Global Citizen takes its fight against poverty to the world’s growing cities

DETROIT (AP) – Global Citizen is turning to cities as it looks to break through what it sees as widespread political gridlock hindering large-scale action on its goal of ending extreme poverty worldwide.

The nonprofit advocacy group has rallied the private sector and foreign dignitaries to solve humanitarian challenges together, driving millions of dollars toward replenishing international aid and eradicating polio since 2008. But Global Citizen co-founder Simon Moss said Thursday it is local officials who are increasingly joining traditional international players in shaping whether communities are equipped to tackle urgent crises.

“We can get beyond partisan politics a lot of the time when you’re dealing with a group of people in a city who all literally live there,” Moss said.

“That’s easier a lot of the time to get real progress compared to waiting on elected officials in capitals, who will often talk a good game and who’ll be responsive, but where, in America and many other countries, they’re finding it really hard to actually make big-picture policy decisions,” he added.

The emphasis arose when leaders heard shared concerns from partners across major African and North American cities. In Detroit, which Thursday hosted Global Citizen’s first American conference outside New York City, organizers saw an opportunity to highlight a place experiencing population growth after decades-long losses alongside the auto industry’s decline.

The urban focus also reflects U.N. projections that more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050 – a trend that Global Citizen fears will worsen concentrated poverty if local governments don’t start creating inclusive economic opportunities.

To prevent under-resourced communities from missing the latest technological changes, Global Citizen unveiled a new partnership making artificial intelligence more accessible.

Goodera, a company that helps implement corporate volunteer programs, aims to mobilize engineers with the goal of making 10 million people “AI literate” by 2030. Half of those people will be underserved women and youth, according to Moss.

Their first focus will be bridging the digital divide in cities, according to Moss, and Goodera is helping identify those most at risk of getting left behind. They also plan to work with entrepreneurs in low-income countries.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban noted the transformative potential for small business owners during a panel Thursday at Global Citizen NOW: Detroit. ChatGPT can “write a business plan that’s better” than anything he could write, Cuban admitted, and offers access to every piece of business advice out there.

George Opare Addo, Ghana’s minister of youth development and empowerment, pointed out that farmers are already using the technology’s limited availability to better predict weather and improve their yields. But he said that youth must be engaged in its rollout.

“For young people to be able to appreciate AI, then they must be not just users of it, but makers of it,” he said.

Other panelists emphasized the need for cities to build shared cultures by fostering creative scenes and sports fandoms.

Global Citizen has recently relied on high-powered sports leagues such as FIFA to raise money for education initiatives. And Cuban – who previously owned the Dallas Mavericks – said no industry unites people around a common cause like sports.

“As things change in a city, the first place you look is the sports team for support, always. Every tragedy, you look to the sports team first, always,” Cuban said. “And that is so unique. You just don’t get that with any other business.”

For celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, the food industry provides “spaces that you can have dialogues” and “opportunities to break bread.” Samuelsson’s cuisine, for example, blends his Ethiopian heritage with his Swedish upbringing.

Jessica Nabongo, a Ugandan-American travel blogger, recalled growing up eating Lebanese, Polish and Japanese foods in Detroit’s diverse culinary scene. That experience, she said, instilled “a respect for other people’s culture out the gate.”

“There has to be a reverence – truly a reverence – for the people who are here and have been here and made the city what it is, no matter what the ebbs and flows are,” she said.

As cities change, though, it is local artists who Detroit Poet Laureate jessica Care moore finds are tasked with making sure their histories remain told and their longtime residents remain seen.

Good artists, she said, “paint the pictures that people can’t see” and “ask the questions that nobody’s asking.”

“Artists are the pulse of the people,” she said. “If you turn cities into just places for corporations, then you lose the soul of the city. And Detroit, the soul of our city, are the people that live here.”