2017 Global Citizen Festival & GC Week, NYC
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| 2017 Global Citizen Festival In Central Park To End Extreme Poverty by 2030 Show | Photo: Courtesy of Global Citizen |
When: Saturday, September 23, 2017
Sunday September 17 - September 23, 2017 - Global Citizen Week
Hot Spot: Central Park, NYC
Deets: On Saturday, September 23, the 2017 Global Citizen Festival marked its sixth year on the Great Lawn of New York’s Central Park. World and business leaders, non-profit organizations, socially conscious artists, and thousands of Global Citizens united to further the world’s progress toward achieving the Global Goals for Sustainable Development and ending extreme poverty by 2030.
The Festival featured headlining performances by Stevie Wonder, Green Day, The Killers, The Lumineers, and featuring the Chainsmokers, with special guest performances by Pharrell Williams, Big Sean, Andra Day, and Alessia Cara.
More than 60,000 Global Citizens attended and millions watched live through premier broadcast partner MSNBC and online via YouTube and Twitter.
The Festival acted as a culmination of Global Citizen Week, a series of more than 30 public, advocacy-driven events and digital activations that took place across New York City from September 17 through the 23 and reflected the international advocacy organization’s continued effort to engage people in the movement to end extreme poverty.
Ahead of Global Citizen Week, Global Citizens took 1.6 million actions over two months that secured 29 commitments, 55 announcements and 13 calls to action, totaling $3.2 billion, which are set to affect the lives of 221 million people.
Together, these commitments and announcements are worth $3.2 billion, and are set to reach 221 million people, and put the world on track to achieving the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Global Citizens will continue to use these commitments to hold governments and businesses accountable to deliver on their promises in the years to come.
TOP CAMPAIGN VICTORIES
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT: Accenture, Citi, Ernst & Young, and Procter & Gamble each committed to source $100 million from women-owned businesses — a majority of whom will be based in the developing world. This $400 million commitment will be delivered through our partners at WEConnect International, bringing to $1 billion the total that has been committed on the Global Citizen stage from corporates towards women’s economic empowerment in the past 12 months.
HIV/AIDS: Global Citizen partners Johnson & Johnson commits to accelerate the healthcare company’s HIV vaccine and announced that for the first time it is going into late stage human clinical trials. It is the world’s first ever “global” vaccine, which means it can protect against all strains of HIV. In early stage studies the vaccine has shown 100% success rate.
FAMINE: U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware), as a member of the Appropriations Committee announced that encouraged by Global Citizens taking over 60,000 actions, his colleagues in the Senate have proposed $311.5 million more in funds for International Disaster Assistance compared to last year.
YAZIDI JUSTICE: Three years since the genocide was committed by ISIS, UK Permanent Representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, announced that the UK led the UN Security Council to a unanimous vote this week on the decision to set up a UN Investigation Team to pursue justice for the Yazidis. The UN resolution on ISIS accountability was described as a “long overdue first step” by the UN Office for the High Commissioner on Human Rights. This comes after an 18 month campaign and over 100,000 actions taken by Global Citizens.
TOP ACCOUNTABILITY UPDATES
FRANCE: Thanks to Global Citizen’s two year long campaign, and nearly half a million actions, including those of Global Citizen and Global Partnership for Education Ambassador Rihanna, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that for the first time ever a G7 country — France — was to co-host the Global Partnership for Education replenishment with an African country — Senegal in order to raise $3.1 billion to provide 870 million children with vital education.
GHANA: President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, committed on the Festival stage to end child marriage. The newly elected President inherited the initiative to end child marriage in the country from his predecessor, so this stage moment provided confirmation that the new president has officially committed to continue with the National Strategic Framework on Ending Child Marriage in Ghana. As part of this announcement, the President also reaffirmed his pledge to provide universal free secondary education.
FAMINE: Executive Director of the World Food Program, David Beasley, confirmed that $575 million of $990 million committed by Congress in May — a commitment helped by 49,291 actions taken by Global Citizens — has been released to the WFP and others to immediately fight the famine. He then issued a powerful call to action to Global Citizens, revealing that after years of progress, the number of hungry people in the world is going up.
Proud partners of Global Citizen Week included: Gucci and CHIME FOR CHANGE, MSNBC & Comcast NBCUniversal, Live Nation, Johnson & Johnson, Citi, HP, Cadillac, T-Mobile, iHeartMedia, NYC Parks, lululemon, P&G, The New York City Mayor's Office for International Affairs, Bira 91, Universal Music Group, the Empire State Building, Forbes, Guardian US, Omaze, TOMS, and Tribeca Enterprises.
Proud partners of the 2017 Global Citizen Festival included: presenting partner GUCCI and CHIME FOR CHANGE, premier media partner MSNBC & Comcast NBCUniversal, entertainment partner Live Nation, global health partner Johnson & Johnson, and other major partners Citi, HP, Cadillac, T-Mobile, iHeartMedia, and NYC Parks.
For more information about how to join the movement, please visit www.globalcitizen.org and follow @GlblCtzn Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using #GlobalCitizen.
Spotted: This year's performers included: Stevie Wonder, Green Day, The Killers, The Lumineers, The Chainsmokers, Pharrell Williams, Big Sean, Andra Day, Alessia Cara & more!
Hint For The Average Socialite: Earn your tickets now or purchase VIP tickets here!
Starting AUGUST 1: During the next two weeks take action for your chance to earn FREE tickets.
No one should want for the basic necessities of life: access to food, water, healthcare, safety and education. These basic necessities help people thrive and better their lives.
That’s why we’re making the protection of foreign aid a major focus at this year’s festival. By protecting the foreign aid budget, we can help provide basic necessities and ensure freedom from want and economic justice for everyone, getting us one step closer to ending extreme poverty by 2030.
Here's where you come in:
1. Download the app to start taking action. Each action earns you points, and those points can be redeemed for a chance to win tickets to this year’s festival. If you already have the app, make sure you update it.
3. Once you earn enough festival points, you can enter for the chance to win tickets.
In two weeks, winners will be announced and launch a new set of actions with a different challenge for Global Citizens to solve.
Read about last year's Global Citizen Festival!
Get Involved: Global Citizen encourages you to learn more and take action on a range of issues related to extreme poverty, helping to build the movement that will end extreme poverty. Global Citizen and our partners have a track record of running programs and campaigns that have real impact on the lives of the poor – and hope that you’ll join them.
What's Trending: @GlblCtzn #GlobalCitizenFestival #GlobalCitizen #GCFestival @Coldplay #ShowUp #GCWeek