Press Release from Micah Challenge International

World leaders meeting at November's G20 economic summit in France are being strongly urged to tackle world poverty by recommitting to work together to end the scourge of corruption, which keeps people in poverty across the world.

'Corruption and poor governance and transparency are major barriers to overcoming poverty in the least developed countries, and if the world leaders start to address these issues, then we will be on the way to reaching the Millennium Development Goals to which the world is already committed ', says Rev Joel Edwards, International Director of Micah Challenge, a global movement active in over 40 countries encouraging Christians to be committed to the poor, and hold governments accountable to the MDGs.

'Corruption at the highest level in some countries means that the very poor remain very poor, with resources going to a few people at the top, or to outside agencies who have bribed their way into contracts. And even when social or aid programmes are specifically designed to help the poor, funds are often diverted from front-line services because of bribery or inefficiency,' Joel Edwards says.

From the 11 – 13 May I had the privilege and opportunity to attend the Micah Challenge Coordinators meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With 22 delegates from 16 countries there was such a diverse group of people there – and yet we all had so much in common. From vastly different locations, cultures and languages – and yet we shared the same vision and passion. To Inspire and motivate God's people to take on the Challenge of halving extreme poverty by 2015.

It was great to get to know this wonderful group of people – to be inspired by the joys of their success and to be humbled by the difficult circumstance in which they work. 

Do you hate paying taxes? Can taxes ever be too low? The issues around taxes are important questions for development. Amanda Jackson works for Micah Challenge International and wrote the following article to start a discussion around tax and development:

I am visiting the Philippines this week to meet with the team building the Micah Challenge campaign. With over 26% of Filipinos living in extreme poverty, while a minority have extreme wealth, and up to 11 million Filipinos working overseas to provide for their families, there is clear need for advocacy on poverty.

The time may be right. There is optimism here with a new President whose election slogan was  “No corruption. No poverty”.  Citizens want to see if NoyNoy Aquino’s words become concerted action that can turn the nation around.

One area to tackle is taxes. The Economist (July 7, 2011) reports that ‘good’ taxes could be a solution to many issues in the Philippines. The government’s revenues last year amounted to just 13.4% of GDP, much lower than its neighbours in the region. The Asian Development Bank estimates that the Philippines collected less than a fifth of the value-added taxes (VAT) it was owed, meaning there was much less money to spend on basic services like health and education which last year accounted for only 0.9% of government spending.

"Of all the problems in the developing world none is greater than the problem of unemployment" Prof. Tony Campolo

There are reported to be two billion people in developing countries still living in very severe poverty, with little or no regular income. Internet access is expanding very rapidly into these countries and offers a highly cost effective means of communication and transfer of knowledge to help the poor.

Aid for Trade is a Christian led charity initiative started in 2008, with a vision to provide a free internet resource to assist sustainable poverty reduction to help partners overseas create new jobs in poor communities. It is based on ten years’ work with impoverished villages in Eastern Europe and on extensive field research.