New campaign group formed to call for anti-poverty strategy
Published on 12 February 2025 11:08 AM
A new campaign group that is calling for the Northern Ireland Executive to produce an anti-poverty strategy will be launched today at an event held in Stormont.
Representatives of almost 20 charities and civil society organisations have come together to form the Anti-Poverty Strategy Group and are calling for the Executive to publish a strategy for tackling poverty as a matter of urgency. Today’s event will outline principles that the campaign group argues should be present in the Executive’s strategy if it is to be effective. They are calling for a strategy that is based on evidence of objective need and underpinned by the Executive’s duty to protect human rights. Other demands include a call for the strategy to be fully resourced, have clear timebound targets, and adopt a lifecycle approach to address the different needs and vulnerabilities people face at different stages of their lives.
Colm Gildernew MLA, Chair of the Committee for Communities comments:
As Chair of the Committee for Communities, and as Sinn Féin spokesperson for Housing and Communities, I am very glad to sponsor this important event. Poverty is on the rise across our society, with more and more people struggling to afford essential goods such as food, warmth and clothing.
The Communities Committee has made tackling poverty a key priority, and we continue to hold the Minister to account in ensuring he delivers on his commitment to publish an anti-poverty strategy as a priority. We must see the publication of an anti-poverty strategy in the coming weeks, which contains ambitious proposals to reduce poverty and support those who are most in need.
The most recent government statistics reveal that 349,000 people in Northern Ireland were living in relative poverty in 2022/23, which is almost 1in 5 of the population. A concerning rise in child poverty statistics that same year puts 1 in 4 children here living in poverty.
Service providers Trussell reported an 11% increase in food parcel distribution in Northern Ireland in 2023/24 from the previous year. The need for a government strategy for tackling poverty has been the subject of much debate since the Assembly returned just over a year ago, including a legal challenge by human rights groups who believe the Executive is failing in its duty to ‘adopt a strategy setting out how it proposes to tackle poverty, social exclusion and patterns of deprivation based on objective need’ as set out in the Northern Ireland Act.
Trasa Canavan Barnardo’s NI, Chair of the Anti-Poverty Strategy Group adds:
The Anti-Poverty Strategy Group is proud to launch its Core Principles for a Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Strategy. This work is more urgent today than ever before. In Barnardo’s NI, we deliver over 45 different services throughout Northern Ireland, and we see the impact of poverty in every service. It is shameful that, one year on from the return of the Northern Ireland Executive, action on poverty is still not a priority. We need an Anti-Poverty Strategy now.
Kellie Turtle Age NI, member of the Anti-Poverty Strategy Group said:
Age NI is pleased to be a part of the Anti-Poverty Strategy Group as we are deeply concerned about the toll poverty is taking on older people, thousands of whom phone our advice service for help every year. We want to see an Anti-Poverty Strategy that can help to eradicate poverty at every stage of life with no further delay from the Northern Ireland Executive.
The publication of an Anti-Poverty Strategy is currently the responsibility of Communities Minister Gordon Lyons who has reported that a strategy is currently under development.
The Anti-Poverty Strategy Group includes organisations such as Trussell, Disability Action, the Salvation Army, Advice NI, the Rural Community Network and representatives from trade unions, the community sector, the women’s sector and the youth and children’s sector. The members had previously worked in a co-design group with the Department for Communities before the collapse of the Assembly in 2022. Having been told by Minister Lyons that there will be no further engagement with civil society in this stage of the design of the Anti-Poverty Strategy, the members have decided to launch this group as they want to continue working together to influence the development of the strategy and press for its publication.