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NEW YORK — Metallica, Mariah Carey and the Jonas Brothers will headline a free live performance in New York’s Central Park subsequent month marking the tenth anniversary of the World Citizen Pageant organized by the worldwide nonprofit preventing excessive poverty.
The Sept. 24 occasion can even function a live performance throughout the globe in Accra, Ghana, with Usher, SZA and H.E.R.
However the day shall be much less a celebration and extra of a name to motion to right away tackle quite a few worldwide crises, World Citizen CEO Hugh Evans mentioned.
“We are literally at one essential inflection level the place COVID has pushed practically 100 million folks into excessive poverty and now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the state of affairs a lot worse,” he mentioned. “As many as 323 million folks at the moment are going through acute starvation. And if we do not take pressing motion now, as many as 200 million extra individuals are more likely to be plunged into excessive poverty by November, bringing the full variety of folks dwelling in excessive poverty to over a billion folks once more.”
Worldwide organizations rely folks dwelling on the equal of $1.90 a day as dwelling in excessive poverty.
“Quantico” star Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who will host the Central Park occasion, mentioned World Citizen has all the time inspired folks to make use of their voices to persuade world leaders and decision-makers to take motion in opposition to starvation and poverty. Nevertheless, the necessity to give attention to these points is now much more urgent.
“If we’re going to do one thing about that, then we’d like pressing mobilization,” Chopra Jonas instructed The Related Press. “So simply seeing all of those folks from totally different stretches of society, totally different professions — common people coming collectively, motivated to truly make change now in an pressing means — is simply so inspiring.”
As with all World Citizen occasions, tickets to the concert events are free. Nevertheless, to get the tickets, folks should be part of World Citizen and take motion on a sequence of the marketing campaign’s points.
Pop star Charlie Puth, Latin sensation Rosalia, nation star Mickey Guyton and Italian rockers Maneskin are additionally on the Central Park invoice, whereas rapper Stormzy, Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems and Ghanian stars Gyakie, Sarkodie and Stonebwoy can even carry out in Accra.
World Citizen says it hopes to make use of the platform supplied by the concert events to encourage followers to ask for particular adjustments from authorities, enterprise and philanthropy leaders. Evans desires to persuade Scandinavian international locations, in addition to Eire, Portugal, and others, to switch their Particular Drawing Rights within the Worldwide Financial Fund, which give entry to about $100 billion in inexpensive financing, to low-income international locations, particularly in Africa, to decrease their debt repayments.
Along with asking america to donate extra towards preventing local weather change, he additionally desires about $500 million in donations and grants for farmers in Africa to allow them to develop extra crops, quite than relying on wheat and fertilizer from Ukraine and Russia, which have each in brief provide as a result of struggle.
“We additionally want to deal with the fact that supporting ladies and women world wide and their skills are the closest we have now to a silver bullet for the eradication of poverty,” Evans mentioned. “We’re calling on the wealthiest nations to supply $600 million {dollars} in essential investments into training, sexual and reproductive well being and financial empowerment for them.”
World Citizen’s formulation for utilizing social media and its followers’ curiosity to persuade companies and foundations to donate has labored. Since its first World Citizen Pageant in 2012, the advocacy group estimates that it has helped direct $41.4 billion to its causes and improved the lives of greater than 1.15 billion folks.
“These are pressing points,” Evans mentioned. “That is why our campaigns give attention to ending excessive poverty now — not subsequent 12 months, not the 12 months after, however proper now. We have now to deal with the problems that matter most, whether or not it is gender equality, local weather change, or the structural points that preserve folks poor.”
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