National People’s Assembly Zambia

We are inviting you to participate in the Global Week of Action #Act4SDGs - from 17 to 28 September 2021. Many of you are already preparing activities. I hope all of you are ready to contribute to a strong global voice for justice and the SDGs during this crisis!

In this invitation, we are giving you an overview of what has been planned so far.

1. The Global Week of Action from the 17thto 28th September 2021.

3. We are working on a Political Position Paper for September and beyond

4. Also, we are preparing social media material and dedicated websites for September at the Global level where all your work from different countries will be posted. At the national level, we are working with our partner Zambia youth Environmental network. And all the activities will be hosted on their website www.zyen.org

Background:

GCAP had initiated the Global Day of Action #Act4SDGs on 25 September, the day Agenda 2030 was adopted in 2017. We cooperated with Action for Sustainable Development (A4SD) and the UN SDG Action Campaign. Our plan at that time was already to mobilize ten or a hundred million people – like the Stand Up and Take Action on 17 October before.

We are successful. The Global Week of Action is now used by thousands of CSOs around the world to campaign for the SDGs – with millions of people reached mainly on social media.

Still, we want to make it stronger and more successful. We want to mobilize more people and influence the political processes with more participation of marginalized groups, and also more visibility in the media.

Therefore we started organizing the People’s Assemblies at the national levels. In 2019 we organized the People’s Assembly - People fighting for civic space, equality and climate change - at the UN SDG Summit in New York. In 2020 National Coalitions and Constituency Groups organized 19 People’s Assemblies – some of them were physical and most online.

For September 2021 we are organizing a stronger mobilisation on social media and virtual People’s Assemblies – physical Assembly might also be organized assessing the feasibility:

- At the national level

- By Constituency Groups

- Leading to the Global People’s Assembly during the Global Week.

The People’s Assemblies shall bring civil society and especially representatives from marginalised groups together to

1. Analyze the situation together

2. To develop demands to governments and the international community

3. Use the results for advocacy and

4. A public action or press event

COVID-19 and its impact and how to achieve the SDGs will be in the Centre: People’s Vaccine, Social Protection combined with other important topics as Climate Justice. Of course, it’s up to the people in each assembly or participating organisation to decide on the topics they want to discuss and get the attention of World Leaders.

The activities are organized by the National Coalitions and Constituency Groups. As a campaign secretariat, we are happy to support you. Here are the key activities:

What are we doing?

Preparation

a. Toolkits: The toolkit will explain how to prepare and implement a virtual People’s Assembly and to use the results for mobilization and advocacy.

b. Political Position Paper: With the inputs from different GCAP members globally including Zambia, we have worked on a document with a focus on

O People’s Vaccine

O Social Protection

O Financing: Special Drawing Rights, Debt, Tax, ODA and Climate Financing/justice

The Political Position Paper shall be used at the national level to develop demands.

c. Regional GCAP Assemblies: Africa regional Assembly will take place virtually bringing participants from different countries to share different experiences. GCAP Zambia is involved in the organizing of the Africa people’s Assembly and our coalition partner Micah Zambia will share Zambia’s experience on Public and Domestic debt. This will take place on 21st September 2021.

In Zambia, during the virtual Peoples Assembly, the following topics and themes will be discussed.

● Send an open letter to the Zambian Government calling for a Healthy, Green and Just Recovery.

Hashtag: #GreatRecovery

● Host a virtual national People’s Assembly to connect grassroots voices on key issues and present the findings to Government. Among the topics proposed are as follows but we are not limited to this, you can propose any other topics of your interest;

● Debt situation and its impact on people’s livelihoods in Zambia

● Peoples' vaccines-what are the opportunities and challenges for third world countries like Zambia

● Climate Justice

● Women and disabilities- what does it mean to be a Woman and disabled?

● Women and participation in politics where are we as a nation(reflecting on the just-ended elections of August 12th 2021)

● Youth participation in politics and democracy(reflecting on the 12th August elections)

Hashtag: #PeoplesAssembly2021

● Share videos of frontline activists giving their own stories of change on sustainable development, as part of the new initiative Zovu. Here are the guidelines for the video https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A27YGZv6S-b7ayo7BuJ3pJyLku4n4XdNzKpSa5fP1nQ/edit#heading=h.8gcdmk5yfpez

Hashtag: #TurnitAround

d. Bilateral Support: Regional Coordinators will communicate bilaterally to support the preparation of People’s Assemblies and the actions following the assemblies during the Global Week of Action.

e. Networking: We work as GCAP together with partners to make the mobilization stronger. Especially we work with Action for Sustainable Development and Latindadd and with the UN SDG Action Campaign.

Implementation

a. Social Media and Website: We are working on a social media concept and will communicate. A special website has been created to involve people from around the world. (At global level)

b. National and Constituency People’s Assemblies: They are the core of the process. They will take place from August to the Global Week of Action (17th-28th September 2021).

c. Global People’s Assembly: The virtual event will take place at the beginning of the UN General Assembly from 21 to 23 September 2021. We are looking for civil society partners as co-organizers of the assembly.

d. Declaration: The key output of the Global People’s Assembly shall be a declaration. For that, we are planning a separate process where GCAP members and partners can give inputs. The Political Position Paper shall be used as input as well. The Declaration will be used for advocacy with governments and the UN.

e. Joint Global online Action: GCAP Global is working with a communication agency to develop a strong online action with the 25th of September as the main day: GCAP plans to make this a strong moment where all the decentralized action comes together with a strong and visible voice toward the UN General Assembly.

This year we shall have a strong GCAP action and lead the Global Week of Action. We hope that this helps you to organize your activities.

Please come back to us – with questions and suggestions if you need more clarification on how to take part.