Video: World Day of Social Justice 2021
Lindsay Coates shares insights about BRAC’s commitment to justice and transforming systems to deliver long-term change.
BY ELIZABETH WRIGHT, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, BRAC USA
In 2007, the United Nations named February 20th World Day of Social Justice to recognize that everyone deserves equal opportunities and equal social, economic, and political rights.
This year’s commemoration has special resonance in the context of sustained mass demonstrations in every U.S. state and in dozens of countries in response to the devaluation of Black lives and brutal racial injustice—and in the context of the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people of color and people living in poverty—exposing glaring disparities in access to health care, jobs, and other safety nets.
In 2021, World Day of Social Justice lays bare the urgent need for the international community to prioritize a search for solutions to achieve sustainable development, poverty eradication, the promotion of full employment and decent work, universal social protection, gender equality, and access to social well-being and justice for all.
Central to BRAC’s mission are a dedication to addressing the most pervasive forms of inequality and an unswerving commitment to advancing social justice.
Through BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI), we are scaling our holistic, innovative Graduation approach to help millions more people around the world lift themselves from extreme poverty for the long term.
At a time of unprecedented crisis, when the world’s poorest and most marginalized people are being left even further behind, Lindsay Coates, the Managing Director of UPGI, highlights the need to put social justice at the center of international development.