NEW YORK – Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ms. Lauryn Hill and Megan Thee Stallion will headline this year’s Global Citizen Festival as the non-profit, anti-poverty organization aims to draw attention to the growing inequality of girls and young women around the world.
Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans said the Sept. 23 event in New York’s Central Park will be the centerpiece of his group’s campaign to encourage supporters, particularly Gen Z, to take action on gender inequality, climate change and other issues to take.
Studies show that half of Gen Z “feel disillusioned and powerless to make a difference,” Evans said in an interview with The Associated Press. “As long as you and I have been alive, there has been almost this sense of positive dynamics in the world that almost felt like eradicating extreme poverty might be inevitable,” he said. “But the data suggests the world is worse off now.”
According to the United Nations Population Fund, 257 million women worldwide want to avoid pregnancy but do not have access to modern contraceptives. The Fund’s partnership to provide reproductive health services is currently underfunded by $100 million.
Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations fund helping nearly 20 million children keep learning in times of crisis, needs $670 million for its work.
The Global Citizen Festival, which also includes performances by K-pop sensation Stray Kids and singer-songwriter Conan Gray, is offering free tickets to the event in return for fans taking action on the group’s app and website, that support these goals.
This year, that could mean asking Canada, Norway and Japan to donate more to the United Nations Population Fund. This may mean pushing companies to join the United Nations’ ‘Race to Zero’ to set targets for reducing their carbon emissions. Or urging the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and Australia to allocate more funding to vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change.
Global Citizen’s use of supporters to persuade political, business and philanthropic leaders to address some of the world’s biggest issues is designed to appeal to younger generations, Evans said.
“These are cornerstones of what we think Gen Z cares about, but often they feel powerless because the data isn’t on their side,” Evans said. “We speak to Gen Z in a way that lets them know their actions can have a scalable impact.”
Singer Angelique Kidjo, who was recently nominated for this year’s award Great immigrant list from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, said her Batonga Foundation has found that supporting girls and young women ultimately empowers entire villages in her native Benin and across Africa.
“Helping women in a community is like setting in motion a stone that never stops rolling,” Kidjo said, adding that it was the women who protected their villages during the COVID-19 pandemic by they also made masks and soap for washing hands as an enforcement of social distancing.
Not only will Hill and Megan Thee Stallion provide examples of women’s empowerment through their performances, Evans hopes they will encourage their fans to take action during the event, which will be streamed across numerous digital platforms.
“For many decades, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have been where music and activism meet,” Evans said, adding that the band’s classic “Under the Bridge” was the first song he learned to play guitar. “We couldn’t be happier with this cast.”
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