Public Agenda (Accra)
10 July 2009
At an African summit of faith and development leaders in Ghana, the World Bank has said that with developing countries increasingly struggling as a result of the global economic crisis, aid agencies and national governments needed to strengthen their links with faith-based organizations to make the most of their development expertise and grassroots organization.
With 1.4 billion people-a fifth of the world's population-living in extreme poverty, and 60 million people still trapped in extreme poverty as a result of the recent food and fuel crises, the World Bank said that there was an obvious case for 'closer relations for better results' between development organizations and faith-based aid organizations which increasingly shared 'similar passions for social justice, good governance, and building hope for individuals and communities, with dignity and empowerment.'
Speaking at the Ghana summit-organized by the Development Dialogue on Values and Ethics at The World Bank, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), and the World Faiths Development Dialogue-Graeme Wheeler, the World Bank Group's Managing Director for Human Development, said that it was obvious that faith-based groups were making a "tremendous difference to people's lives."
"In many African countries, you provide 30 to 70% of the health services, and in post-conflict countries, the majority of primary education services. You deliver innovation and results, and you speak courageously about ethical challenges, injustice, and failures in governance. You have enormous influence on family and individual's beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions," Wheeler said.
Co-chairing the Accra meeting with Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bank's Managing Director said that the global economic crisis was dramatically affecting the social and economic well-being of people across the developing world, and that faith and development leaders would therefore explore new ways to work to provide education and health services, and social safety net protection as a result.
"You motivate and mobilize communities and influence decisions on education and health-decisions that have long term effects on personal development and opportunity. Your impact will become even more critical as official donors face domestic pressures to focus more of their spending on their own citizens. In the World Bank, we are strengthening our work on faith and development to better support government partners and faith-inspired organizations," Wheeler said.
Senior participants at the Ghana high-level summit included Most Rev. Dr. Robert Aboagye-Mensah, the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana, who opened the meeting. Other faith leaders present included Rabi Saperstein and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from the US, Archbishop Martin from Ireland, and Imam Umair Ahmed Ilyasi, the Secretary General of the All India Organization Of Imams and Mosques.
The meeting included leaders from large faith-based organizations, including Dr Samuel Mwenda, the General Secretary of the Christian Health Association of Kenya and Head of the African Christian Health Associations Platform. International organizations represented included UNFPA, UNAIDS, WHO, and UNDP. Civil society organizations were also represented including Ingrid Srinath, President of CIVICUS-the World Alliance for Citizen Participation.
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