allAfrica.com: Africa: Religious Leaders Seek To 'Keep The Momentum Going' On Millennium Goals

Africa: Religious Leaders Seek To 'Keep The Momentum Going' On Millennium Goals - Ndungane

As world leaders convened in New York for the UN World Summit in New York earlier this month, influential religious leaders from around the world met last weekend to discuss the faith community's role in alleviating poverty and pushing for increases in development aid. The Center for Justice and Reconciliation at Washington National Cathedral hosted a global Consultation of Religious Leaders on Global Poverty, a multi-denominational discussion organized by South African Archbishop Njongonkulu Winston Hugh Ndungane. Attendees discussed sustainable development, aid monitoring, and interfaith alliances, and the meeting featured Jeffrey Sachs, Madeleine Albright, and eight high-ranking African faith leaders among other participants.

After the three-day meeting, a communiqué was produced affirming the Millennium Development Goals and outlining concrete steps for Christian churches to increase collaboration and improve the effectiveness of their work in their home countries. Archbishop Ndungane spoke with AllAfrica's Tali Trigg about the consultation.

What role do you see religion and spirituality playing in poverty reduction and sustainable development?

First, communities are concerned about people. Where there are people, we are there as faith communities and amongst our membership are people who are poor. We are there to represent and articulate the voices of the poor who are with us and who are poor. Secondly, faith communities have for a long time, and continue to do so, be involved in development issues in education, health care, social services, and also in spiritual matters. We deal holistically with the whole issue of development. It is our desire and our wish that everyone created in God's image with dignity and intrinsic worth should have everything that is essential to human living, such as access to clean water, shelter, clothing, health care and to education. That is our mandate, our God-given mandate, as stewards of God's creation.

So you see an intersection of religion and the global human rights?

I think that this is one agenda [human rights] because we are God's creatures created by God. Each individual is created with dignity and worth and therefore each human being has a right to all that is essential for human living.

Many international initiatives focusing on Africa this year have gotten a lot of attention. What are you thoughts on these developments?

There has been tremendous movement by the world community in terms of the welfare of humanity beginning with Jubilee 2000. We, civil society faith communities, put the agenda of debt cancellation before the G8. Since then there has been a groundswell of movements in terms of various bodies that have come up: the One campaign, the Micro Challenge, Make Poverty History, etc. Because the world community has come to commit themselves for the well-being of human beings, it is morally wrong, and in fact sinful, that in a world where there is surplus, where there is plenty, which God has provided for our needs, there are millions of people who go hungry. There has been that groundswell of opinion. Jubilee 2000 was a leader in the whole question of debt cancellation.

There has been the whole question of aid. In themselves, debt cancellation and aid are alright, but at the end of the day, what we are calling for is trade justice because that is what will guarantee sustainable livelihoods in Africa. You see that countries spend something like $300 billion protecting their trade through subsidies and tariffs. Yet if Africa's exports could increase by 1 percent that could yield $17 billion, which is five times the money they get in aid. In any event, it would increase and contribute to the worth and dignity of people.

On the subject of trade, are you asking anything specific from the U.S. on trade issues in relation to the World Summit?

I think we are addressing the [whole] world leadership in terms of fair trade and the WTO; the Doha round in December is going to address these issues in December. Ehat we are calling for is fair trade, not free trade. We're calling for trade justice. Those are the instruments we're addressing.

Some analysts are saying that the World Summit represents the mid-point of the MDGs and that if serious action doesn't take place now, the goals will simply not be met. How far do you think Africa has come along and what is the way forward?

The main part is to keep the momentum going. It is in that regard that I have set up some initiatives and some discussions on the establishment of an independent African monitor which will do a couple of things. First of all, [it will] monitor the commitments of the developed world, in terms of what they actually put in the bank. Secondly, it will look at the recipient governments in Africa; what do they actually receive. Thirdly, on the ground, [does] it makes a difference? Faith communities and civil societies are actually on the ground and this particular monitor will be driven by faith communities. That is the first major area that I see this monitor [working in].

The second one is to keep the agenda going, to keep the momentum. We have these waves of things and next year people are going to be saying that we had this hype on this thing, and it's now gone before our eyes. I think this monitor is going to keep the focus on Africa and even garner from Africa what African people determine as their priorities, to be put in front of the world forces. In other words, it's a monitor that'll keep the momentum, in partnership with various networks including the faith communities of the North. It'll be keeping the agenda of Africa so that we can move forward and progress.

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