- ATD Fourth World

In 2008, following over a year of inspiring work, bringing together over 1,000 people – supporters, activists and volunteers – throughout the world, we defined our “Contract of Common Commitments”. Since then, tangible achievements have been made in implementating this Contract and of its five key commitments:

• Coming together on a road to peace, beginning with people struggling against extreme poverty: the actions of young people on the outskirts of Dakar (Senegal) to combat flooding in urban areas; the project Miasa Mianatra Miaraka(Working and Learning Together) in Madagascar, where people outside the world of work and training, and others in active employment form a partnership for an innovative project that contributes to building an economy which will benefit all; the creation of a Forum on Overcoming Extreme Poverty composed of an ever-growing number of people and groups; the Meeting with young European adults with the UN Secretary General, etc.
• Renewing our work on knowledge and understanding, beginning with the experience of those living in extreme poverty, in order to take on and challenge the major issues in our societies and the world: at the core of this objective a three-year reciprocal research project of knowledge and expertise was set around the theme: violence faced by people in chronic poverty and the pathways towards peace. Five regional seminars were held to make progress on this work, using the “Merging of Knowledge” approach: in Mauritius, Germany, Peru, the United Kingdom, France and Senegal. This work will conclude in January 2012 with an international colloquium: “Extreme Poverty is Violence: Breaking the Silence. Understanding the violence faced by people in chronic poverty and the pathways towards peace”.
• Nurturing and making known the ethical choices that guide fundraising and budgeting: awareness of the economic reality faced by many local groups, who often make a priority of deciding together how to use them in the best possible way; an open letter to the G20 summit in 2009 “to emerge from the crisis leaving no one behind”; small working groups of members were created in many countries to invent new approached to fundraising ; teams of Volunteer Corps members throughout the world continue to work together with an ethos of equality, collective responsibility and interdependence ; a charter of financial ethics; etc.
• Supporting young people in their projects, particularly those young people who have the least freedom: In Europe, young adults took up the leadership for 17th October 2010, after more than a year’s meetings getting to know one another, and sent out |their messages->2163] and proposals to various cities and institutions; in the Central African Republic the first international youth meeting was held with participants from different African countries who were particularly committed with children wanting to learn and make new friends; in several countries, highly educated young people formed small groups in neighborhoods to meet others who had been isolated and did not have the possibility of continuing their studies; ATD Fourth World teams reorganized their work around welcoming the commitment of young volunteers, etc.
• Sharing culture, art, beauty and creative expression for the development of each person and population: a theatrical tour in the Netherlands; development of expression and audiovisual production; creation of a group of artists working against poverty; a seminar based on artistic expression in the Appalachian Mountains in the US, “Create to be Free to be Together”; etc.

Steps to come:

Our future work will be rooted in the work carried out over the past three years on the subject: “violence faced by people in chronic poverty and the pathways towards peace” through regional seminars and the International Colloquium that will take place in January, 2012 “Extreme poverty is violence: breaking the silence” . People taking part in this process say, “Violence is not a theme. It’s about our lives. Working on this issue among members of ATD Fourth World creates a closeness between us. It fills us with others’ history and this brings us to think together about our commitments.”

This is why, after this Colloquium, we will begin preparing a General Assembly process in the regions we are active in. This will conclude with a General Assembly meeting in August 2012: What does it mean for us as members of ATD Fourth World to be continually faced with the violence of extreme poverty, which is more destructive and causes more deaths than wars? What questions does this raise about our commitments? How can we strengthen one another’s commitments? At the end of the General Assembly, the new International Leadership Team, which will be named at the end of 2011, will take up its functions.

Our policy goals are also being shaped by this work- on “violence faced by people in chronic poverty and the pathways towards peace” . On the pretext of effectiveness, our world has set quantitative targets that are in themselves a form of violence. .The Millennium Development Goals aim to reduce by 50% the number of poor people by 2015. Isn’t an aim like this simply masking the fact of giving up on the other 50% of the poor? Isn’t this abandonment of those in the most difficult situations a form of violence? Our contribution to the evaluation of these goals will be the basis for a comprehensive, coherent and forward-looking policy proposal for beyond 2015, rooted in dignity for all. Eight countries1 have been chosen to contribute to this evaluation.

The further we go in this work on “the violence faced by people in chronic poverty and the pathways towards peace,” the more aware we become that we have a ethical responsibility to make known the fruits of this work to a wider public and to the attention of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Given the current context in the world, we would like to ensure that the committee is made aware of the contribution made by people living in extreme poverty today and throughout history in preserving and building peace. We want the committee to do its work with a new awareness that peace and overcoming poverty are intimately linked, in the same way that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights links freedom from fear and freedom from want.

Last but not least, everything we have spoken about will bring us towards a new period of evaluation-planning after August 2012 which will then lead us to a new Contract of Common Commitments.