Unfair economic systems sustain poverty, advocates say

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
 
Unfair economic systems sustain poverty, advocates say
By Chris Herlinger*
 
 
NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2010 – The question almost seemed to answer 
itself.
 
"Must we change the global economic system in order to eradicate 
hunger and poverty?"
 
The answer: a strong yes, as participants from a number of 
humanitarian, church and advocacy groups who participated in a Sept. 
22 forum co-sponsored by Church World Service gathered to ask what 
systemic change is needed to empower impoverished people around the 
world.
 
The forum – one of numerous events held in connection with a United 
Nations summit to assess progress on the eight Millennium Development 
Goals to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015 – was a dialogue among 
experts and advocates, giving them a chance to discern what changes 
are needed eradicate poverty.
 
David Weaver, CWS representative to the United Nations, said the 
question of changing the overall system is needed given that one 
global reality – the threat of a new international food crisis – "has 
re-emerged with new urgency." 
 
David McNair, senior economic justice advisor for the UK-based 
humanitarian agency and CWS partner Christian Aid, said such urgency 
is needed given that problems of speculation continue to plague the 
global economy. "The fact that someone can be making millions or even 
billions on the price of wheat is totally immoral," he said.
 
McNair cited a recent Christian Aid study, "Poverty: We're All in 
This Together" which praised the Millennium Development Goals for 
having "driven significant and very welcome progress, and raised the 
profile globally of the international commitment to eradicate 
poverty." But the study also noted that some of the eight goals are 
not on track, faulting the goals' focus of seeking to reduce but not 
fully eradicate some basic symptoms of poverty.
 
"Poverty is not simply a lack of income, or other material attributes 
such as housing, food, access to fresh water or consumer goods," the 
report noted, saying poverty has wider dimensions. Poverty is also, 
the report said, "a lack of opportunity, a lack of power over one's 
own life and prospects, a lack of human dignity." 
 
Real progress, the report added, "will be made when the systematic 
and structural causes of poverty are challenged. Those in poverty 
must be supported to take power over the constraints they face; those 
in power must be held accountable."
 
Put another way, Dr. Manoj Kurian, a program executive with the 
Geneva-based World Council of Churches, said: "We can't transform 
societies unless we have fair systems."
A debate among groups and individuals working to eradicate poverty is 
whether it is possible to reform international financial institutions 
such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank or whether 
much more fundamental transformation is needed. "Do you scrap it or 
democratize it?" asked the Rev. Christopher Ferguson, representative 
to the United Nations Commission of the Churches on International 
Affairs in New York.
While that debate among advocates continues, there is much work to be 
done and, along the way, glimmers of hope for change.
 
Sister Annmarie Braudis, Maryknoll NGO representative at the United 
Nations, and co-chair of  the Committee on Sustainable Development, 
said no one could have foreseen the victory at the UN earlier this 
year when a resolution introduced by Bolivia recognizing the human 
right to access to water and sanitation was easily approved by the 
General Assembly.
 
"We have a new framing of things which is positive," she said. "There 
are evolutionary bumps, things that can positively change, and we 
need to prepare for those."
In addition to CWS, other groups co-sponsoring the forum were CARITAS 
Internationalis; Chaplain's Office of the Church Center for the 
United Nations; Christian Aid; Congregation of the Mission, United 
Nations Liaison Office; Global Policy Forum; Institute for 
Agriculture and Trade Policy; Mennonite Central Committee United 
Nations Liaison Office;; the World Council of Churches; and other 
members of the NGO Working Group on Food and Hunger at the UN. 
 
The forum was held at Holy Family Catholic Church in Manhattan, near 
the United Nations.
 
*Herlinger is a communications officer for Church World Service.
 
Media Contacts
Lesley Crosson, (212) 870-2676, media@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net
 
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