International advocacy organization Global Citizen announced the return of the Global Citizen Festival to the iconic Great Lawn of Central Park in New York City on Saturday, September 23. The free, ticketed event will drive urgent action to End Extreme Poverty NOW, headlined by Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ms. Lauryn Hill. Megan Thee Stallion, Conan Gray, and Stray Kids are also set to perform.
For the first time in a generation, the number of people living in extreme poverty is rising. The 2023 Global Citizen Festival campaign takes aim at the major issues perpetuating extreme poverty, including the impacts of climate change on the Global South, the inequities affecting women and girls around the world, and the global hunger crisis, and will call on governments to protect and defend advocates everywhere. The campaign will unite millions of voices, amplified by the world’s biggest artists, to demand urgent action from world leaders gathering in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Tickets to the 2023 Global Citizen Festival are free and can be earned by joining the movement and taking action on the Global Citizen app or at www.globalcitizen.org on the following issues:
- Women and adolescent girls around the world continue to face challenges including unequal access to education, access to quality healthcare, routine immunization, family planning support and menstrual products, impeding opportunities for economic empowerment and perpetuating the cycle of extreme poverty. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 257 million women globally want to avoid pregnancy but lack access to safe, modern contraceptives.
- Climate change is ravaging the world’s most vulnerable countries, and the nations that contributed the least to the crisis are being impacted hardest. Continuing on the momentum generated at last month’s ‘Power Our Planet: Live in Paris’ event, this year’s Global Citizen Festival will pressure governments and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to urgently mobilize funding to enable climate-vulnerable countries to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change.
- The global food and malnutrition crisis continues to decimate communities around the world. According to the Global Report on Food Crises 2023, more than 250 million people are facing acute levels of hunger, with many on the verge of starvation. Africa has sufficient arable land to be the world’s bread basket; instead, rural communities are being devastated by the impacts of climate change and conflict, as smallholder farmers are unable to work or generate sufficient food for their populations.
For more information visit globalcitizenfestival.com, download the Global Citizen app