On April 1st International Young Professionals Foundation President Cristian Birzer joined with nineteen young leaders in an meeting with the Governor General, the Honourable Quentin Bryce, AC, to present the By 2015 Declaration, which furthers Australian efforts to reduce global poverty. The Declaration’s title, By 2015, references the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of halving global poverty by 2015, and sets out actions for each of the organizations to improve their efforts in the next four years. Specifically in the next four years they will work to provide an additional 30,000 children with access to quality education throughout Africa, India and the Asia Pacific. In addition they will work to equip and enable 500 local leaders in these regions to scale up proven local strategies already making an impact. 

The By 2015 Declaration has been met with significant community support. Australian of the Year Simon McKeon has praised the group, and echoed their challenge.  “What this group will achieve in the next four years is inspiring, but it is just the beginning. We need leaders across Australia to stand up and match their commitment”, he said.  Event Organiser Aaron Tait, from Spark* said “The organisations represented here today will do all they can to contribute to the movement end extreme poverty in our lifetime. However, we desperately need our leaders in Government, Business and the Community to make a similar effort”.

According to a recent study conducted by the London based Charities Aid Foundation, Australian companies and individuals are the world’s most generous, however our Government is rated 17th in the world, well behind the foreign aid commitments of many other developed nations. Recent Quantum Research found that 80% of surveyed Australians supported making a 0.7% of GNP commitment to foreign aid.  

View the declaration below:

Or download the document here: