ASAP President Thomas Pogge was featured in the WFUNA journal ACRONYM in a special issue titled Peaceful Societies: An Essential Element of Sustainable Development. Pogge\’s article focused on small-scale violence, including domestic violence and abuse in the workplace, which is a consistent presence in the lives of many poor people.

\”Small-scale violence and the continual threat thereof—just like the large-scale violence of wars, civil wars and local insurrections—is a terrible burden upon the poor and a grave impediment to efforts to improve their lives,\” Pogge writes.

His article draws on his recent investigation of how poor people conceive of poverty, a years-long study during which he, Scott Wisor, Sharon Bessell, and other collaborators developed the Individual Deprivation Measure.

In ACRONYM, Pogge argues that the violence and corruption that endanger the wellbeing of poor people are largely driven by forces outside the control of developing country governments, such as the arms trade, the control and sale of natural resources by repressive governments, and illicit financial flows.

\”A hugely important impediment to development, violence deserves a prominent place in the SDGs. But we must attack its root causes in systemic features of our global order, which only the more powerful countries can reform.\”

You can read Peaceful Societies online now. Pogge\’s article begins on page 32.

Dr. James Hansen, Director of the Climate Science, Awareness, and Solutions Program at Columbia University and former Director of the NASA Goddard Institute, speaks on climate change and global justice at the conference Justice in Development at Yale University. The conference was co-organized by Academics Stand Against Poverty, Global Financial Integrity, and the Yale Global Justice Program.

ASAP President Thomas Pogge is one of several authors of the Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM), a new, gender-sensitive poverty metric. The IDM was designed to avoid gender biases built into other poverty measures and to define poverty according to the values and experiences of poor people. Pogge and fellow author Allison Jaggar argue that the IDM should quickly be incorporated into development practice.

Pogge and Jaggar first began imagining a new poverty metric when they discovered that the statistics used to demonstrate the feminization of poverty were not truly convincing and may reflect cultural and gender biases. They set out to design a non-arbitrary metric for poverty that could capture its gendered dimensions.

Scott Wisor, Sharon Bessell, Fatima Castillo, Joanne Crawford, Kieran Donaghue, Janet Hunt, and Amy Liu led the project alongside Jaggar and Pogge. They initiated research in Angola, Fiji, Indonesia, Malawi, Mozambique, and the Philippines, interviewing poor men and women about what defines poverty for them and what escaping poverty would entail.

The people consulted lived in rural and urban communities, and were of different ages, ethnic groups, and religions. Based on these consultations, the researchers were able to develop the IDM, which is a survey-based tool that measures deprivation in 15 dimensions of life: food, water, shelter, sanitation health care, education, energy/cooking fuel, family relationships, clothing/personal care, violence, family planning, the environment, voice in the community, time-use, and respect and freedom from risk at work.

According to the report, administering the survey is easy and less costly than other commonly used poverty metrics. It is appropriate for use by governments, development agencies, NGOs, and communities. The IDM was piloted in the Philippines, where it was shown to yield significantly different results than the UN\’s Multidimensional Poverty Index. The team is exploring other piloting opportunities, for example in Fiji and Costa Rica, and is planning to develop a new technology that will make it easier to record, upload and store survey data. The IDM has also been adapted for use in Israel, where the results it produced have caused a lively media debate.

Thousands of ASAP supporters, researchers, teachers, and activists around the world took part in ASAP\’s first petition campaign, calling on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to give greater prominence to international tax abuse in the Sustainable Development Goals framework.

As the UN General Assembly opened its 69th General Debate, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon affirmed that before the end of the year he would deliver a synthesis report, laying the groundwork for intergovernmental negotiations over the contents of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda.

Among the prominent scholars urging action on tax abuse were Robert Keohane, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Martin Rees, Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Peter Singer, Henry Shue, Sonia Bhalotra, Branko Milanovic, Simon Caney, Debapriya Bhattacharya, Juliana Martínez Franzoni, and David Hulme. Many researchers and campaigners doing leading work on tax and illicit financial flows joined the campaign as well, including John Christensen, Helen Dennis, Richard Murphy, Susan Rose-Ackerman, Krishen Mehta, Raymond Baker, and Robin Hodess.

Tax abuse, one of the main sources of illicit financial flows, \”constitutes a massive headwind against development,\” the more than sixty experts in poverty, development, tax, ethics, and international affairs and 2,170 other signatories write in their petition letter to Ban. \”The think tank Global Financial Integrity estimates that, through trade misinvoicing alone, $4.7 trillion were siphoned out of developing countries during the 2002-2011 period, $760 billion in 2011 alone. This is five or six times the sum total of all official development assistance flowing into these countries during the same periods.\”

Despite the enormity of the problem, the SDG draft text merely speaks vaguely of curbing illicit financial outflows from the developing countries (16.4) and of helping them improve their tax collection (target 17.1) ― without making any specific demands on richer nations to stop facilitating this drain on development.

ASAP has just released a Delphi study synthesizing the collective wisdom of 27 illicit financial flows experts with diverse professional profiles from five developing and five developed countries. Over several rounds of responding to one another’s ideas and arguments, the group identified as highly desirable some key reforms, long advocated by civil society campaigners, which would increase financial transparency at both the domestic and global levels. These proposed reforms include that all governments should mandate

1. that each company, trust or foundation disclose the natural person(s) who own or control it,
2. that each MNC report profits and other tax-relevant information separately for each country so as to make apparent when tax havens account for a much larger share of its profits than of its operations,
3. that national tax authorities automatically exchange tax-relevant financial information worldwide to make it easier to detect and prosecute tax evasion by corporations and individuals,
4. that corporations publicly report on funds they pay to governments for the extraction of natural resources,
5. that tough sanctions, including jail time, be imposed on senior officers of global banks, accounting firms, law firms, insurance companies and hedge funds for facilitating tax evasion.
6. In addition, the experts agreed that governments themselves should commit to harmonizing anti-money laundering regulations internationally and
7. carrying out clear, reliable, frequent and timely public fiscal reporting and opening up their fiscal policy-making process to public participation.

Including these objectives as targets or indicators in the final SDG document would boost the prospects of reforms that are essential to curtailing tax abuse as well as embezzlement, money laundering, and other criminal activities.

Massive poverty-related human rights deficits persist. By releasing vastly more revenues than the foreign aid the SDG draft envisions, the proposed reforms would greatly enhance the capacity of developing countries to safeguard their citizens’ human rights. For many people in these countries this step toward basic global justice would mean far more than any amount of charity.

Never before has there been so much popular support and political will to end the scourge of tax abuse. In the face of massive lobbying efforts to prevent or dilute any reforms, the UN should seize this special opportunity to help build a more transparent financial system and thereby to diminish a crucial obstacle to development and poverty eradication.

Read ASAP\’s petition letter to Ban Ki-moon here.

The group of poverty, development, tax, ethics, and international affairs experts who signed the letter includes:

• Robert Keohane, Professor of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University
• Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Emerita, at Princeton University
• Martin Rees, Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge
• Peter Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• Branko Milanovic, Presidential Fellow at the City University of New York and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• Henry Shue, Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• Susan Rose-Ackerman, Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School
• David Hulme, Director of the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• Sonia Bhalotra, Professor of Economics at the University of Essex and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• John Roemer, Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Professor of Political Science and Economics at Yale University and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• Ernst von Weizsäcker, Co-President of the Club of Rome
• Nicole Rippin, Senior Economist at the German Development Institute
• Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Professor Emeritus of International Political Economy at IMD Business School
• Attiya Waris, Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Nairobi
• Richard Murphy, Director of Tax Research UK
• Sol Picciotto, Emeritus Professor of Law at Lancaster University Law School
• Reuven Avi-Yonah, the Irwin I. Cohn Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School
• Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Policy Dialogue
• Eleni Tsingou, Assistant Professor of Business and Politics at the Copenhagen Business School
• Ronen Palan, Professor of International Political Economy at City University London
• Lorraine Eden, Professor of Management at Texas A & M University
• Martin Hearson, PhD candidate in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science
• Wilson Prichard, Joint Research Director for the International Centre for Tax and Development at the Institute for Development Studies
• Raymond Baker, President of Global Financial Integrity and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• Tom Cardamone, Managing Director of Global Financial Integrity
• Dev Kar, Chief Economist at Global Financial Integrity
• Heather Lowe, Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at Global Financial Integrity
• Krishen Mehta, Founding Director of Asia Initiatives
• Vito Tanzi, Former Director of the Fiscal Affairs Division of the International Monetary Fund
• John Christensen, Director of Tax Justice Network International
• Nicholas Shaxson, Author of Treasure Islands
• Jack Blum, Chair of Tax Justice Network USA
• Daniel Reeves, Board Member of Tax Justice Network USA
• Robin Hodess, USA Group Director — Research and Knowledge at Transparency International
• Helen Dennis, Senior Advisor – Poverty and Inequality, Christian Aid
• Joseph Stead, Senior Advisor – Economic Justice, Christian Aid
• Anthea Lawson, Lead Investigator on Financial Institutions and Corruption at Global Witness
• David McNair, Director of Transparency for the ONE Campaign
• Ignacio Saiz, Executive Director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights
• Niko Lusiani, Director of the Human Rights in Economic Policy program at the Center for Economic and Social Rights
• Alnoor Ladha, Executive Director of /The Rules and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• Peter Wahl, Researcher at WEED — Weltwirtschaft, Ökologie & Entwicklung
• Stefano Prato, Managing Director at the Society for International Development
• Caitlin Blaser, Director of Communications at Global Call to Action Against Poverty
• Andrea Ordóñez, Research Coordinator for Southern Voice
• Shaazka Beyerle, Author of Curtailing Corruption: People Power for Accountability and Justice
• Paul Slovic, Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• Alberto Cimadamore, Scientific Director of CROP Secretariat and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• Des Gasper, Professor of States, Societies, and World Development at the International Institute of Social Studies and member of the ASAP Advisory Board
• Paul Kingston, Director of the Centre for Critical Development Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science and International Development Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough
• Richard Sandbrook, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto
• Alison Jaggar, College Professor of Distinction in the Department of Philosophy and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder
• Darrel Moellendorf, Principle Investigator at the Normative Orders Cluster of Excellence at Goethe University Frankfurt
• Simon Caney, Professor of Political Theory at the University of Oxford
• Solomon Benatar, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto
• María José Guerra Palermo, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Universidad de la Laguna
• Sridhar Venkatapuram, Lecturer in Social Science Health and Medicine at King\’s College London
• Beatriz Carrillo Garcia, Lecturer in China Studies at the University of Sydney
• Paulette Dieterlen, Professor of Philosophy at UNAM
• Txetxu Ausín, Tenured Scientist at the Institute of Philosophy at the Spanish National Research Council
• Pahlaj Moolio, Professor and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Mathematics, Sciences, and Engineering at Paññasastra University
• Juliana Martínez Franzoni, Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Research at the University of Costa Rica
• Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs and President of ASAP
• Mitu Sengupta, Associate Professor of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University and member of the ASAP Board of Directors
• Jason Hickel, Lecturer in Anthropology at the London School of Economics and member of the ASAP Board of Directors
• Luis Cabrera, Associate Professor of Government and International Relations at Griffith University and member of the ASAP Board of Directors
• Keith Horton, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Wollongong and member of the ASAP Board of Directors
• Helen Yanacopulos, Senior Lecturer in International Politics and Development at the Open University and member of the ASAP Board of Directors
• Ashok Acharya, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi and member of the ASAP Board of Directors
• Ellen Szarleta, Assistant Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Northwest and ASAP Director of Communications
• Catarina Tully, Director of FromOverHere and member of the ASAP Board of Directors
• Matthew Lindauer, Ph.D. student in Philosophy at Yale University and member of the ASAP Board of Directors
• Miles Thompson, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Politics, and Sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University and member of the ASAP Board of Directors
• Paula Casal, ICREA Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

A list of the 2,170 individuals who signed the petition through Avaaz.org is available here.

ASAP is launching a petition campaign calling on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to support the inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of robust targets for curbing tax dodging. Having published the results of a Delphi study examining the policies that would make the greatest impact on illicit financial flows if included in the SDGs, ASAP is calling on members to join in advocating the inclusion of these policies in the new development framework.

The open letter to the Secretary General has been signed by more than 50 experts in tax and development. Their names and the open letter text appear below. To join them in calling for strong action on tax-related illicit financial flows, visit ASAP\’s petition page on Avaaz.org.

For questions about the campaign or the Delphi study, contact Global Coordinator Rachel Payne at rachel@academicsstand.org.

His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
United Nations Secretary-General
United Nations Secretariat
New York, NY 10017

Dear Mr. Secretary General:

We, members of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) and other poverty researchers, advocates, teachers, and students, urge you to support the inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of a robust goal to curb tax abuse by building transparency into the international financial system. We have held expert consultations to determine how the SDGs can best curtail tax abuse and now write to offer some expert-vetted proposals.

Tax abuse constitutes a massive headwind against development. One common form of it is trade misinvoicing, used by multinational corporations (MNCs) to shift funds to affiliates in other jurisdictions that tax profits at lower rates or not at all. The think tank Global Financial Integrity estimates that $4.7 trillion were thus siphoned out of developing countries during the 2002-2011 period, $760 billion in 2011 alone.^[1] This is five or six times the sum total of all official development assistance flowing into these countries during the same periods.^[2] These numbers have been increasing at a rate of 8.6% per year. And they don’t even include other important forms of MNC abusive transfer pricing that are difficult to quantify. Even so, Christian Aid calculates that governments of developing countries have lost tax revenues of around $160 billion annually — about $2.5 trillion for the 2000-2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) period.^[3] \”If that money was available to allocate according to current spending patterns, the amount going into health services could save the lives of 350,000 children under the age of five every year.\”

Tax abuse is also practiced by wealthy citizens of developing countries. Boston Consulting Group estimates that 33% of all private financial wealth owned by people in Africa and the Middle East and 26% of such wealth owned by Latin Americans — some $2.6 trillion in total — is kept abroad. On conservative assumptions, this translates into revenue losses of $26 billion annually just for these two continents, and the problem is larger still for Asia.^[4]

The SDGs have the potential to catalyze global action to stop tax abuse. We commend the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals for including tax abuse in their SDG draft. However, because of the crucial role of tax abuse in perpetuating poverty, underdevelopment, and global inequality, we believe that their draft needs to be improved in this respect. As it is, tax abuse is barely mentioned. Target 16.4 says that illicit financial flows should be reduced and Target 17.1 calls on the world\’s governments to: \”Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection.\” These vague wishes fail to address the structural roots of illicit financial flows and are therefore unlikely to deliver the dramatic reduction in tax abuse necessary for the achievement of the SDGs.

ASAP recently completed a Delphi study on how the SDGs can best address the problem of illicit financial flows.^[5] Twenty-seven experts from various backgrounds – including academia, the private sector and national and international governmental and nongovernmental organizations – participated in the study, which revealed overwhelming expert support for policies to increase financial transparency at both the domestic and global levels. The experts agreed that the SDGs should call on all governments to mandate:

• that each company, trust or foundation disclose the natural person(s) who own or control it,
• that each MNC report profits and other tax-relevant information separately for each country so as to make apparent when tax havens account for a much larger share of its profits than of its operations,
• that national tax authorities automatically exchange tax-relevant financial information worldwide to make it easier to detect and prosecute tax evasion by corporations and individuals,
• that corporations publicly report on funds they pay to governments for the extraction of natural resources,
• that tough sanctions, including jail time, be imposed on senior officers of global banks, accounting firms, law firms, insurance companies and hedge funds for facilitating tax evasion.

In addition, the experts agreed that governments themselves should commit to:

• harmonizing anti-money laundering regulations internationally and
• carrying out clear, reliable, frequent and timely public fiscal reporting and opening up their fiscal policy-making process to public participation.

Including these objectives as targets or indicators in the final SDG document would boost the prospects of reforms that are essential to curtailing tax abuse as well as embezzlement, money laundering, and other criminal activities.

Curbing illicit financial outflows from developing countries is a human rights issue. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the \”right to a standard of living that is adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one\’s family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond one’s control.\” These rights remain unfulfilled for much of the world\’s population. About half of all human beings suffer serious deprivations of one such kind or another and lack access to the necessary social services that would protect them.

The first-line responsibility for these human rights deficits lies with the governments of the countries in which the poorer half live. But many of these lack the resources to meet those obligations. The envisioned reforms would help developing countries attain the revenues necessary to safeguard their citizens\’ human rights. This effort would achieve much more than the foreign aid envisioned by the SDGs; and for many developing countries this step toward basic global justice would mean more than any amount of charity.

Curbing tax abuse would make a crucial contribution toward achieving the whole SDG agenda. We therefore urge you to work for strong targets on tax and illicit financial flows, in your Synthesis Report and throughout the coming year of intergovernmental negotiations. As an international network of academics, ASAP stands ready to support you in this important endeavor.

Never before has there been so much popular support and political will to end the scourge of tax abuse. In the face of massive lobbying efforts to prevent or dilute any reforms, the UN should seize this special opportunity to help build a more transparent financial system and thereby to diminish a crucial obstacle to development and poverty eradication.

Signed on 5-25 September 2014 by:

Robert Keohane, Professor of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University

Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Emerita, at Princeton University

Martin Rees, Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge

Peter Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

Branko Milanovic, Presidential Fellow at the City University of New York and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

Henry Shue, Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

Susan Rose-Ackerman, Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School

David Hulme, Director of the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

Sonia Bhalotra, Professor of Economics at the University of Essex and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

John Roemer, Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Professor of Political Science and Economics at Yale University and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

Ernst von Weizsäcker, Co-President of the Club of Rome

Nicole Rippin, Senior Economist at the German Development Institute

Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Professor Emeritus of International Political Economy at IMD Business School

Richard Murphy, Director of Tax Research UK

Sol Picciotto, Emeritus Professor of Law at Lancaster University Law School

Reuven Avi-Yonah, the Irwin I. Cohn Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School

Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Policy Dialogue

Eleni Tsingou, Assistant Professor of Business and Politics at the Copenhagen Business School

Ronen Palan, Professor of International Political Economy at City University London

Lorraine Eden, Professor of Management at Texas A & M University

Martin Hearson, PhD candidate in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Wilson Prichard, Joint Research Director for the International Centre for Tax and Development at the Institute for Development Studies

Raymond Baker, President of Global Financial Integrity and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

Tom Cardamone, Managing Director of Global Financial Integrity

Dev Kar, Chief Economist at Global Financial Integrity

Heather Lowe, Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at Global Financial Integrity

Krishen Mehta, Founding Director of Asia Initiatives

Vito Tanzi, Former Director of the Fiscal Affairs Division of the International Monetary Fund

John Christensen, Director of Tax Justice Network International

Nicholas Shaxson, Author of Treasure Islands

Jack Blum, Chair of Tax Justice Network USA

Daniel Reeves, Board Member of Tax Justice Network USA

Robin Hodess, USA Group Director–Research and Knowledge at Transparency International

Helen Dennis, Senior Advisor – Poverty and Inequality, Christian Aid

Joseph Stead, Senior Advisor – Economic Justice, Christian Aid

Anthea Lawson, Lead Investigator on Financial Institutions and Corruption at Global Witness

David McNair, Director of Transparency for the ONE Campaign

Ignacio Saiz, Executive Director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights

Niko Lusiani, Director of the Human Rights in Economic Policy program at the Center for Economic and Social Rights

Alnoor Ladha, Executive Director of /The Rules and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

Peter Wahl, Researcher at WEED — Weltwirtschaft, Ökologie & Entwicklung

Stefano Prato, Managing Director at the Society for International Development

Caitlin Blaser, Director of Communications at Global Call to Action Against Poverty

Andrea Ordóñez, Research Coordinator for Southern Voice

Shaazka Beyerle, Author of Curtailing Corruption: People Power for Accountability and Justice

Paul Slovic, Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

Alberto Cimadamore, Scientific Director of CROP Secretariat and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

Des Gasper, Professor of States, Societies, and World Development at the International Institute of Social Studies and member of the ASAP Advisory Board

Paul Kingston, Director of the Centre for Critical Development Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science and International Development Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough

Richard Sandbrook, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto

Alison Jaggar, College Professor of Distinction in the Department of Philosophy and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder

Darrel Moellendorf, Principle Investigator at the Normative Orders Cluster of Excellence at Goethe University Frankfurt

Simon Caney, Professor of Political Theory at the University of Oxford

Solomon Benatar, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto

María José Guerra Palermo, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Universidad de la Laguna

Sridhar Venkatapuram, Lecturer in Social Science Health and Medicine at King’s College London

Beatriz Carrillo Garcia, Lecturer in China Studies at the University of Sydney

Paulette Dieterlen, Professor of Philosophy at UNAM

Txetxu Ausín, Tenured Scientist at the Institute of Philosophy at the Spanish National Research Council

Pahlaj Moolio, Professor and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Mathematics, Sciences, and Engineering at Paññasastra University

Juliana Martínez Franzoni, Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Research at the University of Costa Rica

Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs and President of ASAP

Mitu Sengupta, Associate Professor of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

Jason Hickel, Lecturer in Anthropology at the London School of Economics and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

Luis Cabrera, Associate Professor of Government and International Relations at Griffith University and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

Keith Horton, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Wollongong and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

Helen Yanacopulos, Senior Lecturer in International Politics and Development at the Open University and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

Ashok Acharya, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

Ellen Szarleta, Assistant Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Northwest and ASAP Director of Communications

Catarina Tully, Director of FromOverHere and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

Matthew Lindauer, Ph.D. student in Philosophy at Yale University and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

Miles Thompson, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Politics, and Sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

Paula Casal, ICREA Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and member of the ASAP Board of Directors

[1] Dev Kar and Brian LeBlanc, Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2002-2011 (Washington, Global Financial Integrity, December 2013), pp. iii, vii, x. Also available at http://iff.gfintegrity.org/iff2013/2013report.html.

[2] See http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/SeriesDetail.aspx?srid=569&crid=.

[3] Christian Aid, False Profits: Robbing the Poor to Keep the Rich Tax-Free (Christian Aid, March 2009), p. 3, also available at https://www.christianaid.org.uk/Images/false-profits.pdf.

[4] Boston Consulting Group, “Global Wealth 2013: Maintaining Momentum in a Complex World,” 4 and 11, available at http://www.bcg.de/documents/file135355.pdf. Asia-Pacific wealth kept offshore is estimated at $2.1 trillion.

[5] http://academicsstand.org/2014/09/policy-options-for-addressing-illicit-financial-flows-results-from-a-delphi-study/.

Academics Stand Against Poverty is exploring a collaborative partnership with The Life You Can Save, an organization focused on motivating giving to effective poverty alleviation efforts. The Life You Can Save, founded by Princeton philosopher Peter Singer, has recorded more than 17,000 individual pledges to give a certain percentage of annual income on an ongoing basis.

Here, TLYCS Director of Philanthropy Education Jon Behar talks about some of the activities the organization has developed for classroom use. We at ASAP are interested in our own members\’ assessments of these materials, and in your feedback on possibilities for ASAP and TLYCS to collaborate. Please send any feedback to ASAP Vice President Luis Cabrera at l.cabrera@griffith.edu.au

Title: Giving Students the Chance to Give

Teachers and campus groups at schools around the world have been using \”Giving Games\” to teach thousands of students about both strategic philanthropy and their own values.  In a Giving Game, the participants learn about two or more pre-vetted charities, discuss their relative merits, and are given funds to make a real donation to their favorite organization.  This model pushes information about highly effective charities and valuable donor resources to students, while encouraging them to reflect deeply about what they care most about.

If you\’d like to incorporate a Giving Game into your course or extracurricular activity, it\’s easy for you to do so.  Giving Games can be run in a single class period (or less), and are the choice of charities can be structured to introduce tradeoffs relevant to a variety of disciplines including philosophy, psychology, world health, and economics. Sponsorship for the donations, presentation materials, and advice on how to structure your Giving Game can be provided by The Life You Can Save. Learn more here, or email GivingGames@thelifeyoucansave.org.

ASAP researchers recently completed a study, examining expert opinion on how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can make the greatest possible impact on the problem of illicit financial flows. The study results show overwhelming expert support for greater transparency in the global financial system and underline the need for global cooperation around a common agenda of reforms. The current proposal for the SDGs, put forward by the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, does not include many of the reforms seen as most desirable by the study participants.

In the coming weeks, ASAP will launch a global petition, highlighting the study results and calling for robust SDG targets that would help end tax-related illicit financial flows by building transparency into the international financial system.

The study used the Delphi technique, in which a group of experts respond anonymously to a series of questionnaires, and after each round, a summary of the results is sent back to the group. Participants were encouraged to revise their original responses in light of others’ answers, and over a series of rounds, group judgment was derived. 27 experts from academia, NGOs, multilateral organizations, and the private sector took part in the study.

In the study, 10 policy options were identified as being highly desirable for inclusion in the SDG framework. They are, in order of desirability:

1. Require disclosure of the ultimate beneficial owners of companies, and of the controlling parties of trusts and foundations
2. Reform international tax rules so that the taxable profits of multinational corporations are aligned with the location of their economic activity
3. Require public reporting of funds paid to governments for the sale of natural resources such as oil, gas, metals, and minerals, and the use of those funds
4. Significantly increase developing country tax authority capacity
5. Implement automatic exchange of tax-relevant financial information on a global basis
6. Implement public country-by-country reporting for multinational corporations
7. Require that all governments carry out clear, reliable, frequent, and timely public fiscal reporting and that governments\’ fiscal policy-making process be open to public participation
8. Increase capacity building, training, and resources for law enforcement for work on financial sector investigations
9. Impose tougher sanctions, including jail time, on professionals who facilitate illicit financial flows, e.g. senior officers from global banks, accounting firms, law firms, insurance firms, and hedge funds
10. Harmonize anti-money laundering regulations internationally.

Other study results include participant’s assessment of the likelihood of various policies being included in the SDG framework.

The study was funded with donations raised during ASAP’s crowdfunding campaign, Stop IFFs 2015, which was carried out last summer.

The report is available for download here.

Despite some clear positives, the draft text of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) does not fulfill its self-proclaimed purpose of inspiring and guiding a concerted international effort to eradicate severe poverty everywhere in all its forms. We offer some critical comments on the proposed agreement and suggest eight ways to embolden the goals and amplify their appeal and moral power.

The final meeting of the Open Working Group for Sustainable Development Goals (OWG) took place in mid-July. Ahead of the meeting, ASAP sent the OWG co-chairs, Mr. Csaba Kõrösi, Permanent Representative of Hungary, and Mr. Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya, a letter calling for global cooperation for financial transparency to be a priority in the OWG\’s Zero Draft for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

ASAP\’s letter was informed by a survey of over 28 experts, which aimed to identify policy reforms that would do the most to reduce illicit financial flows if included in the SDG framework. One of the background assumptions of the study is that if the framework does not make states responsible for taking specific actions to combat illicit financial flows, it will fall short of its potential impact. The study uses the Delphi method for identifying expert and stakeholder consensus around the desirability and likelihood of various policy reforms being included in the SDGs.

Although the initial version of the OWG\’s Zero Draft included a target for global cooperation to reduce international tax evasion and avoidance, the target was cut in a revision of the draft. This is concerning because one of the clearest results of the study is that there is overwhelming expert support for policies that would increase financial transparency at both the domestic and global levels in order to curb tax avoidance and evasion, such as

• disclosure of the ultimate beneficial owners of companies and of the controlling parties of trusts and foundations;
• public country-by-country reporting of profits and other tax-relevant information by multinational corporations;
• automatic exchange of tax-relevant financial information by national tax authorities worldwide; and
• public reporting on funds paid to governments for the extraction of natural resources such as oil, gas, metals and minerals, and on the use of those funds.

ASAP calls on the OWG to strengthen its Zero Draft incorporating a target for international cooperation for transparency to curb tax abuse. To read ASAP\’s letter to the OWG co-chairs, click here.

The final results of ASAP\’s study will be published later this summer. ASAP will continue to campaign for the inclusion of policy reforms that would curb illicit financial flows in the negotiation of the new framework.

ASAP will launch a flagship \’Global Colleagues\’ project, produce expert survey reports on illicit financial flows and global poverty priorities, and expand into issue campaigns under its first formal strategic plan. (Full plan appears below this article and can be downloaded here.)

The plan, covering July 2014 through June 2017, stakes out an ambitious set of targets focused on the core ASAP aims of promoting academic collaboration, outreach to policy makers and public audiences, and research-informed interventions on poverty worldwide.

\”This plan is the product of groundwork laid since 2011, when the first ASAP conferences were hosted at Yale University and the University of Birmingham in the UK,\” said Luis Cabrera, ASAP Vice-President and a lead author.

\”Since then, volunteers on the Board, in the Chapters and around the world have worked to build up membership, test new ideas for impact and collaboration, and develop the basic ASAP organizational model,\” he said. \”All of their work, and the feedback of literally hundreds of participants from ASAP conferences in the US and UK, India, Norway, Mexico, Spain, Germany and elsewhere have informed everything we\’ll aim to do globally in the next three years.\”

The ASAP Global Colleagues project is a notable feature of the plan\’s Collaboration efforts. Led by Germany Chapter head Robert Lepenies, it will offer a one-to-one match of poverty researchers, generally from Global South and North universities. Its aim will be to help colleagues working in the South become better integrated into global research networks, further their own work, and gain support in pursuing their own poverty impact aims. It will also provide opportunities for colleagues globally to enhance their own understanding of poverty issues in other contexts and to share ideas and best practices for research and intervention projects. Project participants will be nominated initially through ASAP country and regional chapters.

The development of those 14-and-counting chapters is another Collaboration aim, with efforts headed by ASAP Global Board member Catarina Tully. Her Chapters Committee has developed formal guidance for both established and developing chapters, and it will help all chapters develop their own strategic plans by the end of 2014. ASAP also will seek to create a minimum of three new chapters by 2017, with emphasis on major capital cities or economic hubs where there are strong possibilities for influence on poverty policy.

Other Collaboration aims include the continued staging of ASAP conferences – with encouragement to chapters to organize their own conferences and workshops, and the development of a moderated listserv for poverty researchers and teachers. The plan also outlines targets for expanding and better publicizing ASAP\’s list of poverty-focused academic centers, NGOs and think tanks, and the pursuit of strategic partnerships with other organizations.

In the category of Applied Research, Interventions and Campaigns, ASAP will expand into issue campaigns and will finalize and publicize some potentially significant, intervention-oriented research studies.

New Membership Director Jason Hickel will lead the campaigns effort. Here, ASAP will seek to enlist global academic support on specific issues of poverty, national legislation or multi-country efforts, e.g., the Sustainable Development Goals. Campaigns could include online petitions, organized testimony, targeted lobbying and other means of influencing outcomes. Hickel will lead the development of a pilot campaign by the end of 2014.

By November 2014, ASAP will release the results of its multi-year Global Poverty Consensus Report project. The project, involving surveys of 40 leading poverty experts on appropriate global poverty priorities after the 2015 expiration of the Millennium Development Goals, was initiated by former Board Member Gilad Tanay and is now led by Global Coordinator Rachel Payne, Alberto Cimadamore, head of the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty at the University of Bergen (Norway), and Lynda Lange, Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the University of Toronto.

Payne also is leading an experts\’ study on illicit financial flows, e.g., tax havens, trade misinvoicing. For the study, ASAP has used funds from a successful 2013 campaign to contract experts in the Delphi method, which involves structured rounds of questionnaires with panels of experts on a topic, aimed at producing convergence in responses. The study will be finalized and disseminated, including to media outlets, by September 2014.

Other ASAP-supported research and intervention efforts due to complete in 2014 include one led by Global Board Member Mitu Sengupta and President Thomas Pogge, focused on institutional reform goals. This project seeks to identify needed reforms of the institutional rules and practices that, unlike poverty eradication outcomes, are directly within the control of the world\’s wealthiest states. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2014. Longer-term studies include one headed by India Chapter President and Global Board Member Ashok Acharya, called Know Your Rights India. This project aims to work with NGOs in several Indian states to improve individuals’ knowledge of government-backed entitlements and ways of claiming them. A pilot study is to be completed by June 2015.

Meanwhile, ASAP Secretary Matthew Lindauer will explore outputs for the ongoing Moral Psychology and Poverty Alleviation Project, which seeks to improve understanding of the factors correlated with individual action to address global poverty. ASAP Global Board Member and Oceania Chapter Co-Chair Keith Horton will explore possibilities for a Climate Change Week Project, which would be aimed at catalysing action by academics around the world in response to climate change, including its implications for poverty.

In the Outreach category of the strategic plan, aims include recruiting a Public Relations officer, to work closely with new Communications Director Ellen Szarleta in media outreach and related efforts. Szarleta will lead the development of a comprehensive communications plan by the end of 2014, covering web content, social media and other elements of ASAP’s public face. The new ASAP web team, headed by Miles Thompson and Oskar McGregor, will oversee a comprehensive update of the web site’s look and usability, making information easier to find and improving security and viewing on smart phones.

ASAP also will conduct a feasibility study of poverty-related educational resources available online, determining the benefit of having such resources collected on the ASAP site. Likewise, the plan outlines a study of whether ASAP should launch a policy paper or possibly a working paper series, with contributions primarily from members.

\”It\’s a wide-ranging plan involving commitments by scores of ASAP members now, and ultimately by hundreds of members around the world,\” Cabrera said. \”We\’re immensely grateful for all of those who have pledged their time, energy and resources toward achieving the targets, and we expect the plan to create a range of very meaningful volunteer opportunities for new members who would like to get involved.\”

The ASAP Global Board and ASAP chapters will now identify priority roles and seek to recruit volunteers to them in the coming months.

# # #

For further information on the ASAP Strategic Plan 2014-17, please contact Luis Cabrera at luis.cabrera@griffith.edu.au; to express interest in volunteering, please contact Global Coordinator Rachel Payne at rachel@academicsstand.org.

ASAP Strategic Plan

July 2014 to June 2017

This Strategic Plan outlines ASAP\’s vision and objectives and gives detailed guidance on the steps that the organization\’s board members, officers, chapters and member volunteers worldwide will take toward realizing them in the 2014-17 period. As ASAP continues to grow and evolve, this plan will be updated as needed to reflect expansion into significant new areas of activity.

1. ASAP’s Mission and Strategic Vision:

Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) is an international association focused on helping researchers and teachers enhance their impact on poverty. It does so by

a) advancing collaboration among poverty-focused academics, with an emphasis on South-North connections;

b) promoting effective outreach to policy makers and broader public audiences, and

c) helping academics pursue applied research and intervention projects as well as campaigns on specific issues.

ASAP\’s overarching aims are to contribute to the eradication of severe poverty worldwide and to help ensure that poverty policy and development efforts are guided by rigorous empirical and normative scholarship.

ASAP’s principal focus is on poor people in less-affluent countries, because that is where poverty tends to be most concentrated and severe, and where resources for tackling poverty tend to be scarcer. However, ASAP\’ ultimate concern is for people, not for countries, and so it includes within its sphere of activity poor people in affluent countries as well.

ASAP recognizes that poverty is a process, not a static given. It seeks to address the root drivers of impoverishment in both the global and domestic spheres and to highlight how some of the same factors can worsen poverty in both affluent and less-affluent countries. Further, ASAP members explore a wide range of factors in their analyses of poverty and promote a variety of solutions. With such diversity in mind, ASAP does not offer a narrow poverty analysis but seeks to promote robust dialogue informed by new research from all regions of the world.

Finally, ASAP\’s theory of social change focuses on both institutions and norms. Thus, ASAP seeks to promote sound and progressive poverty policy at the domestic and global levels and also to help change norms around the acceptability of severe poverty. Inspired by how engaged academics helped transform views on civil rights, the US war in Vietnam, apartheid and lately gender inequality and violence, ASAP holds that we can help achieve a decisive shift of views on poverty and poor people worldwide.

2. Distinctive Organizational Features

The following features make ASAP distinctive among poverty-focused organizations and help highlight the value it adds to anti-poverty efforts globally:

a. ASAP members include hundreds of internationally recognized subject experts and experts-in-training, and its efforts are informed by rigorous, peer-reviewed academic research.

b. ASAP is a truly global association. It has a strong presence among universities and academics in the Global South and North, and a strong focus on creating opportunities for those who face barriers to full participation in the global academic dialogue.

c. ASAP academics work far outside the ivory tower. They are eager to share their expertise in public debates and policy dialogues, and to challenge received wisdom when needed.

3. Organizational Structure and Governance

ASAP is headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, and is supported by paid staff based there. Its global efforts are guided by an 11-member Board of Directors comprised of academics and practitioners working in six countries, chaired by Prof. Thomas Pogge of Yale University. Additionally, global officers and committee members oversee specific task areas, including Communications, Web Site, Membership and Fundraising.

ASAP has Chapters launched or in development in Austria, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, India, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Oceania, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and West Africa. In total, more than 1,200 ASAP members work and study in universities, research centers and NGOs worldwide.

In addition, a 21-member Advisory Board, which includes some of the world’s most widely recognized and influential poverty researchers, gives continuous input to the ASAP Board.

In its governance processes, ASAP strives to be inclusive and transparent at all levels: Global Board of Directors and Committees, Chapters and in ASAP-sponsored projects. Broad input on proposals and operating processes is invited from members and non-members, and proposals for ASAP initiatives, including intervention projects and campaigns on specific issues, are actively encouraged.

4. Achieving the ASAP Aims

The following section gives details on how ASAP will work, in the three-year plan period, to advance its organizational and strategic aims. Offered for each category are specific objectives, efforts to be undertaken toward achieving the objectives by ASAP officers and members, and some concrete targets by which to assess their progress. Listed first are the organizational aims, focused on the sustainable and effective operation of the organization itself. These are followed by strategic aims for each of the three core categories: a) collaboration, b) outreach, c) applied research and intervention projects.

General Organizational Aims:

1. Fundraising: continuous efforts to raise funds from donors, both to support general activities and specific projects or campaign.

Targets: Fundraising plan to be developed by Oct. 1, 2014, with specific targets in the plan to be determined by the Fundraising Committee.

 Leads: ASAP Fundraising Director Helen Yanacopulos, with Fundraising
Committee and Global Coordinator Rachel Payne; ongoing support from President Thomas Pogge.

2. Membership: conduct audit of existing membership; create clearer categories of membership; define the benefits of membership and build membership numbers; strengthen member involvement; explore linking membership to a dues/donation structure; create new and meaningful volunteer opportunities at the global and chapter levels and feature them clearly on the ASAP web site; develop member merchandise.

Targets: number of new members (target to be defined upon completion of membership audit by Oct. 1, 2014); number of dues-paying or donating members (targets to be defined upon completion of membership audit); number of new volunteer opportunities (target to be defined through conversation with officers).

Leads: Membership Director Jason Hickel, with Membership Committee; Global Board Member Paula Casal on merchandise.

3. Good Governance: develop a single handbook resource offering ASAP guidance on good governance for Global Board, Chapters and affiliated efforts. Will offer guidelines on inclusive decision making, transparency, accountability, avoiding sex harassment, financial integrity, etc. ASAP leaders at all levels will be asked to sign a Good Governance pledge affirming that they have reviewed and agree to abide by the principles.

Leads: ASAP Global VP Luis Cabrera with support from other Board members and Global Coordinator Rachel Payne.

Targets: handbook developed by end of 2014.

Strategic Aims

4a. Collaboration

ASAP will promote collaboration among academics globally on poverty and related problems, and it will help develop productive working relationships among academics, NGOs and policy makers. Its efforts in this area will focus in particular on better integrating colleagues in the Global South into global academic networks and on addressing persistent global inequalities in the academy.

Specific Collaboration Objectives

1. Support the Development of Robust Country Chapters
2. Develop the ASAP Global Colleagues Project
3. Stage Effective ASAP Conferences and Workshops
4. Promote Targeted Online Dialogue among Poverty Researchers
5. Develop a Comprehensive Resource List of Poverty Research Institutes, Global Justice Centers, Salient NGOs
6. Pursue Organizational Partnerships
7. ASAP Internships

Efforts Designed to Realize the Objectives

1. Support the Development of Robust Chapters: ASAP will support the development of robust and sustainable Chapters in various cities, countries and regions. The Chapters Committee will promote collaboration amongst Chapters and with the Global Board. The Committee will update its comprehensive \’ASAP Chapters Resource Guide,\’ as needed, especially to incorporate information on Chapter activities, projects or campaigns. Chapters will be supported in developing their own strategic plans outlining their collaboration, outreach and intervention efforts in their own territories. They will be encouraged to communicate to their own country/region members through appropriate social media (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) sites linked to their ASAP web site pages. The Global Board will also support the development of some new chapters, with emphasis on strategic locations, e.g., in national capital cities or economic hubs, where policy impact can be magnified and some NGO/civil society partnerships more easily pursued.

Targets: Strategic Plan developed by each existing Chapter by the end of 2014. Web page on ASAP site developed by each chapter by the time of its formal launch workshop or conference. Distribution of ASAP Chapters Resource Guide by October 2014 and updating of suggested Chapter activities in the form of sharing best practices developed by individual Chapters. Chapters Committee will hold regular meetings involving Chapter Leads and will plan to include Leads in a face-to-face meeting at an ASAP conference by the end of 2015. ASAP Global will also pursue the development of a minimum of three new chapters in the three-year period.

Leads: Chapters Officer Catarina Tully, with Global Chapters Committee, individual Chapter Leaders, Global Coordinator Rachel Payne and assigned interns.

2. ASAP Global Colleagues Project: this flagship ASAP Collaboration Project will offer a one-to-one match of poverty researchers, generally from Global South and North universities. Its aim is to help colleagues working in the South become better integrated into global research networks, further their own work, and gain support in pursuing their own poverty impact aims. It will also provide opportunities for Colleagues globally to enhance their own understanding of poverty issues in other contexts and to share ideas and best practices for research and intervention projects.

Targets: ASAP Chapters will commit to sponsoring partnerships, the number of which will be determined each year by each Chapter.

Leads: Robert Lepenies, ASAP Germany, with Global Colleagues Committee.

3. Conferences: To stage annual ASAP-linked conferences where new members can be recruited, collaborations cemented and intervention projects or campaigns developed (e.g., Global Justice meeting, Yale University 2014; Country Chapter launch conferences). Chapters will also be given organizational guidance and publicity support for more local workshops, seminar events, etc. In addition, the Global Board will explore with the developing Cambodia Chapter possibilities for a \’master class\’ workshop in Phnom Penh involving regional and international poverty researchers.

Targets: Global Board will aim to help organize at minimum one major,ASAP-linked conference per year and will encourage Chapters to hold one event (conference, workshop, roundtable, master class, etc.) per year, though there is no requirement that they do so.

Leads: Various conference and workshop organizers, with support from ASAP Global Office and Global Board

4. Promote Online Dialogue on Poverty Issues and Research: ASAP will use its web presence and membership expertise to promote robust dialogue on specific poverty policy proposals, including multilateral global ones; on new poverty research, and on impact efforts, including possible campaigns and intervention projects.

Targets: Development of a moderated listserv feature to enable poverty researchers to engage in direct global dialogue on issues of shared interest and to share news about conferences, projects and calls for participation or collaboration. User number targets to be developed.

Leads: ASAP Web Team, Communications Committee and Global Board members. Moderator to be recruited.

5. Develop Comprehensive Resource List of Poverty Research Institutes, Global Justice Centers and NGOs: ASAP will continue to update and expand its existing Network Resource List and work to develop search functions that will enable organizations to identify potential partners. The list will be made more prominent on the ASAP web site and overall more user-friendly.

Lead: volunteer Network Resource Officer to be recruited, assists from Web Team, Communications Team, interns. 

Targets: Re-siting of existing list on web site, search function enabled, addition of 25 new entries per year.

6. Pursue Organizational Partnerships: While ASAP is distinctive in its mission and membership, many other organizations have complementary impact and poverty eradication goals. ASAP will pursue formal partnerships with selected such organizations worldwide, including NGOs, academic associations and other bodies. Partner activities could include the sharing of original web content and reports, the joint pursuit of impact and intervention projects, or jointly staging impact or related workshops, including on the theme of ‘bridging the gap’ between academics and poverty NGOs.

Targets: Minimum three formal partnerships entered during the three-year period.

Lead: ASAP VP Luis Cabrera, Global Board members and Global Officers.

7. ASAP Internships: ongoing internships to support specific ASAP projects and organizational efforts.

Targets: Minimum six interns per year, with one-third from Global South countries by end of 2015.

Lead: Global Coordinator Rachel Payne

4b. Outreach

ASAP will help to bring important research findings and information about poverty to public audiences, policy makers and campus communities, in service of enhancing academic impact on poverty outcomes and helping to ensure that poverty policy is based on rigorous research.

Specific Outreach Objectives

1. Develop and Execute Strategic Communications Plan
2. Conduct Focused Media Outreach
3. Further Develop Impact: Global Poverty Project
4. Develop ASAP Twitter/Facebook Presence
5. ASAP Web Site Development
6. Develop Educational/Informational Resources

Efforts Designed to Realize the Objectives:

1. Develop and Execute Strategic Communications Plan: communicating ASAP’s efforts and vision are a core part of the organizational mission. This plan will ensure that appropriate audiences for reports, intervention projects and campaigns are identified and targeted, and that ASAP publications, web content, manuals and conference materials effectively communicate the organizational mission and showcase efforts to achieve it.

Targets: Completion of communications audit by September 2014. Development of full Communications Plan by the end 2014. Implementation of plan activities throughout 2015-17.

Leads: Communications Director Ellen Szarleta, with new Public Relations Officer, support from Global Coordinator Rachel Payne.

2. Conduct Focused Media Outreach: Development of media contacts globally, including salient web sites. Timely issuance of press releases and coordination of media availability on ASAP reports, campaigns, intervention projects and other major efforts. Guidance to ASAP leadership and membership on effective outreach to media.

Targets: Completion of Media Strategy as part of Communications Plan by the end of 2014. Commissioning or production of two media-outreach/\’how to\’ pieces per year, including some tailored to specific global regions, for dissemination on ASAP’s web site and directly to chapters and members.

Leads: New Public Relations Officer, with support from Global Coordinator Rachel Payne and in coordination with Communications Director Ellen Szarleta.

3. Further Develop Impact: Global Poverty Project: posting of Impact Stories on web site to showcase impact-oriented work by academics globally. Develop impact advice component in articles, possibly videos. Recruit contributing editors to write for and commission articles. Assessment of existing literature and development of \’ASAP Impact Principles\’ document that can be widely circulated.

Targets: minimum 10 Impact stories per year; four advice stories in 2014-15, six in subsequent years. ASAP Impact Principles report issued by November 2015.

Lead: Global VP Luis Cabrera and contributing editors/writers, assigned interns.

4. Twitter/Facebook: Share the latest poverty research and demonstrate its relevance for current events as well as showcase ASAP-relevant material on Twitter and Facebook.

Targets: 1500 Twitter followers by the end of 2014; 2700 in 2015; 4000 by the end of 2016. Facebook: 3000 likes by the end of 2014; 4200 in 2015; 5400 by the end of 2016.

Leads: Global Coordinator Rachel Payne and Communications Director Ellen Szarleta.

5. ASAP Web Site Development: ongoing improvement to the infrastructure, appearance, functionality, structure and security of the ASAP website. This includes the measurement of content usage and website speed. Support will be offered to ASAP Global Board and Chapters where possible in setting content priorities and providing guidance on future website optimization plans. report due September 2014, completion of first stage of site restructure to enhance usability and functionality by February 2015.

Targets: site theme update begins July 2014; website usage

Leads: Web Director Miles Thompson and Web Committee Vice-Chair Oskar MacGregor, with Web Committee members and interns.

6. Education: explore the development of a focused set of informational and educational resources on poverty and explore linking to existing salient resources developed by partner organizations. These could include primers on global poverty and related issues, \’state of the field\’ articles on specific issues, an FAQ section about global poverty and research, an annotated bibliography of poverty-related research, syllabi and classroom exercises. The materials would be prominently featured on the ASAP home page. Chapters will be encouraged to develop country- or region-specific materials.

Targets: Feasibility/need study conducted by August 2015. If approved, minimum five new resources added by March 2015; 10 in subsequent year, and 15 in following year (backgrounders, syllabus collections, articles; bibliographies).

Leads: Possibly new Education Officer, support from Communications Committee (web content team), assigned interns, Global Coordinator Rachel Payne, guidance from Global Board Member Keith Horton.

7. Explore a Policy or Working Paper Series: per feedback from Chapters, ASAP will explore possibilities for developing a Policy Paper or Working Paper series. This exploration will focus on the possible value added by either type of series and its possible contribution to the organizational mission.

Targets: investigation of possibilities concluded by the end of 2014 and report made to ASAP Global Board and Chapters.

Lead: To be determined (Global VP Luis Cabrera in interim)

4c. Applied Research, Interventions and Campaigns

ASAP will provide guidance and web support for selected academics in pursuing their own, research-informed intervention projects. It will also conduct or support narrowly targeted campaigns on specific issues, seeking to influence and inform poverty policy and contribute to shifts in norms on the acceptability of severe poverty.

Objectives

1. Develop Targeted Campaigns
2. Encourage New Research/Intervention Projects
3. Finalize and Publicize the Global Poverty Consensus Report
4. Finalize and Publicize the Illicit Financial Flows Experts\’ Study
5. Finalize and Publicize the Institutional Reform Goals Project
6. Finalize and Publicize the Know Your Rights India Project
7. Finalize and Publicize the Moral Psychology and Poverty Alleviation Project
8. Possibly Undertake a Climate Change Week Project
9. Showcase ASAP-affiliated Projects

Efforts Designed to Realize the Objectives

1. Development of Targeted Campaigns: ASAP will seek to enlist global academic support to tackle specific poverty-related issues through advocacy, on both national as well as international levels. One example might be influencing the new Sustainable Development Goals. Campaigns could include online petitions, open letters, organized testimony, targeted lobbying and other means of influencing outcomes.

Targets: Pilot campaign developed by end 2014, with minimum one per year in 2015-17.

Lead: Membership Director Jason Hickel.

2. Encourage New Applied Research and Intervention Projects: Develop guidelines for ASAP applied research/intervention projects and encourage the development of new ones. Pursue funding for them where appropriate. Give guidance and support as possible to project leads on promoting impact for their projects, including on policy makers, civil society groups, media outlets, etc.

Targets: Develop ASAP Project guidelines by the end of 2014, possibly to include affiliated projects noted or featured on ASAP\’s web site but not receiving specific support. Assessment of existing projects and support needed by the end of 2014. Identify one new ASAP Project per year through 2017.

Lead: ASAP Projects Officer, with support from Project Leads, Fundraising Officer Helen Yanacopulos.

3. Finalize and Publicize the Global Poverty Consensus Report: Survey of leading poverty experts on appropriate post-Millennium Development Goals agenda and global poverty priorities moving forward.

Targets: Completion of summary report on analysis of 40 in-depth, semi-structured interviews by October 2014. Publicizing of report in November 2014.

Leads: CROP Director Alberto Cimadamore, Professor of Philosophy Emerita from the University of Toronto Lynda Lange, and ASAP Global Coordinator Rachel Payne; Public Relations Officer.

4. Finalize and Publicize the Illicit Financial Flows Experts Study: Project surveying academic experts on illicit financial flows. Delphi research method experts were hired from successful ASAP fundraising campaign of 2013.

Targets: Successful completion of study and dissemination of findings through ASAP site, other online sites and commercial media outlets by September 2014.

Leads: Global Coordinator Rachel Payne, contract researchers, Public Relations Officer.

5. Finalize and Publicize the Institutional Reform Goals Project:ASAP\’s IRG project calls for the reform of institutional rules and practices that, unlike poverty eradication outcomes, are directly within the control of the world’s wealthiest states.

Targets: Completion and dissemination of the project report by the end of 2014.

Leads: Global Board Member and Canada Chapter Chair Mitu Sengupta, President Thomas Pogge, Public Relations Officer.

6. Finalize and Publicize the Know Your Rights India Project: Project working with NGOs in several Indian states to improve individuals’ knowledge of government-backed entitlements and ways of claiming them. Pilot study underwritten by Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

Targets: Study methodology, sites and team in place by end 2014. Pilot completed by June 2015.

Lead: ASAP India Chapter Head Ashok Acharya, with Luis Cabrera.

7. Finalize and Publicize the Moral Psychology and Poverty Alleviation Project: Project bringing together researchers working on moral psychology to use existing research and encourage new research to improve our understanding of the most effective means to motivate individuals to act to alleviate global poverty.

Targets: Those under discussion include literature reviews of the most important existing work for different audiences as well as workshops and events specifically gathering researchers working in relevant fields to encourage and promote new research.

Lead: Global Secretary Matthew Lindauer

8. Possibly Undertake a Climate Change Week Project: would be aimed at catalysing action by academics around the world in response to climate change. Exploratory study of interest in and feasibility of such a project.

Targets:The interest in and feasibility of such a project will be assessed and a decision made on it by end 2014.

Lead: Global Board Member and Oceania Lead Keith Horton, possibly intern.

9. Showcase ASAP-affiliated Projects: Web-site promotion of salient projects not directly supported by ASAP Global or Chapters but whose aims are highly complementary to ASAP\’s.

Targets: By the end of 2014, develop guidelines for which sorts of projects will qualify as \’ASAP-affiliated\’ and for how they will be featured on the ASAP web site, on ASAP Facebook, Twitter, etc.

 Lead: ASAP Projects Officer.