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Affirmed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AT UNITED NATIONS, ROLE OF CHURCHES, CIVIL SOCIETY IN AFRICA IS AFFIRMED

March 10, 2003, NEW YORK CITY - A high-level roundtable at the United
Nations today (March 10) affirmed the important role of churches and the
broader civil society in promoting peace with justice in Africa.

The U.N.-accredited event, sponsored by the global humanitarian agency
Church World Service, brought eight ecumenical and grassroots leaders from
West Africa together with nearly 50 key U.N. officials and representatives
of faith-based non-governmental organizations.

Being here adds further credibility to the voices of the religious
community, which does have a stake in the matter of international affairs,
said the Rev. John L. McCullough, CWS Executive Director, who moderated the
program.  This time will be made even more important by our ability to
forge a true partnership and collaboration for peace with justice.

The West Africans - from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia and
Ghana -- also are meeting with leaders of U.S. churches and government and
with people in local congregations during their March 6-20 itinerary, under
CWS auspices, in New York and Washington, D.C.	(A ninth delegate will join
the group midweek.)

Their purpose is to raise international and U.S. awareness and support for
the critical needs in their region, especially in the Mano River Union
countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.	U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan has praised churches work for peace, reconciliation, reconstruction
and sustainable development in that region, with which the United Nations
and its partner, ECOWAS, have been preoccupied for many years.

The sub-region is a geographic cornerstone of CWS blossoming Africa
Initiative to forge a coalition among churches, businesses, governments and
the United Nations to address critical issues in Africa.  A Church World
Service delegation visited Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and The Gambia in
July 2002, and in September, CWS brought leaders of 31 African national
ecumenical councils to Nairobi, Kenya, for joint program planning.

Todays roundtable discussion at the United Nations focused on Promoting
Peace with Justice in the Mano River Union.  Until the late 1980s, the Mano
River region thought it was immune from the civil strife that was ravaging
other parts of Africa, said keynoter Ms. Yvette Stevens, U.N. Special
Coordinator for Africa and the Least Developed Countries.

That changed when civil war broke out in Liberia in late 1989, spread to
Sierra Leone and spilled over into Guinea, displacing millions within and
across borders, maiming and killing many others and ravaging essential
infrastructure.  Fighting continues in Liberia, and now has broken out in
Ivory Coast.

Until lasting peace can be established in the region, lasting development
wont be possible, roundtable participants agreed.  Conflict and
development are mortal enemies, Ms. Stevens affirmed.
Mr. Baffour Amoa, a Ghanaian who is Secretary General of the Fellowship of
Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa (FECCIWA), described churches
 efforts to play just such a role.  FECCIWA, which operates in 12 out of
the 15 countries in the Economic Community of West Africa, has work to
address the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, HIV/AIDS,
disability, peace and corruption.

FECCIWA and the national ecumenical councils in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone actively promote interreligious approaches to peace making and peace
building, said Mr. Amoa, a member of the CWS-sponsored delegation from West
Africa.

Under its good governance program, FECCIWA with the support of Church World
Service has started to motivate its membership to critically engage the New
Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD) process, he said.  Toward that
end, FECCIWA organized a workshop on NEPAD in Accra, Ghana, Feb. 17-21 that
drew participants from nine West African countries.

Ms. Ruth Engo, who works with Ms. Stevens as Civil Society Liaison, also
addressed the roundtable.  She traced the emergence of African civil society
to the 1980s, when due to debt, structural adjustment programs, drought and
mismanagement, governments were no longer able to perform their most basic
duties.  (T)he civil society emerged as the only viable response to local
needs of struggling communities.

Ms. Engo described several successful civil initiatives - the Campaign for
Just Mining in Sierra Leone, which focused on the diamond trade and human
security; the Mano River Womens Peace Network, which helped de-escalate
tensions between Guinea and Liberia by going to meet the heads of state, and
the Interfaith Council of Liberia, which eased tensions in Lofa and Nimba
counties following attacks on Mandingos in 1999 and 2000.

The latter represented of the of the countrys finest examples of civil
society networking, she said.	Symbolically it was indicative of the fact
that peaceful coexistence and cooperation can be possible between people of
different faiths - Christians and Muslims.

The roundtable included ample time for participants to go in more depth with
each other on issues particular to individual countries, and such regional
issues as response to the refugee crisis.  Then the Rev. McCullough called
on Mr. Youssef Mahmoud, Director of the Africa II Division in the U.N.s
Department of Political Affairs, to offer closing observations.

He urged organizations such as Church World Service to build on the great
energy of civil society in West Africa and make their voices better heard.
Its the churches and other grassroots organizations that are moving the
agenda for peace, bridging the gap between legitimacy and power.

Secondly, he said, There is increasing recognition that peace and security,
human rights and development are interrelated, and that civil society has
an important role in keeping them stuck together.

Finally, Mr. Mahmoud said, consider partnerships between civil society -
especially womens organizations - and multinationals.	Multinationals
increasingly realize there is more than the bottom line, there is also
reputation, he said.  Its odd, but there could be an alliance.  (Help
them see) why its in the interest of a company to do business differently.

-end-

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