- ATD Fourth World

A few days before the G20, the International Movement ATD Fourth World, which has been working for over 50 years with families living in extreme poverty in countries in the global North and South, insists that the fight against extreme poverty and social exclusion must be at the heart of reforms and restructuring plans. Structural changes are essential. It is urgent and necessary to take into account the impact of the crisis on people living in chronic poverty across the world.

More than ever, the world’s future must be reconsidered along ethical lines other than those which have been predominant over these last decades. Only global policies that aim to reach the most vulnerable people will enable effectively the fight against discrimination and stigmatisation of which are victim those who currently benefit from nothing more than humanitarian assistance and aid policies. What is more, by way of their resilience to the injustice of extreme poverty, these families and individuals have acquired the unique experience and knowledge essential to ensure that the equal dignity of all human being be respected.

The International Movement ATD Fourth World is particularly concerned that the reforms and stimulus plans seem mainly aimed at protecting the middle-classes, totally ignoring those living in extreme poverty.

The International Movement ATD Fourth World has addresses a letter to the G20 participants asking that in the North as in the South they:

• Promote policies which aim to reach people living in extreme poverty;
• Take into account the voice of those living in the most severe poverty and consider them partners in global governance;
• Adopt new measures towards decent work for all and access to fundamental rights for all.

This crisis is a historical meeting between all the G20 participants and the world’s poorest citizens. ATD Fourth World asks that these reforms be ambitious and daring enough to reach people in extreme poverty in a spirit of equity, to end the waste of human life entailed by abandoning those most vulnerable.

In countries in every part of the world, people without prospects and unheard by policy-makers are left crushed into slums, neglected in disadvantaged areas or forgotten in isolated rural areas. If the international community and national governments are capable of creating global, coherent policies, using the quality of life of its poorest and most excluded members as the key indicator, it will protect not just these families and individuals, but equally those who risk succumbing to extreme poverty when such crises arise.

"Whenever a nation or an international community is designing its future, it is important that the most disadvantaged people take part. If they do not take part today in the design, neither will they be part of tomorrow’s changes [1]."

Press contact: Thierry Viard