Asia Regional People’s Assembly
Organised by Civil Society
Coordinated by GCAP-Asia
Date: 11th September 2024
Time: 2.30 – 4.30 PM Bangkok Time (Your country time here)
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Background –
The world is reeling under increased hunger, abject poverty and dreadful impacts of climate change. Inequality is rising and the debt crisis has affected the low- and middle-income countries so much that they have to spend huge resources on debt servicing and debt repayment, cutting short their expenditure in education, health and other areas of social protection.
In this context, the wider Civil Society, coordinated by the Global call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) will be organising People’s Assemblies at the national, regional and the global levels to deliberate on the issues concerning the most marginalised groups of people who are left behind in the process of development. The issues of food crisis, inadequate access to health and social protection, civil liberties, and impact of climate change will be discussed among others. This will be our key intervention during the Summit of the Future to be held on 23-24 September in New York.
Global call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) is a global civil society campaign working on the issues of inequalities and poverty in context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is present in 66 countries.
On behalf of the Organising Partners:
1. Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) (Coordination)
2. Asia Dalit Rights Forum (ADRF)
3. Global Forum on Communities Discriminated by Work and Descent (GFoD)
4. Asia Civil Society Partnership for Sustainable Development (APSD)
5. Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
6. Asia Development Alliance (ADA)
7. People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA), Asia Chapter
8. OXFAM-Asia
9. South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE)
10. ActionAid International – Asia Region
11. Aide Et Action – International
12. Wada Na Todo Abhiyan
13. NGO Federation of Nepal
14. Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM)
15. Noakhali Rural Development Society, Bangladesh
16. Sri Lanka United Nations Friendship Organisation (SUNFO)
17. Sanayee Development Organisation, Afghanistan
18. Pakistan Development Alliance (PDA)
19. ONE Singapore
20. Africa Japan Forum
21. Coordination Committee of Cambodia (CCC)
22. Asia Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organisation (APCASO)
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Programme Schedule
Welcome and Introduction (2 min): Pradeep Baisakh, Asia Coordinator, GCAP
Session 1 (30 minutes): Voices on social protection and civil liberties
Key question: The issues and challenges the communities are facing relating to poverty, hunger, access to health and welfare schemes, exclusion, human rights etc and what are the key demands
Moderation: Beena Johnson, Chairperson, Asia Dalit Rights Forum (ADRF)
Keynote speaker: Dr. Devinder Sharma, Food and Trade Policy Analyst on “The Great Indian Divide: Opulence and Starvation” (10 minutes)
Community voice 1: Exclusion from the Social Protection in Pakistan (3 min)
Community voice 2: Voice of a Human Rights Defender from Myanmar (3 min)
Community voice 3: Exclusion and discrimination of the Dalit community (3 min)
Community voice 4: Youth from Bangladesh (3 min)
Session 2 (35 min): Members of Parliament and UN representatives responding to people’s issues and concerns
Moderation: Maneesh Pradhan, ActionAid International – Asia
1. Preet Kaur Gill, Member of Parliament, UK (Or her video message) (5 min) (tbc)
2. MP from Pakistan (7 min) (tbc)
3. Dr Rojnath Pandey, Secretary of Parliamentary Committee of Nepal (7 min)
4. Hitomi Rankine, Environmental Affairs Officer, UNESCAP (7 min)
Session 3 (35 min): Voices of the CSO leaders
Key question: Sharing on issues of economic justice, institutional reforms and democracy and human rights
Moderation: Beckie Malay, PRRM
1. Poverty and Vulnerability in South Asia: Arjun Karki, SAAPE (5 min)
2. Reform of the WB and IMF: Mae Buenaventura, APMDD (5 min)
3. State of democracy in Asia: Ichal Supriadi, ADN (5 min)
4. Rising Inequality in Asia: Farooq Tariq, Fight Inequality Alliance (5 min)
5. Can implementation of the SDGs be expedited: Speaker, ADA (5 min)
6. Proposed global campaign on Economic Justice: Arjun Bhattarai, NFN/GCAP (5 min)
Session 4 (15 minutes): Discussion on the People’s Declaration
Moderation: Anselmo Lee, APSD Coordinator
Draft presentation by Maryam Khan followed by discussion
Closing: Jyoti Prakash, Aide Et Action
