Anti-Poverty

As poverty deepens and inequality continues to rise across Northern Ireland, the Anti-Poverty Strategy Group - a coalition of civil society organisations including NICVA - has released an updated set of recommendations urging the NI Executive to take decisive and meaningful action to address poverty, its root causes and impact.

NICVA was one of 50 + signatories to a recent letter, coordinated by the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network (NIAPN), addressed to NI Executive Ministers. The letter, endorsed by a broad coalition of civil society organisations and groups, calls for the withdrawal of the draft Anti-Poverty Strategy currently out for public consultation.

It outlines that the strategy fails to meet the basic criteria of a reasonable and effective anti-poverty strategy and is therefore not fit for purpose.

After nearly two decades of delays, the long waited draft Anti Poverty Strategy for NI was published this week with Communities Minister Gordon Lyons' statement before the Assembly. 

The Department for Communities has launched a public consultation on the draft strategy which is open from now until 19 September 2025. 

Civil society members of  The Anti-Poverty Strategy Group are pressing the NI Executive for the inclusion of Eradicating Poverty as a priority within the new Programme for Government.

Members of the Department for Communities (DfC) Anti-Poverty Strategy Co Design Group have produced a position paper detailing their key recommendations for the development of a Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Strategy.