil society and citizen action throughout the globe. …Read more

Europe

  • Riccardo Moro

    Co-Chair
    Italy

    GCAP Italy

    Originally from Turin, Italy, Riccardo is the spokesperson of GCAP Italy. He teaches Development Politics at the University of Milan has taught international politics and international economics at several institutions in Africa and Latin America. He was very active in the Jubilee Campaign, which focused on debt cancellation in the late ’90s and for the improvement of poverty reduction policies in the first decade of 2000.

    Riccardo works regularly in Lima, Peru, where he manages one of the biggest debt funds that finances sustainable development. Projects in Peru implemented by NGOs and local municipalities. …Read more

  • Farah Nazeer

    United Kingdom

    BOND

    Farah is a policy, public affairs, campaigning, and communications professional with over 18 years of experience in civil society.
    The aid agenda, economic justice for girls and women and effective campaigning and public mobilisation are of particular importance to her. Ownership and activism is the critical key to unlocking systemic change. …Read more

Latin America and Caribbean

  • Mario Céspedes

    Costa Rica

    Red de Control Ciudadano

    Mario Céspedes from Costa Rica is from the organisation Red de Control Ciudadano (Network of Citizen Control) which provides a space for a diverse network of 25 organisations which aim at capacity building amongst citizens around monitoring and advocacy on public policy. A debate and furthering public discourse about development that is fair and ensures that it is equal and ensures equity and above all guarantee the participation of the people of Costa Rica and of all Central America. …Read more

  • Agustina Carpio

    Argentina

    FOCO

    Agustina comes from the NGO INPADE/FOCO Citizen Participation Forum for Justice & Human Rights from Buenos Aires, Argentina, which focuses his line of work on citizen engagement and participation of the Civil Society. She is the Coordinator of the Economic, Social & Cultural Rights Area in the NGO. She has coordinated GCAP LAC first as focal point since their beginning in 2005, and then she was elected in 2016 to be part of the 2 representatives on the LAC region as a member of de Global Council. She is the coordinator also of PAMPA2030 (Plataforma Argentina de Monitoreo Para Agenda2030 ), a new local platform founded by a multifactoral representatives sector of NGOs/CSOs, Trade Unions and Academia who are committed to monitoring compliance with the Agenda2030. …Read more

Regional Assemblies and Regional Councils

Regional bodies coordinate unified advocacy and mobilisation actions in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America & the Caribbean.



Secretariat

The Global Secretariat is decentralised and implements GCAP’s daily operations based on the strategy and the decisions of the Global Council.



  • Ingo Ritz

    Director
    Belgium

    ingo.ritz@gcap.global

    Ingo is the Director of Global Call to Action Against Poverty since 2013. He coordinates the decentralized Global Secretariat and is based in the GCAP Europe Secretariat in Brussels. As part of his role he supports national coalitions in their work on the Sustainable Development Agenda after 2015 and is active at the regional and global levels to ensure the inclusion of socially excluded groups and gender equality as part of the new framework. A trade economist from Germany, he has been a part of GCAP through GCAP Germany since 2004, and he worked as the Executive Director of the German Civil Society organization NETZ Partnership for Development Justice from 2001 to 2013. In NETZ he worked with local and national development human rights organisations in Bangladesh and India and performed advocacy work in Germany and towards European institutions. The focus of his work in Bangladesh and India was on income generation, education and the rights-based approach of marginalized people in remote rural areas. …Read more

  • Kyerewa Asamoah Sekpey

    Leave No Woman Behind Project Coordinator of GCAP Africa
    Ghana

    kyerewa.asamoah@gcap.global

    As a team-player and bilingual professional with demonstrated abilities in development program coordination, training/facilitation, the uncanny gift in identifying and harnessing human, capabilities. She has about ten (10) years’ experience in development work with extensive exposure to varied cultures, and good understanding for contemporary development issues especially on gender and youth development issues. Ms Asamoah enriches teams she is privileged to work with. With a previous UNDP Civil Society Resource Center working experience based in Ghana, specifically tasked with Youth Focused issues and volunteer with reputable Youth NGOs, Ms Asamoah has the rich experience in advocacy and forging strategic alliances with governmental agencies, local and foreign partners for effective program implementation. She is a passionate campaigner and advocate for poverty reduction and equality for all. Until recently, she coordinated the activities of over 800 registered organizations in Africa under the campaign named Action2015 campaign which seeks to remind stakeholders and especially governments to fulfil their promises of reducing poverty at all levels and achieving the Millennium Development Goals and also to commit to the new agenda of Sustainable development Goals.
    Kyerewa is currently working with Ghana, Kenya and Mali coalitions on “Leave No Woman behind” project supported by Voice Global led by Ghana Federation of people with Disability (GFD) and GCAP as the project coordinator. …Read more

  • Pradeep Baisakh

    Asia Coordinator
    India

    pradeep.baisakh@gcap.global

    Pradeep Baisakh is the Asia Coordinator since July 2015. He coordinates GCAP actions in Asia done by the National Coalition members. He also coordinates the larger civil society platform on SDG, the Asia Civil Society Partnership for Sustainable development (APSD). Pradeep is from India and has nearly thirteen years of experience in development sector. He comes with splendid understanding of the grassroots development from his early years of work. He is also an award winning journalist for his development reporting. and has written columns for some prominent newspapers and websites in India, as well as international journals. His research experience includes among others, being part of a research project on “Material Cultures of Financial literacy among Rural and Urban Poor in India” done by University of California, Irvine. …Read more

  • Tanja Gohlert

    Europe Coordinator and Head of Global Communications
    Belgium

    tanja.gohlert@gcap.global

    Tanja Gohlert joined GCAP in the autumn of 2017. She coordinates GCAP's European coalitions and as well as the DEAR project, on behalf of GCAP. She leads GCAP's communications work, and has been responsible for the development of GCAP's new website and identity. In addition, she is co-chair of SDG Watch Europe's Strand 3 working group on communications. …Read more

  • Johannes Butscher

    Campaigns Officer
    Colombia

    johannes.butscher@gcap.global

    Johannes studied and worked in Scotland prior to joining the GCAP Brussels Office in 2015 and is part of the Global Secretariat since then. In March 2017 he moved to Colombia to pursue a part time degree in Peacebuilding and to support local peace initiatives. …Read more

  • Dorothy Namuyiga

    Finance and Administration Officer
    Belgium

    dorothy.namuyiga@gcap.global

    Originally from Uganda, Dorothy has been living in Brussels since 2002. She has 5 years teaching experience in Uganda. She also has more than 5 years experience in finance, accounting and administration. …Read more

Global Foundation

The GCAP Global Foundation is an independent legal not-for-profit organization registered in the Netherlands that takes care of the administrative and financial aspects of running GCAP at the global level, including hiring staff and finance.



Networks & Platforms



GCAP and partners jointly built these global and regional platforms and continues to play a key role in their coordination.

GCAP is also a member of the following UN Major Groups

Partners



GCAP cooperates politically with and receives financial support from the following partners.