Poverty kills. It kills 300,000 children every day.
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Isaiah 58, NRSV
It shortens, injures and thwarts the lives of more than 1 billion people struggling to survive on less than $1 U.S. a day. At present 11 children under five die of hunger-related causes every minute, and about 800,000,000 people suffer from chronic or acute hunger. In our prosperous world, more than 1 billion people are denied the right to clean water and 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation. Over 100,000,000 children worldwide do not have access to education.
Biblical and Theological Context
"The United Methodist Church, as a covenant community to God's justice, must work toward a just global economy." (2004 Book of Resolutions, "Economic Justice for a New Millennium," ¶206.)
"We call for The United Methodist Church to develop effective public policy strategies and educate the constituency on hunger issues." (2004 Book of Resolutions, "The United Methodist Church, Justice and World Hunger" ¶205)
We call "for the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which set targets for 2015 in the areas of basic education, infant and maternal mortality, clean water supplies and poverty reduction throughout the developing nations." (2004 Book of Resolutions, "The United Methodist Church, Justice and World Hunger," ¶205)
"In spite of general affluence in the industrialized nations, the majority of persons in the world live in poverty. In order to provide basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, and other necessities, ways must be found to share more equitably the resources of the world."; (Social Principles, ¶163.E)
Scripture reference: Isaiah 58:6-8
What GBCS is Doing
Promoting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals: Goals agreed upon by leaders of nations in 2000 to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education, gender equality, HIV/AIDS and malaria, child mortality; and environmental sustainability;
Urging Fair Trade: Policies and trade rules that reduce poverty; protects workers, small producers and farmers, and the environment; and allows poor developing countries to protect their industries;
Advocating for Effective Development Assistance: Reform of U.S. foreign aid programs with poverty eradication as its major goal; and
Advocating for Debt Cancellation: Provide debt cancellation to more poor countries.
2 truths present themselves: One, we don’t have to have poverty; and two, a great many people are more committed to capitalism than to eradication of poverty.
The eight Millennium Development Goals have been adopted by the international community as a framework for the development activities of over 190 countries in ten regions; they have been articulated into over 20 targets and over 60 indicators. This Report summarizes progress towards the goals in each of the regions. However, any such synthesis inevitably masks the range and variety of development experiences in individual countries since the goals were adopted.
The MDG Gap Task Force has assessed the global commitments contained in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ratified by Governments at the various international events that followed the Millennium Summit. The United Nations Millennium Declaration emphasized that strengthened global partnerships for development were needed to provide the enabling environment for accelerating progress in reducing poverty, improving health and education, establishing gender equality and ensuring the protection of the environment as defined in the MDGs.
The main message of the present report is that while there has been progress on several counts, important gaps remain in delivering on the global commitments in the areas of aid, trade, debt relief, and access to new technologies and affordable essential medicines. The weakening of the world economy and the steep rises in food and energy prices threaten to reverse some of the progress made in the various dimensions of human development. Strengthened global partnerships are needed to avoid any reversal of progress made thus far. In the countdown to 2015, urgent responses are needed to bridge the the existing implementation gaps and deliver on the promises to achieve the MDGs.
Eradicating Global Poverty: A Christian Study Guide on the Millennium Development Goals If the poor will always be with us, why should we eradicate extreme poverty? Because we can, experts say. Humanity has the means to end worldwide poverty in our lifetime. The real question is, will we do it? This study guide was designed by the National Council of Churches USA to tackle these and other pressing issues. The book costs $7.95 plus shipping and handling.
Faith in Action: Working Toward the Millennium Development Goals
Religions for Peace produced this toolkit to help religious communities work toward the UN Millennium Development Goals: eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality and hunger, and combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Find out more at Religions for Peace.
United Nations Millennium Development Goals The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015, form a blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world's poorest. This Web site lists the goals and ways to get involved.
ONE: What If... What if by 2015 extreme poverty was eradicated? This resource guides you through the Millennium Development Goals and discusses ways for individuals and communities to end hunger, poverty and disease around the world.
Links
50 Years is Enough Network
50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice is a coalition of more than 200 U.S. grassroots, women's, solidarity, faith-based, policy, social and economic justice, youth, labor and development organizations dedicated to the profound transformation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Bread for the World
Bread for the World is a nationwide Christian movement that seeks justice for the world's hungry people by lobbying our nation's decision makers.
Christian Aid
Christian Aid works in 50 countries, helping people regardless of religion or race to improve their own lives and tackle the causes of poverty and injustice.
Church World Service
Founded in 1946, Church World Service is the relief, development, and refugee assistance ministry of 35 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the United States. Working in partnership with indigenous organizations in more than 80 countries, CWS works worldwide to meet human needs and foster self-reliance for all whose way is hard. This Web site contains curriculum on various social justice issues.
FIAN International
FIAN International is a human rights organization that works to enable people to feed themselves with members in all parts of the world. There is enough food for everyone, now and in the future. FIAN International defends the right of ordinary people to feed themselves in dignity.
Food First
The purpose of the Institute for Food and Development Policy - Food First is to eliminate the injustices that cause hunger.
Global Campaign for Education
The Global Campaign for Education promotes education as a basic human right, and mobilizes public pressure on governments and the international community to fulfill their promises to provide free, compulsory public basic education for all people; in particular for children, women and all disadvantaged, deprived sections of society.
Global Trade Campaign
The global campaign, Trade for People - Not People for Trade, works to build a movement of people within the churches and church-related organizations to promote trade justice. The campaign does this by calling for recognition of the priority of human rights agreements over trade agreements.
Jubilee South
Jubilee South is a network of debt campaigns, social movements, people's organizations, communities, nongovernmental organizations and political formations. The Jubilee South network aims to develop and strengthen a global South movement on the debt. The network has members from over 40 countries from the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia/Pacific, representing 85 anti-debt groups.
Jubilee USA Network
Jubilee USA Network is an alliance of more than 80 religious denominations and faith communities, human rights, environmental, labor, and community groups working for the definitive cancellation of crushing debts to fight poverty and injustice in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
National Coalition for the Homeless
The National Coalition for the Homeless works to bring about the systemic changes necessary to prevent and end homelessness and to protect the rights of people experiencing homelessness by engaging in policy advocacy in the areas of housing justice, health care justice, economic justice, and civil rights.
ONE Campaign
The ONE Campaign is an effort by Americans to rally Americans - one by one - to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE is students and ministers, punk rockers and NASCAR moms, Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life, united to help make poverty history. The General Board of Church and Society is a member of the ONE Campaign.
Oxfam International
Oxfam International is a confederation of 13 organizations working together with more than 3,000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty, suffering and injustice. With many of the causes of poverty global in nature, the 13 affiliate members of Oxfam International think they can achieve greater impact through their collective efforts.
Sojourners
The organization's mission is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.
The Right to Education Project
The Right to Education Project aims to promote social mobilisation and legal accountability. It is concerned with achieving quality education for all and highlighting the indivisibility of rights by pointing to child's rights, to wider patterns of discrimination and to related economic and social rights. The cornerstones of the Project are this wide-reaching website, ongoing research and a diverse network of human rights and education activist
The U.S. Interfaith Trade Justice Campaign
The U.S. Interfaith Trade Justice Campaign, in partnership with religious institutions, mobilizes and facilitates an active engagement of faith communities in educational activities, policy advocacy and Fair Trade efforts, so that global trade and investment policies promote economic and social justice, human development and ecological sustainability.
United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)
UMCOR is the humanitarian relief and development agency of the United Methodist Church. For 65 years UMCOR has responded internationally to natural or human made disasters - those interruptions of such magnitude that they overwhelm a community's ability to recover on its own.
United Nations Millennium Campaign
The Millennium Campaign informs, inspires and encourages people's involvement and action for the realization of the Millennium Development Goals. An initiative of the United Nations, the campaign supports citizens' efforts to hold their government accountable to the millennium promise.
We claim all economic systems to be under the judgment of God no less than other facets of the created order. Therefore, we recognize the responsibility of governments to develop and implement sound fiscal and monetary policies that provide for the economic life of individuals and corporate entities and that ensure full employment and adequate incomes with a minimum of inflation. We believe private and public economic enterprises are responsible for the social costs of doing business, such as employment and environmental pollution, and that they should be held accountable for these costs. We support measures that would reduce the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. We further support efforts to revise tax structures and to eliminate governmental support programs that now benefit the wealthy at the expense of other persons.
In spite of general affluence in the industrialized nations, the majority of persons in the world live in poverty. In order to provide basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, and other necessities, ways must be found to share more equitably the resources of the world. Increasing technology, when accompanied by exploitative economic practices, impoverishes many persons and makes poverty self-perpetuating. Poverty due to natural catastrophes and environmental changes is growing and needs attention and support. Conflicts and war impoverish the population on all sides, and an important way to support the poor will be to work for peaceful solutions.
As a church, we are called to support the poor and challenge the rich. To begin to alleviate poverty, we support such policies as: adequate income maintenance, quality education, decent housing, job training, meaningful employment opportunities, adequate medical and hospital care, humanization and radical revisions of welfare programs, work for peace in conflict areas and efforts to protect creation’s integrity. Since low wages are often a cause of poverty, employers should pay their employees a wage that does not require them to depend upon government subsidies such as food stamps or welfare for their livelihood.
Because we recognize that the long-term reduction of poverty must move beyond services to and employment for the poor, which can be taken away, we emphasize measures that build and maintain the wealth of poor people, including asset-building strategies such as individual development savings accounts, micro-enterprise development programs, programs enabling home ownership, and financial management training and counseling. We call upon churches to develop these and other ministries that promote asset-building among the poor. We are especially mindful of the Global South, where investment and micro-enterprise are especially needed. We urge support for policies that will encourage equitable economic growth in the Global South and around the world, providing a just opportunity for all.
Poverty most often has systemic causes, and therefore we do not hold poor people morally responsible for their economic state.
