The call to action “Walking Together for an Inclusive Society” has been launched by ATD Ireland in Leinster House on UN End Poverty Day, 17 Oct 2017.
ATD Ireland & various partners will collect signatures in the months following the UN Day. The Human Rights Day 2017 (10th Dec) will be a first deadline to assess this mobilisation. Responding to the feedback this call generates from citizens around the country, ATD plans to initiate a dialogue with the signatories and with the team of the Minister Regina Doherty in charge of the preparation of the plan.
Join the citizens ready to make this plan happen!
Why is this important?
2017 marks twenty years since Ireland’s first comprehensive plan to address poverty: the National Anti-Poverty Strategy 1997-2006.
Our Government is currently evaluating the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 and aims to publish a new plan in 2018.
We believe that Ireland needs a new Integrated Framework for Social Inclusion, to tackle inequality and poverty. Official consultations are expected in the autumn and a draft of the new plan may be available later next year.
We know Ireland faces major challenges:
– a Housing Crisis
– SlainteCare’s vision of a better and fairer health system is still unrealised
– how to implement the 17 Goals set down in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?
If we are serious about tackling these issues, and serious about lifting people out of poverty and eliminating its causes, we must have a consistent, comprehensive plan to address poverty and social exclusion.
Such a plan will only succeed if it is owned by civil society at large and also by the people experiencing poverty, not just politicians and the organisations that work to combat inequality and exclusion.
In the weeks following the 25th Anniversary of the United Nations’ Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October 2017),
inspired by the pledge of Joseph Wresinski: “To come together is our solemn duty,”
inspired also by the “End Poverty” legacies of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela,
and following the call by Mary Robinson and the Elders to “Walk Together”,
we seek a new approach.
Let’s bring everyone who wants to make a difference together! All stakeholders: public bodies, teachers, trainers and researchers, businesses and services, youth groups and pensioners, and the people who fight against the poverty and stigma that they experience.
Let’s say:
“We – citizens, workers, leaders, managers, carers, parents – are ready to be part of the plan. We all need to own this plan: to know the goals and own them.
Together we wish to take part in a strong participatory process to make the next Anti-Poverty Plan the best ever. Those who live with poverty and social exclusion deserve it. They also should have the opportunity help develop this new plan. And when the plan is in place they should be able to play their part to ensure it is implemented.
I have a role to play and I support this call to action and would like to be involve in the design, implementation and monitoring of our common plan!”
Let us leave no one behind! All together in dignity!
