The Africa Church Leader Summit on Post 2015 Development Agenda. -Photo courtesy of www.bakole.org

The Africa Church Leader Summit on Post 2015 Development Agenda. -Photo courtesy of www.bakole.org

Faith leaders from 25 African Countries met in Kampala Uganda on 30 June-2 July 2014. The aim of the Interfaith Summit was to strengthen and scale up the engagement of Faith Communities and Faith Leaders in shaping the Post 2015 Development Agenda.

African faith Communities are looking to a future development agenda which recognizes the progress made globally in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals while dealing with the gaps that limited the achievement of the MDGs. Faith leaders are working for a new development framework which puts good governance and accountability, environmental sustainability and economic growth that leads to shared prosperity rather than inequalities.

“The future demands that we should not accept the abnormal to be normal. We need to look at the theology we have accepted. The high maternal and infant mortality rates are still too high; even if the number of people living in hunger has reduced, one in four people living in a state of chronic hunger should not be a normal situation for us. As we move towards 2015 Development Agenda, we have to be bold enough to work for a world where poverty, hunger and premature deaths are eliminated. Poverty is not an accident, it does not come from hell or heaven, it is manmade. The structures, the institutions, and the processes that cause poverty and suffering are in the hands of us human beings and we are the ones who can bring about change. As we look forward to the coming 50 years of Africa, we must look at the theology we have accepted. We have buried many people who have died prematurely of HIV/AIDS, men, women and children, yet we say, “Lord we have brought back your servants”. God is not in the business of calling African men, women and children prematurely. He is a God who gives life to all.

The next development agenda demands of us to create a better world where dignity is possible for all. Not everyone will be a millionaire, and not everyone will live in a big mansion, but each of us should have access to at least two decent meal a day. It is time for us to dismantle the foundations on which poverty and inequalities have been built and lay new foundations on which shared posterity is built. More wealth has been generated in the last 50 years of the world than any other period, but at the same time inequalities are increasing the gap between the rich and the poor. As faith communities we have the responsibility of bringing our moral voice and say this is not right” said the OAIC General Secretary, Rev. Nicta Lubaale.

The summit was one major event in a broader mobilisation process by the Africa Interfaith Initiative on post 2015 with three major result areas:

1. Harnessing the resourcefulness of Faith Communities in engaging and influencing the conversation on the post 2015 Development Agenda and its outcomes.
2. Enhancing the leadership and capacity of African faith leaders in order to engage and contribute effectively to the prevailing discourses on development and the architecture of sustainable development after 2015.
3. Generating coordinated and programmatic actions that enable African Faith Communities to bring their voice and organization to bear on the formulation and implementation of public policy in connection to the new charter on development.

Two key documents which reflected the collective voice of Africa’s faith Communities were issues in Kampala:

A download of the African Church Leaders’ Position  and Statement on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and  a Newsletter can be found here.

The summit was hosted by the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda and organized by the Africa Interfaith Initiative on post 2015 which is a platform of Regional Faith organizations including under the auspices of the African Council of Religious Leaders, Organizations of African Instituted Churches, Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, All Africa Conference of Churches, Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa, Union of Muslim Councils of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa, the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i, the Association of the Evangelicals of Africa, Christian Aid, Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes, Programme for Christian Muslim Relations in Africa and Horn of Africa and Arigatou International, Nairobi.

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