wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Financing for Development: Radical changes needed, WCC says in Doha

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 28/11/2008 15:29:17

GLOBAL ECONOMY NEEDS RADICAL CHANGES, WCC TEAM SAYS

Radical changes and tangible commitments from world leaders are
needed if an equitable and sustainable global economic system is
to be built, says an ecumenical delegation attending a UN
conference on financing for development starting tomorrow in
Qatar. 

The United Nation's International Conference on Financing for
Development taking place from 29 November to 2 December in Doha,
Qatar will review the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus
adopted by UN member states in Mexico in 2002. That consensus
identified policies and actions to mobilize resources for
sustainable development, poverty eradication and gender equality.

The follow-up conference in Doha "provides a historic
opportunity for world leaders to take responsibility and enact
transformations towards building an equitable and sustainable
global economic system that meets the economic, social and
cultural rights of all, women and men, and nurtures the
environment," says a statement by a World Council of Churches
(WCC) delegation attending the conference. 

For that to happen, the statement continues, "Now more than
ever, radical changes and tangible commitments are needed."
However, "like the Monterrey Consensus before it, the Doha
Outcome Document is in danger of falling drastically short of
generating effective and timely responses to the global crises of
our times." 

Considering that the international financial system "is not
merely inefficient" but "based on injustice," the statement urges
the UN to "take leadership in redesigning an international
financial architecture that establishes a global system of
regulation as well as enlarges the space for developing country
governments to enhance social protection in crisis periods". 

"The WCC continues to call for a lasting solution to the debt
problem for poor and middle-income countries beginning with the
unconditional cancellation of the illegitimate debts being
claimed from poor countries," the statement continues. 

Addressing the global food crisis, the statement identifies "its
roots in neo-liberal reforms in trade and investment regimes"
promoted by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and
the World Trade Organization. Therefore it calls for "the removal
of structural inequalities in the global trade system and the
establishment of mutuality, transparency and civil society (not
least women's) participation in future negotiations". 

Regarding the "ecological debt", the statement urges the UN "to
conceive a just and sustainable" financial framework with regard
to climate change. This framework should redistribute "the
financial outlays for mitigation and adaptation among and within
countries in proportion to their contribution to climate change
and according to their capacity to pay". 

"Rich, industrialized countries have […] an ethical and moral
obligation to pay for the ecological damages they have inflicted
on poor countries through their disproportionate appropriation of
natural resources and unsustainable lifestyles," the statement
continues. 

Members of the WCC delegation at the conference are:

- Rev. Malcolm Damon (South Africa), executive director of the
Economic Justice Network of the Fellowship of Christian Councils
in Southern Africa (FOCCISA)

- Mr Solomuzi Mabuza (South Africa), honorary president of the
Pietermaritzburg Young Men's Christian Association. 

- Ms Felina Mendres (Philippines), a leader with the National
Federation of Peasant Women (AMIHAN). 

The WCC delegation in partnership with the Global Call to Action
Against Poverty and with Jubilee South is co-organizing two
workshops or side-events at the conference: "Global financial,
food and climate crises" and "Climate change and global finance:
issues and advocacy initiatives". 

Media contact in Qatar: Athena Peralta +63.9267328695 (SMS
only)

Full text of the statement "The Time for Justice is Now"
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=6445

UN International Conference on Financing for Development:
http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/doha

>WCC campaign on climate change:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3416

>WCC programme on Poverty, wealth and ecology:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3117

Additional information: 

Juan Michel +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.