By Olisemeka Obeche
‘One Dollar’ campaign launched by the World Bank Group in the wake of its ‘Zero Poverty 2030’ initiative has sparked off frenzied responses in the social media.
Thousands of messages accompanied by photographic displays of one dollar worth items flooded the Bank’s online portals barely 24 hours it sent out a request urging global audience to ‘Post an answer to the question: What can you buy for #1dollar in your country?’
The tweeting exercise has recorded massive harvest of responses ranging from the serious to the hilarious, sarcastic and the odd. “I can buy a cup of Tianshi tea to clean my system in Naija for N50, much less than one dollar”, tweeted Mr. Eyong Sunday Eyong from Nigeria.
Another contributor sarcastically tweeted that one dollar can actually buy him ‘headache’, showcasing a mocked dollar note (see picture), while many others showcased real value of dollar worth products in their country.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim had during the launch of the ambitious programme in Washington D.C. acknowledged as a “moral stain on our collective conscience” the fact that more than 1 billion people live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day, promising to lead a holistic effort towards global poverty eradication.
The one dollar campaign currently trending on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, according to some development experts attending the 2013 Annual Meetings has offered people around the world the rare opportunity to ventilate their opinion on the issue of poverty alleviation efforts.
“Apart from being a novel approach to creating awareness on an important global issue, thisone dollar campaign has actually offered people who are not opportuned to participate in the discussions at this Annual Meetings the opportunity to share their views and demand action,” says Dr. Abdullateef Bello, Chief of Data Resource Centre, Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
In addition to mobilizing global policy leaders and development actors, the Bank also sought support of ordinary folks across the globe by providing online platform for people to sign ‘petition asking world leaders to commit to ending extreme poverty by 2030’.