Combatting Global Poverty

I wrote my US senator yesterday. I couldn't help it after hearing Kathleen O'Toole of Bread for the World talk about the Global Poverty Act that is moving through Congress. The Act requires the President of the United States to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the US foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.

You might say that the Global Poverty Act requires the United States to put its money where its mouth is. In the year 2000, some 189 heads of state gathered at the United Nations and put together the Millennium Declaration that said that the #1 threat to the world is poverty. The United States was among the signers of that Declaration. Some 8 goals were identified that have now become known as the Millennium Development Goals. These goals include:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
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.

The first seven focus on developing countries where these problems exist. But the 8th goal calls upon developed nations to do their part by improving the kinds and amount of aid that we offer to developing countries and by cancelling the huge debts that such countries owe. This is where the Global Poverty Act comes in. It compels the United States to work with developing nations to achieve the first goal.

It's not too difficult to grasp how the lives of people in developing countries can be transformed by more and better development assistance. We see it all the time in the global efforts of field personnel here at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and through the work of other entities like Bread for the World. One of my co-workers likes to say, "It's all about water!" He's right--a single well in Zambia provides for cleaning drinking water, thus helping to eliminate disease. It also enables women (who generally have to draw water far from home) to spend their time receiving an education instead of making a half-day trip to get water.

But much more remains to be done. Developing nations struggle to provide universal primary education because so much money goes toward debt payment. The forgiveness of the debt frees up funding so that free primary school education can be offered. Passage of the Global Poverty Act will make the elimination of poverty a consitutive element of US policy, thus legislating that we find solutions to the problem of global poverty.

I don't think its too much to ask of any of us. Pick up a pen and write your senator at US Senate, Washington, DC 20510. Say something like this (and I'm borrowing this example from Bread for the World):

Dear Senator:

I ask you to do whatever you can to provide more and better aid for the world's poorest countries. All nations agree--extreme poverty can be cut dramatically by 2015. Please do all in your power to increase poverty-focused development assistance by at least $5 billion in fiscal year 2009. And please work to ensure that Congress passes the Global Poverty Act.

Sincerely,

Your name

It's the least we can do. It means that we're backing up our desire to end poverty with action that can accomplish it. And we're demanding that our nation put its money to work so that it fulfills the promises it made when it put pen to paper and signed the Millennium Declaration.