Working for justice cannot be left to the politicians and professional lobbyists. It requires long-term effort from all parts of the community working together to speak up. Micah Challenge and Make Poverty History have seen communities in Australia mobilised like never before to engage in advocacy on global poverty issues.
Working for social and structural change where there is injustice requires a deep conviction of what is right and the person of dogged perseverance will manage to sustain campaigning for the long haul. The fight for the abolition of slavery in Britain took campaigners and politicians fifty years from the day the first petition was presented to Parliament in 1783, to the day the House of Lords passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833.
While there is still much work to do to ensure Australia fulfils the commitments we have made to the global poor, it is important to acknowledge the change that has already occured and the steps that have been made in the right direction. Change has happened at a grassroots level with ordinary people speaking up for justice, many engaging in advocacy for the first time. Change has happened at a policy level,with the focus of Australia's aid program beggining to shift to more to poverty reduction rather than purely Australia's ‘national interest'.
These are some of achievements of the campaign since it began:
• Since Micah Challenge Australia began in 2004, more than 114,000 people around Australia have signed the Micah Call to show their support for Micah Challenge and the Millennium Development Goals.
• In 2007, Micah Challenge and Make Poverty History presented 26,733 postcards to then Prime Minister John Howard asking him to increase Australia's overseas aid to 0.7% GNI.
• In 2008, 117 million people globally, including over 200,000 participants in Australia, took part in STAND UP demonstrating a global movement that continues to grow.
• In 2008, Micah Challenge presented 4550 handwritten Offering of Letters to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, asking him to increase Australia's aid to 0.7% GNI. Over 50 politicians signed the House of Partnership canvas to show their support for the MDGs.
• Since 2005 there have been over 300 meetings with politicians and numerous community forums held to discuss Australia's role in achieving the MDGs.
• Over 45 politicians have spoken up in Parliament in support of the campaign.
• Three month-long national Create to Advocate exhibitions have been held in Parliament House, displaying art from around Australia depicting a vision of a world where poverty is history. As a result, four other local Create to Advocate exhibitions have been organised by grass-roots campaigners in their electorates.
• Since the campaign began, the Australian government has made eductation a 'flag ship' of the aid program, bringing funding for primary education up to our fair share towards MDG2 (Achieve Universal Primary Education).
• In 2007, overseas aid became an election issue for the first time in an Australian federal election. In the lead up to the election in 2007, Labor committed to our specific asks for an additional $300 million to water and sanitation over three year. This is now government policy, bringing Australia closer to its fair share in its contribution towards water and sanitation in MDG7.
• In 2007 in the lead-up to the election, the Labor party committed to a $75 million debt for health swap with Indonesia, with half of this amount of debt owed to Australia to be forgiven and $35 million to be channeled towards tackling Tuberculosis in Indonesia. This is now government policy.
• Since the campaign began, Australia has contributed an additional $200m to UN agencies to help achieve the MDGs over the next four years.
• As a result of the campaign, there is a greater focus on the Millennium Development Goals in Australia's aid program.
• The campaign has achieved increases in funding to basic education and basic health, which will be accelerated in the years 2007 to 2010.
• There is increased support for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Global Vaccine Initiative and the Education for All Fast Track Initiative.
• There is an increased focus on the poor countries of South East Asia as a share of total aid.
• There is a commitment to untie our aid program funding and improve transparency and evaluation of our aid program.
• There is a major expansion of microcredit programs.
• There is increased recognition and funding for the delivery of aid through Non-Government Organisations and for specific research and field initiatives to promote demand led governance through civil society.
• When Micah Challenge began in 2004 and Make Poverty History began in 2005, Australia's overseas aid was 0.25% GNI, or approx $2 billion. As a result of pressure from the Australian public, the Howard government committed to increase our overseas aid to 0.36% of GNI by 2010, or $4.3 billion.
• In 2007 the Labor party made an election promise to increase Australia's overseas aid to 0.5% GNI by 2015, or $8 billion.
• In 2009, after campaigning by Micah Challenge and Make Poverty History to increase Australia's giving to health in the aid program (with a focus on child and maternal health), the Government increased health aid by $155 million, bringing us closer to our fair share towards our contribution to MDGs 4 and 5, to Reduce Child Mortality and Improve Maternal Health.
• Globally, since the Millennium Development Goals started in 2000:
- 16 out of 22 rich countries have committed to increasing their overseas aid to 0.7% GNI by 2015.
- 41 million more children are in primary school
- The deaths of children under five years old have dropped from 11.1 million in 2000 in to 9.2 million in 2007.
- Increased resources for HIV/AIDS have saved at least 2.5 million lives so far
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