NetAid to take place in October

Howard Lake | 6 May 1999 | News

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• archive-1999

Cisco Systems and UNDP have announced NetAid, a global fundraising campaign to eradicate extreme poverty using the Web.

Internet networking company Cisco Systems and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have announced that they will be mounting Net Aid in October, a massive three-continent concert that will be broadcast and netcast globally. The concert will aim to raise funds principally via the Internet to conquer poverty worldwide.

The announcement was made on 27 April by Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, along with entertainers Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte, together with United Nations Development Program administrator James Gustave Speth.

Net Aid will be held on 9 October 1999 and will feature a number of major artists. They will perform from stages at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Wembley Stadium in London, England and The Opera House in Geneva, Switzerland.

Cisco Systems and UNDP have brought together the talents of Harvey Goldsmith, Ken Kragen, Don Mischer and Jeff Pollack, who have worked on past major events such as “Live Aid,” “We Are The World,” and “Hands Across America.” Cisco expects this group will create “an unparalleled global endeavor where musical artists and performers will raise their voices in the fight to end extreme poverty.”

Cisco Systems will produce a Web site which will serve as a source of information, campaigning tool and fundraising resource. The site will be maintained by UNDP and will be “solely dedicated to serve as a clearinghouse for organizations and individuals who want to get involved in the effort”. Cisco says that it will be able to support “more than one billion hits on the Web”.

UNDP

In 1997, UNDP and 117 world leaders pledged to conquer poverty worldwide, launching the Decade to Eradicate Poverty (1997–2006).

They embarked on a ten-year plan to promote employment, social integration, equity and equality among men and women, stabilize governments in indigenous areas and increase resource allocations to the least privileged areas of the world.

UNDP estimates that some 1.3 billion exist on less than a dollar a day. Twenty percent, or 880 million of the 4.4 billion people living in developing countries, are undernourished and live beyond the reach of modern health services.

Every year more than 12 million under-fives die from easily preventable illnesses linked to contaminated water sources, malnutrition and the absence of basic health care such as immunization.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.