Open Letter to the Executive: The draft Anti-Poverty Strategy is not fit for purpose

Over 75 organisations and individuals have signed this open letter to the Executive regarding the draft anti-Poverty Strategy. Faith leaders, community and voluntary sector organisations, trade unions, members of the Department for Communities appointed Expert Advisory Panel and Co-Design Group share their disappointment that this draft ‘strategy’ is not fit for purpose.

Dear Executive Ministers, 

The undersigned agree that the Northern Ireland Executive’s draft Anti-Poverty ‘Strategy’ does not meet the criteria of a reasonable strategy. It fails to fulfil what oversight bodies, including the NI Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee, outline as the basic elements of any strategy.

The NI Audit Office said that “an integrated cross departmental anti-poverty strategy [should] ensure that the focus is on a number of properly defined and more specific actions” and “it should include an action plan containing clearly defined indicators and targets aimed at quantifying and reducing poverty.”

The Public Accounts Committee said that there is a “clear need for targets and outcomes that are quantitative, qualitative and time-bound to properly measure performance and demonstrate the impact of strategic actions.” It also considered that “a strategy which does not have specific resources devoted to it is never going to be as effective as it could be.”

We acknowledge that the Minister has indicated that an action plan with targets and specific actions will follow at a later, unspecified date, but every expert, every oversight body is clear that a strategy must include measurable and time bound targets within or alongside the strategy.  

Once again, we urge you to meaningfully engage with the huge volume of research that has been produced by the Independent Expert Advisory Panel (2020), the Anti-Poverty Strategy Co-Design Group (2022), the Welfare Reform Mitigation Review (2021), the Discretionary Support Review (2022) and the hundreds of pages of Northern Ireland specific evidence produced by organisations and academics that provides clear evidence of the interventions that work to tackle poverty. 

We are committed to working with you in good faith to eradicate poverty in Northern Ireland, and therefore, we are asking the NI Executive to withdraw their support of the draft Anti-Poverty Strategy, on the basis that it is more harmful to have a strategy that will not address poverty, than no strategy at all. Our children, families and communities – your constituents – deserve better.

Yours Sincerely,

1. Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network
2. Goretti Horgan, Ulster University and Expert Panel
3. Pauline Leeson, CiNI and Expert Panel
4. Mike Tomlinson, Professor Emeritus, QUB and Expert Panel
5. Bernadette McAliskey, Expert Panel
6. Anti-Poverty Strategy Group
7. Barnardo’s NI
8. Action for Children 
9. Children in Northern Ireland (CiNI)
10. Save the Children NI
11. NICVA (Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action)
12. Ulster Farmers Union 
13. UNISON NI
14. Gerry Murphy, ICTU Assistant General Secretary
15. Alan Perry, Senior Organiser, GMB Trade Union
16. UCU
17. Belfast Unite the Union Retired Members Branch
18. SIPTU Trade Union 
19. Chartered Society of Physiotherapy 
20. Rev. David Campton, Belfast Central Mission
21. Rev. Brian Anderson, East Belfast Mission and coalition of Christian Voices Against  Poverty
22. Rev Dr Norman Hamilton  
23. Rev Paul Maxwell, Chair of Dundonald Foodbank and Superintendent minister of the Belfast East Circuit of the Methodist Church in Ireland
24. The Salvation Army
25. Vineyard Compassion
26. Rev John Alderdice, North Eastern District Superintendent of the Methodist Church in Ireland
27. CARE (Christian Action Research Education)
28. Rev Dr David Clements, Methodist Council on Social Responsibility
29. Christian Fellowship Church 
30. Belfast Central Mission
31. Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick, Ulster University 
32. Law Centre NI
33. Carers NI
34. Inspire
35. Cliff Edge Coalition NI
36. Rural Community Network
37. Black and Minority Ethnic Women’s Network
38. Women’s Policy Group NI
39. Women’s Resource & Development Agency
40. Human Rights Consortium 
41. Community Advice Fermanagh
42. Forward South Partnership
43. Women’s Spaces
44. Raise Your Voice
45. Northern Ireland Council for Racial Equality 
46. Storehouse (NI)
47. Conradh na Gaeilge
48. Disabled People Against Cuts Northern Ireland
49. Northwest Forum of People with Disabilities 
50. Age NI
51. Dr Alexandra Chapman, Ulster University
52. Ann Marie Gray FAcSS, Professor of Social Policy and Co-Director of ARK
53. Northern Ireland Women’s Budget Group
54. Simon Community 
55. Women’s Support Network 
56. Women’s Regional Consortium
57. Community Foundation for Northern Ireland 
58. Ardoyne Association
59. Ardoyne Bone Community Health and Leisure Trust
60. An Dream Dearg 
61. St Vincent de Paul
62. Community Transport Association Northern Ireland 
63. Ecojustice Ireland
64. NIRWN (Northern Ireland Rural Women’s Network)
65. Participation and the Practice of Rights
66. Reclaim the Agenda
67. North Belfast Area Project
68. Foyle Network Foundation
69. Community Development and Health Network 
70. MS Society Northern Ireland
71. RNIB NI
72. Melted Parents NI
73. The Link Family and Community Centre
74. Dove House Community Trust 
75. The Larder Belfast
76. Creggan Country Park
77. Triax Neighbourhood Partnership Board
78. Cookstown and Western Shores Area Network
79. PeasPark Belfast
80. East Belfast Anti Poverty Alliance,East Belfast Community Development Agency.
81. Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland
82. Focus Project, Creggan Enterprises
83. National Energy Action Northern Ireland
84. The Rainbow Project 
85. The Peace Summit Partnership 
86. Robin Wilson, former editor-in-chief, Social Europe
87. Rural Support, The Farm Support Charity for Northern Ireland
88. Omagh Forum for Rural Associations 
89. STEP
90. HERe NI
91. Old Library Trust
92. NI Health Collective
93. C03
94. Holywell Trust
95. Rural Action
96. Money Ready

Please sign and share the Open Letter with your friends, colleagues, family and community to encourage a widespread discussion about how, after 19 years, we deserve an anti-poverty strategy that will actually tackle poverty!

You can read the NI Executive’s draft Anti-Poverty Strategy here.