wfn.org | WCC NEWS: About ice-cream and poverty

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World Council of Churches - Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org 
For immediate release - 19/10/2004

AS EASY OR AS DIFFICULT AS EATING ICE-CREAM:
WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO ERADICATE POVERTY FROM THE WORLD

					    Free photo available, see below

The amount of money spent every year on ice-cream in the United States
alone would make it possible, if it were added to what is now being done,
to achieve the goal of access to primary education for all children. This
was how UK government chief secretary to the Treasury Paul Boateng
illustrated the point that Millennium Development Goals (MDG) could be
reached if rich countries really wanted to reach them.

"We do not lack the awareness, we do not lack the science, we do not lack
the resources. We have the technology, the medicine, the expertise - and
the costs are not prohibitive. What the developed word lacks is the will to
make reality of our Millennium promise," Boateng told participants at a
half-day seminar on "The challenge of poverty eradication" held at the
World Council of Churches (WCC) on 18 October, 2004.

In an earlier presentation centred on the case of Africa, WCC general
secretary Samuel Kobia agreed with Boateng's point of view. "Africa does
not need any more poverty analyses, but rather justice and the honouring of
commitments," he said, referring to governments' "promises for the MDG set
four years ago".

Kobia pointed out that since the adoption of MDGs, "very little has been
achieved in alleviating the plight of more than three billion poor people
in the world who live on less than two dollars a day," and that
poverty-related casualties "would outnumber deaths caused by the weapons of
mass destruction (WMD) in the same period". "If destruction of life were
the yardstick, then that challenges the powerful and rich nations to take
poverty with even more seriousness than they take the WMD," Kobia reasoned.

Poverty, he continued, "can only be eradicated if inequality in sharing of
the global resources is addressed". "It is now evident that economic growth
alone does not eradicate poverty, particularly when such growth is based on
a model of development that enhances inequity within and between nations,"
and when "unregulated financial markets transfer financial resources from
poor countries to rich ones".

In Africa in particular, eradication of poverty would take "external
support and solidarity () to accompany African initiatives such as the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)," and measures like
"intensification of debt cancellation," "introduction of an international
currency transaction tax," "to prevent capital flight to offshore tax
havens," and "reforming financial and trade institutions to make them more
transparent," among others, Kobia said.

>>> UK International Finance Facility initiative

How can the developed world fulfil its responsibility regarding the MDG,
which according to Boateng are not only a practical but also a moral
imperative? Speaking on behalf of the UK government, he stated that the
richest countries must "write off more debt," "dismantle our damaging trade
barriers," and "commit more money towards international aid and
development," among other steps.

To address the last challenge - "to urgently increase the overall level of
resources going from rich to poor" by about "an additional $50 billion a
year in aid" - the UK government proposes to create an International
Finance Facility. This would raise money from the international capital
markets by issuing bonds based on legally-binding long-term donor
commitments, distribute those additional resources to the poorest
countries, and repay bondholders by using future donor payment streams.

According to Boateng, the initiative has been already supported by the Holy
See of the Roman Catholic Church, the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund, and would represent a "faster", "stable and predictable
financing vehicle" for making available the resources needed for education,
health, economic development, debt relief and trade.

>>> The role of the churches

Recognizing the distinct but significant role of faith-based communities in
development and conflict resolution, the UK government chief secretary to
the Treasury invited the WCC to support this proposal as well as to
strengthen its mobilization of churches in support of the MDG. In response,
the WCC general secretary agreed to take the proposal to future meetings of
WCC governing bodies for discussion.

Having noted in his earlier intervention that "both conceptually and
pragmatically, there are many points of convergence that offer a strong
basis for the cooperation" between churches on the one hand and the UK's
Commission for Africa and the proposal of an International Finance Facility
on the other, Kobia stressed his hope that this initiative "will go beyond
promises to real action".

The role of faith-based as well as civil society organizations was also
highlighted in her intervention by WCC president from Africa, Agnes Aboum.
"The efforts of the poor and faith-based organizations who have worked on
poverty for a very long time must be included in the MDG agenda for it to
be successful," she stated. She also underlined that those organizations
should play a "critical role" of "consistent and systematic monitoring and
evaluation of the MDG achievements".

The seminar was attended by representatives of the permanent missions of
Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Lesotho, Rwanda, Botswana, Cameroon,
and the African Union, as well as the World Bank, the UN Millennium
Campaign, the International Labour Organization, the Lutheran World
Federation, the All Africa Conference of Churches, the Anglican Communion
and the Church of North India.	 (858 words)

A free high resolution photo of Paul Boateng and Samuel Kobia is available at
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/press_corner/kobia-boateng.html 

Additional information about WCC work on economic globalization available at
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/press_corner/index-e.html 
and
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/globalization.html 

See also our press release of 11 October, 2004
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/pressreleasesen.nsf/index/Info-04-11.html 

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

Sign up for WCC press releases at
http://onlineservices.wcc-coe.org/pressnames.nsf

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.