Encouraging action to help the more than a billion people around the world - including around a million Australians - who live in extreme hardship is the aim of Anti-Poverty Week at UNSW.

A range of groups including Oxfam Australia, Amnesty International, Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development and the Intellectual Disability Rights Service will take part in the activities starting on Tuesday, leading up to the United Nations' International Anti-Poverty Day on 17 October.

Part of a national initiative, the event aims to strengthen public understanding of the cause and consequences of poverty and encourage research, discussion and action to address these problems.

The Social Justice Project in the Faculty of Law is coordinating the week at UNSW.

"Anti-Poverty Week is not just something that begins on Monday and ends on Friday, it's meant to really stimulate people to be thinking and engaging in activities around the rest of the year as well," said the program's National Chair, UNSW Professor Julian Disney, who is a keynote speaker at a forum at NSW Parliament House on Tuesday 13 October.

As well as forums, planned activities include public debates, workshops and fundraisers. Topics to be covered range from working and volunteering in the humanitarian sector to indigenous rights, child sponsorship, aid, trade and climate change.

Check the program for all event details.

Media contact: Steve Offner, UNSW Media | 02 9385 8107 | 0424 580 208