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Outside of government, the Church, or Christian faith-based organisations, is the largest provider of development services targeted at poor communities. This is documented in a recent Tearfund publication “In the Thick of It”.
Tearfund recommends that governments and donors serious about achieving the MDGs should actively engage in partnership with the Church. They need to “harness the unique position of church based organisations” in order to ensure that the goals can be reached in sustainable and effective ways.
At the same time “The church in the West should recognise its role and potential to help bring root-and branch transformation to poor communities, both at home and overseas.” Christians in the developed nations have a responsibility and a mandate to speak up for the needs of the poorest communities. We need to make the case for partnership with the Government and with other donor agencies. We need to address some of the weaknesses in our own attitudes and teaching which miss the point of biblical teaching on poverty and justice.
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has appealed to international leaders to honour their promises of aid despite the economic downturn. Now Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Clark urged all countries who had promised aid to "maintain" if not "increase their current level of support" to nations in need. Clark stressed that providing assistance was a "moral imperative" especially because "those least responsible for the economic crisis stand to bear the brunt of its effects." In a similar vein, the British Conservative Party has issued a new policy discussion document on global poverty and development. They say that “The moral case for tackling poverty is utterly compelling”, and they are committed to working to the target of spending 0.7% of GDP on international aid by 2013.
MDG Progress Report - 2009
With only six years until the 2015 deadline, donor countries are falling short in meeting aid commitments made in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and aid is likely to drop even further as a result of the negative economic climate, according to the UN progress report Millennium Development Goals Report 2009. There has been significant progress, but there are also important areas where the world is falling behind in efforts to achieve these goals.
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The Lord’s Prayer – A critique of political economy?
“The Lord’s Prayer has as its paramount concern bread for subsistence in a time of hunger, relief from debt when an unjust debt structure crushed the people underfoot and the establishment of God’s sole sovereignty when the people’s misery was largely the by-product of Caesar’s authority”. How often when we pray the Lord’s prayer do we fail to connect with the impact that it would have had on the earliest listeners? We miss its definitions of enough and equality; we miss its alternative politics of forgiveness and reconciliation, of scarcity and violence… Malcolm Irwin, The Debt of Our Prayers, http://www.salvationarmy.org.nz/uploads/In%20Touch_July%2009.pdf
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The Micah Call is a global petition, and a statement of our belief that now is a time when poverty can be challenged:
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The issues of global poverty are not just economic. They are also political and spiritual. Micah Challenge invites Christians to take a prophetic role in making a difference in the world.
Paul Thompson
National Coordinator
Micah Challenge Aotearoa New Zealand
The Micah Challenge eNewsletter is a monthly update on global poverty issues with a Christian perspective. Invite friends to subscribe. Visit our website www.micahchallenge.org.nz
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