A World Council of Churches (WCC) International Affairs and Advocacy Week at the United Nations (UN) is currently taking place. One of the main messages released so far from the gathering, which took place in New York City, was that from Sweden to Kenya, churches should take responsibility for mobilising locally and advocating for economic justice at their national government level. The message was given during a public seminar on “The role of the churches in fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals”.

As the focus for a more just society, the focus for the Advocacy Week’s first session was the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). Discussions have taken place so far on the foundation of a vision of justice and a radical change in economic ethics as the ultimate goal of church advocacy.

The MDG’s were agreed by the United Nations, and targeted initiatives designed to reduce extreme poverty in the world by 2015.

The seminar brought a host of speakers out, representing a variety of WCC partners, and it was widely agreed that in order to truly achieve the MDG’s and the cancellation of world debts that the national governments in the South as well as the North would have to fully participate. The consensus also gave their full encouragement for churches to focus advocacy work on the government organisations.

Polycarp Omolo Ochilo, director of international affairs, service and witness with the All Africa Council of Churches said, “The hope of humanity is in the churches. Churches need to challenge the neoliberal policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund when they undermine the spirit of the Millennium Development Goals, and also need to keep national governments in the South accountable to rational and honest use of their national resources.”

The executive director of he UN MDG’s Campaign, Salil Shetty, said that churches can be critically engaged in unifying and mobilising people. Many good examples of creative MDG campaigns were shown from countries such as Italy and Brazil, which evidenced that if civil society can be mobilised efficiently then the issue of poverty can be brought to the attention of governments.

Chien Yen Goh, of the Third World Network highlighted the inequitable trade policies that achieving the creation of an international partnership for development extremely difficult. Goh indicated that trade was a crucial element to global security, and that trade policies should serve the needs of development within a government’s overall policy.

However, despite many people voicing identical opinions to Goh, the current economic systems and patterns seem to weaken the necessary structures and to in fact widen the gap between the poor and wealthy countries.

Neil Watkins, from Jubilee USA network said, “It is impossible to meet the MDGs without 100% debt cancellation for the poorest countries.”

Watkins was referring to the problems that many poorer countries have in paying off their world debts. In particular, interest payments are crippling many countries; for example, Zambia is paying 20% of their national budget on debt interest and repayment. In stark contrast the country only pays 3% of its national budget towards its health care. This situation also worryingly arises as the country tries to battle with a HIV/AIDS pandemic, and life expectancy in the country has dropped significantly from 50 years in 1980 to just 38 years today.

The Church of Sweden has been one of the leading members of the worldwide Jubilee Campaigns, and Margareta Grape, the church’s director of international affairs stated that they “will continue to rally around the Millennium Development Goals as one tool for advocacy towards a more just and economic system.”

Campaigners are looking towards 2005 with much expectancy and hope; currently many discussions on 100% debt reductions are actually happening within many governments, and in the new year there will be reviews of the MDG’s and many other major economical policies.

Under the MDG’s all of the 189 UN member states have agreed to meet the following goals:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by half
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development