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Episcopal Rev. Shari Young.

April 8th, 2009
By Catholic San Francisco staff

As Congress responds to the economic crisis it must redesign U.S. foreign aid policy to direct more resources to the world's poorest people.

 

That was the call April 1 at the University of San Francisco at an interfaith luncheon on the Point 7 Now campaign to urge Congress to allot seven-tenths of a percent of the nation's income to the cause of easing the worst of global poverty by the middle of the next decade.

 

The Point 7 campaign (http://point7now.org) supports the U.N.'s nearly decade-old Millennium Development Goals to improve health, education and economic conditions for the world's extreme poor by 2015. It was formed in San Francisco in 2006 by Catholic organizations, including the Archdiocese of San Francisco and USF's Joan and Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought. It was expanded as an interfaith effort the following year with the Point 7 Now Action Conference at St. Mary's Cathedral.

 

Last year the campaign formed the Interfaith MDG Coalition, made up of 26 congregations and organizations. The group meets every other month to collaborate on educational and lobbying efforts under way to bring U.S foreign aid in line with the U.N. goals. In the past year faith leaders have met with eight congressional representatives and organized educational programs on the U.N. goals throughout the Bay Area.

 

The April 1 meeting, hosted by the Lane Center, brought together campaign leaders for their second annual gathering to assess their progress and set goals for the coming year, which include helping build local coalitions in Los Angeles, Boston and Washington and organizing a national leadership conference for April next year at St. Mary's Cathedral. Attending were Archbishop George H. Neiderauer, USF President Stephen Privett and representatives of other Christian and non-Christian groups.

 

Episcopal Rev. Shari Young, who chairs the San Francisco interfaith coalition on the U.N. goals, delivered the meeting's call to action, urging the faith leaders to lend their moral support to a new framework for U.S. foreign aid. Not only are 3 billion people living on less than $2.50 a day but 50 million people are spiraling into deeper poverty because of the economic crisis, she said, citing a World Bank estimate.

 

"Last year we focused on the Global Poverty Act," Rev. Young said. "This year we are focused on a redesign of foreign aid. The step we are taking is to gather religious leaders to speak with one united voice to their representatives in Congress asking that a redesign of Foreign Assistance Act, which places poverty alleviation at the top of our national priorities along with diplomacy and defense, be passed by both houses with the approval of the president."

 

She asked the faith leaders to sign the coalition's Interfaith Statement to End Global Poverty and write to members of Congress about the Foreign Assistance Act.

 

"This spring lawmakers are reviewing foreign aid programs, and assessing where and how changes might be made," Rev. Young said. "Voices of constituents, particularly in letters, are valued and taken into consideration by Congress."

 

She said the coalition is scheduling visits with local Congress members and urged faith leaders to send representatives. A meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planned for the congressional recess in August.

 

"We are not originating this," Rev. Young said. "There is already great momentum in Congress and in the activist community. We are part of the tide. We, among others, are gathering the faith community to speak with a loud voice. Our global financial and economic crises are both addressed when a focus on alleviating global poverty is part of the solution."

 

The Foreign Assistance Act was made law during the Kennedy administration and created the U.S. Agency for International Development. The act has hundreds of directives, which often conflict and make progress on the U.N. goals "incredibly difficult," according to Bread for the World, a member of the local MDG coalition. International development should be an equal pillar of the law with diplomacy and defense, according to the group.

 

Bread for the World's David Gist stated the faith campaign's legislative policy on foreign aid in remarks to the April 1 meeting: "We need a coherent policy, not to segregate ourselves from the world."

 

The global effort is yielding results, and the overarching goal of reducing absolute poverty by half by 2015 is within reach for the world as a whole, the U.N. said in its 2008 report on the Millennium Development Goals. Still, many targets, including reducing the proportion of people in sub-Saharan Africa living on less than $1 a day, will be missed without more collective effort, the U.N. said.

From April 10, 2009 issue of Catholic San Francisco.

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