“We need to define clearly who is the owner, who is driving and who is traveling in the GCAP [Global Call to Action Against Poverty] Bus? GCAP is not a campaign – it is a network, idea and mobilization and a call to action (people join voluntarily and respond for the call),” said John Samuel, ActionAid International’s (AAI) director for Asia.

“We need to define clearly who is the owner, who is driving and who is traveling in the GCAP [Global Call to Action Against Poverty] Bus? GCAP is not a campaign – it is a network, idea and mobilization and a call to action (people join voluntarily and respond for the call),” said John Samuel, ActionAid International’s (AAI) director for Asia.

With this framework in mind, FORUM-ASIA (FA) joined 39 participants from 13 Asian countries for a consultation on GCAP Asia last week. The two-day meeting was organised by the Bangkok-based AAI.

FA consultant on Internationally Displaced Persons and Tsunami Mohamed Asan Saleem said the purpose of the event was to review the progress of GCAP Asia Activities in 2006 including the upcoming meeting in Beirut from 13– 15 March 2006, and the World Social Forum meetings in Karachi, Pakistan and Bangkok, Thailand.

In the three-day event, participants also discussed about MDGs and rights framework, where the topic “poverty alleviation” has multiple links with human rights and greatly requires human rights-based approaches.