Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), launched by Nelson Mandela at London’s Trafalgar Square in 2005, marked 20 years of campaigning to eradicate poverty and advance global justice, with civil society leaders calling for stronger solidarity, greater grassroots power and space for a new generation of activists.

Watch 20 Years of GCAP video

On 10 September 2026, at an online event marking GCAP’s 20th anniversary, 170 participants from across the world reflected on the movement’s two-decade journey. They discussed how civil society can work more closely together, put the voices of people affected by injustice at the centre and work towards a fairer future.

Watch the event here

Former GCAP co-chair and President of Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, Kumi Naidoo, delivering the keynote at the event said, “When GCAP came to being we were guided by a simple but powerful idea: poverty is not an accident, it is a political choice.”

He said one of GCAP’s important contributions has been creating spaces for people experiencing poverty and exclusion to speak for themselves rather than having others speak on their behalf.

“People do not experience their lives in policy categories,” added Naidoo, who is also the former Head of Amnesty & Greenpeace. He underlined that such choices can be challenged through people’s power.

Naidoo said, calling on civil society to move beyond issue-based silos. Climate justice, economic justice, gender justice, democracy, decent work and social protection, he said, are interconnected.

“We are stronger when we connect struggles rather than compete over them,” he said, calling for stronger solidarity among community organisations, trade unions, women’s movements, young people, climate activists and cultural workers.

Building power with people

Naidoo said the need for solidarity has become more urgent amid deepening inequality, climate breakdown, attacks on democracy and human rights, shrinking civic space, authoritarianism and the growing influence of artificial intelligence.

He warned that the multilateral system is struggling to respond to crises at the required speed and scale, placing additional pressure on civil society.

Yet he cautioned against pessimism.

“Pessimism is a luxury we simply cannot afford,” Naidoo said, calling for optimism, creativity and courage rooted in an understanding of the challenges.

A recurring theme of the discussion was the need to place people most affected by inequality at the centre of decision-making. Naidoo said civil society should not become “professional representatives” of excluded communities, but should create conditions for people to exercise their own agency and power.

He also called for greater intergenerational leadership, saying young people should have a genuine share of decision-making, resources and power, rather than simply being invited into structures created by older generations.

Culture, imagination and movement building

Naidoo urged civil society to rethink how movements communicate. Movements have become effective at explaining what is wrong with the world, he said, but need to become equally compelling in showing what a different world could look like.

Music, art, storytelling and creativity, he argued, should be treated as tools for movement building.

He said movements must move beyond tackling the consequences of climate change and challenge the systems driving continued fossil-fuel expansion.

Using the analogy of a flooded bathroom, he said activists had spent decades “mopping the floor” instead of turning off the tap.

He also stressed that movements must care for the wellbeing of activists, arguing that joy, friendship, belonging and mental wellbeing are essential to sustaining long-term struggles.

From an anti-poverty campaign to a global justice movement

GCAP emerged in 2005 amid a period of growing global mobilisation around poverty and inequality, including the Millennium Declaration, the World Social Forum and increasing public debate around global economic power. From the beginning, its work connected the fight against poverty with the wider struggle for global justice, equality and people’s rights.

At GCAP’s launch in London’s Trafalgar Square in 2005, Nelson Mandela called poverty a man-made injustice that could be overcome through collective action, urging a generation to “make poverty history”. He described the global campaign as a movement comparable in its purpose to the struggles against slavery and apartheid.

Reflecting on this history in his video message, former GCAP co-chair Amitabh Behar recalled how these developments, along with the aftermath of 9/11 and the growing prominence of forums such as the World Economic Forum, shaped the environment in which GCAP was born. He said the movement was built around a simple idea: bringing people and movements together to stand up against poverty and work towards a just and equal world.

Today, GCAP brings together more than 18,000 member organisations through 66 national coalitions, including grassroots organisations, communities, women’s and youth organisations and trade unions across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe.

Its work includes engagement around the Sustainable Development Goals, People’s Assemblies, economic justice and social protection, as well as wider civil society processes on financing for development and global policy-making.

Keeping grassroots voices at the centre

GCAP’s members highlighted the importance of connecting global advocacy with realities on the ground.

A video marking the organisation’s 20-year journey highlighted its work creating spaces for marginalised communities to shape agendas, influence policy and demand justice, including through work on climate, gender, debt and economic justice.

Watch GCAP’s Journey: From Nelson Mandela’s Launch in 2005 to a Global Movement for Justice

Participants also shared their experiences and memories through Mentimeter. These included the Stand Up and Take Action campaigns, engagement around the G8, Nelson Mandela’s speeches, work with marginalised communities and efforts around the Sustainable Development Goals.

They identified GCAP’s major achievements as building a strong civil society voice for global justice, connecting high-level advocacy with grassroots movements, campaigning against poverty and inequality and bringing grassroots perspectives into global policy processes.

Looking to the next 20 years

Participants called for stronger solidarity across movements, greater coordination among members and regions, wider civil society participation in international advocacy and greater democratisation of global decision-making.

There were also calls for GCAP to play a stronger role in shaping the global development architecture beyond 2030, rather than simply responding to processes designed elsewhere.

Artificial intelligence, misinformation and digital power also emerged as concerns for the next phase of the movement. Participants stressed the need to move from campaigns to influencing systems, from commitments to implementation and from global discussions to tangible improvements in people’s lives.

For GCAP, the anniversary was not simply a celebration of two decades of activism, but an opportunity to rethink how civil society can build power in a rapidly changing world.

The message of the anniversary: the next chapter of the global civil society movement will depend on stronger alliances, greater grassroots leadership, new generations and the courage to imagine — and organise for — a more just and equal future, while keeping the eradication of poverty at the heart of the struggle for global justice.