[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Faith-based organizations come together for development
In the 2000, the member states of the United Nations committed themselves to working towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The OAIC viewed the MDG as nothing new but a continuation of their biblical mandate and our prophet calling. It became natural and easy for us to join hands with other faith based organizations to see how these goals could be actualized.
On the background of Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), faith-based institutions met in Uganda on June 30th -2nd July 2014 during a Faith Leaders Summit. The aim of the summit was to strengthen and scale up the engagement of Faith Communities and Faith Leaders in shaping the Post 2015 Development Agenda, help them in developing strategies for the engagement of faith communities across the continent in the post 2015 processes as well as involvement in the implementation process of the new framework at national levels. This came under the backdrop of faith Communities being looked at as organizations that accompany the poor and the suffering even as they play their role of dismantling the problems that face Africa among them poverty, hunger and poor health. This summit was made to prepare these organizations for the next phase of the development agenda and continue in their commitment on social accountability at global, regional and national levels.
The MDGs that have been a hallmark of the global and national development agenda since the year 2000 expires next year 2015. The current MDGs include eradication of poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB.
“The future demands that we should not accept the abnormal to be normal. We need to look at the theology we have accepted. The mortality rate is too high for us to accept and as we move towards 2015 Development Agenda, we have to be bold enough to reduce the figures. 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, He is a God who gives life’’, said the OAIC General Secretary, Rev. Nicta Lubaale.
“The next development agenda will be about us creating 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 meals a day. The future will is on us to 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 to say this is not right,” Rev. Lubaale added.
The summit was organized 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 Council of Churches, Council of Africa, 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 and Horn of Africa and Arigatou International, Nairobi.
African Church Leaders’ Summit Documents
A download of the African Church Leaders’ Position and Statement on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and a Newsletter can be found here.
