ASAP now has fifteen Chapters launched or in development in Austria, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, Oceania, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Africa. With more than 1,200 ASAP members working and studying in universities, research centers, and NGOs worldwide, the ASAP Chapter Network is growing rapidly. Chapters are exploring new ways of collaborating to contribute to the eradication of severe poverty. We’d like to share some of the Chapter accomplishments and help you get connected.

ASAP Romania is exploring a possible research initiative on the welfare of elderly people in Romania, along with projects on poverty measurement aimed at influencing the Romanian development agency and on increasing coverage of poverty-related issues in the Romanian media.

ASAP Oceania published a response to the 2014-2015 Australian federal budget and its impact on the poor and marginalized; their report focuses particularly on foreign aid, indigenous communities, and welfare programs.

ASAP Germany is playing a key leadership role in the Global Colleagues project and recently held an event for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. They are also developing a research project on responsible investment and a group on economics and philosophy.

ASAP Austria is co-organizing a conference focused on absolute poverty with ASAP Germany, has recently completed a book on poverty in Austria, and has developed a mentoring program pairing up disadvantaged young people and college students.

ASAP USA is interested in initiating projects on integrating the study of poverty into college curriculums and will hold a launch conference at Michigan State University in 2015. In New Haven, ASAP Global Headquarters, ASAP co-sponsored two public events on the Sustainable Development Goals and global justice in development, which featured scholars like Jeffrey Sachs, James Hansen, and Amartya Sen.

ASAP Brazil is researching the impact of Millennium Development Goal 2 – Achieve Universal Primary Education – in Brazil, and is negotiating with the Brazilian Ministry of Public Affairs for formal inclusion in its activities.

ASAP Canada recently held a very successful event titled \”Rethinking Sustainability Beyond 2015: An Agenda for Citizen Action\”, which was attended by over 150 people and featured a presentation by Stephen Lewis.

ASAP Italy is planning to promote the debate over intellectual property rights and access to medicines among the main academic and institutional players in Italy.

ASAP Cambodia is planning a launch event in December and is interested in taking the Global Colleagues initiative forward.

ASAP Spain is planning a contest for the design of a universal flag of humanity and is developing a set of standards for ethical purchasing at
universities.

ASAP West Africa is planning a launch conference, to take place in Lagos in 2015, and is looking to conduct projects to improve quality of education across primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

ASAP India is ASAP’s biggest Chapter, with roughly 125 members. They are currently working on the Know your Rights India and Global Colleagues projects, and have applied for a grant to initiate a project connecting university students with young people living in slums.

ASAP UK is developing a poverty audit, while concurrently conducting research projects comparing poverty in New Delhi and East London, and analyzing the role of the City of London in facilitating illicit financial flows.

Recently, the entire Chapter network was mobilized for the stop tax abuse petition. Chapter members were instrumental in the petition’s success.

Recognizing the importance of collaboration in addressing global poverty, we hope that the Chapter Network will continue to work closely and grow, uniting academics worldwide. New guidelines for chapters will be published on the website in the first quarter of 2015. Given the successes achieved thus far, we are excited about what the future holds for the Chapter Network.

The Chapters have recently redone their web pages – please see the ASAP website for further information and updates. If you would like to get involved with the Chapters, or any of the exciting projects outlined above, please reach out to the contact person listed below.

ASAP Austria: Gottfried Schweiger – gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at

ASAP Brazil: Thana Campos – thana_campos@yahoo.com.br

ASAP Cambodia: Pahlaj Moolio – pahlaj@puc.edu.kh

ASAP Canada: Mitu Sengupta – sengupta@ryerson.ca

ASAP Germany: Robert Lepenies – robert.lepenies@eui.eu

ASAP Greece: Gabriel Amistis – amitsis@otenet.gr

ASAP India: Bijayalaxmi Nanda – bijayalaxmi@yahoo.com

ASAP Italy: Mario Ascolese – mario.ascolese@gmail.com

ASAP Mexico: David Aleman Mena – david.mena@ibero.mx

ASAP Oceania: Keith Horton – khorton@uow.edu.au

ASAP Romania: Diana Velica – diana.velica@gmail.com

ASAP Spain: David Rodríguez-Arias – rodavailg@gmail.com

ASAP United Kingdom: Steph Eldridge – academicsstanduk@gmail.com

ASAP United States: Mladjo Ivanovic – mivanovi@msu.edu

ASAP West Africa: Oluwaseun Olanrewaju – oluwaseunolanrewaju@asapwestafrica.org

ASAP Oceania, a new ASAP chapter, recently asked a number of leading academics to analyse the poverty implications of some of the policies of the three major parties in Australia (the Labor Party, the Liberal-National Coalition, and the Greens). It is federal election year in Australia, and the idea was to draw on the expertise of local academics to produce material for public release that will ensure that the question of poverty is given prominence in public debates in the lead up to the election.

Now the election date has been announced (September 7) and the report has been released. It contains 12 short, readable pieces that analyse how the three major parties\’ policies are likely to impact poverty in key policy areas such as education, housing, indigenous policy, refugee and asylum seeker policy, and foreign aid.

Our aim is that the report will stimulate discussion about the poverty implications of the policies of the parties that are seeking the votes of Australians. We hope that it will be followed by more pieces by more scholars who wish to add their analyses. Most importantly, we hope that Australians and our neighbours take account of these pieces and insist that the question of poverty in Australia and the world be moved from the remote periphery to the centre of our debates.

ASAP Oceania\’s first project is to conduct and disseminate a \’poverty audit\’ on the policy platforms of the three major political parties in Australia, as part of the build-up to the Australian federal election on September 14. In order to collect the data for this audit, we are seeking two kinds of input.

1. We are seeking input from academics in Australia and beyond concerning what their research shows about the poverty implications of the policies of the Labour Party, the Coalition, and the Greens. Policy areas might include (but are not limited to):

• Indigenous policy
• Welfare policy (parenting benefits, child benefits, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, old age pensions)
• Labour policy (unions, conditions, pay)
• Housing policy and homelessness
• Health policy
• Education policy
• Refugee/asylum policy
• Migration
• International aid and development
• International trade (e.g. extractive industries, free trade agreements)
• Intellectual property law
• Environmental policy (e.g. forestry certification standards, environmental safeguards on international development projects)
• Climate change
• Illicit financial flows
• International labour standards

We are inviting you to send us a summary, of up to one page, of what you see as the implications for their impact on poverty of a policy position (in your area of expertise) of the three parties. It may be that they have no policy, or no stated policy and it would also be good to know this, as well as any indication from previous policies.

The deadline for these submissions is May 6.

2. We also wish to ask the three major 15 \’litmus test\’ questions that will provide us with indications of how their policies will impact poverty.

To this end, we are inviting you to send us one or two questions that you would like to ask each party to test how their policies will impact poverty.

Examples of such questions might be:

• Do you support Australia\’s foreign aid being raised to the UN target of 0.7% of GDP by 2020?
• Do you have policy ideas for how to ensure that the production of goods imported into Australia meet fair labour and environmental standards?

The deadline for sending responses is May 1, so that we can send out the survey and get answers back in time.

In addition, it would be helpful if you could suggest to us any colleagues or people in your field who you think could be interested in being members of ASAP Oceania and/or contributing to this project. If you send us names, we can add them to our database if we have not already contacted them. You might also make personal contact with them (always better) but please do put us in touch with them also.

At the same time as collecting this data, we will be working on a dissemination plan. One key question here is who is our target audience? The executive thinks that it is both political parties (to put them on notice) and the general public (so that they can be alive to this dimension of policy promises).

We are thinking about an event one month before the election where we will ask a few prominent people to speak and attract some media attention. We will also use the ASAP Oceania website to get the findings on the web and we hope that our members will write op-eds and do other media. If you have good ideas for dissemination please do let us know.

Please send input, suggestions, or requests for further information, to Associate Professor Danielle Celermajer (danielle.celermajer@sydney.edu.au) or Dr Keith Horton (khorton@uow.edu.au)

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If you would like to join ASAP Oceania or receive updates about our activities please contact Reyilai Maimaiti (reyilai.maimaiti@sydney.edu.au).