World Vision UK's new Chief Executive Justin Byworth

|PIC1|CT: You’ve worked with World Vision in Cambodia and Italy. How do you see that experience feeding into your new role at the helm of World Vision UK?

JB: I am passionate about the mission World Vision has. We can and do make an extraordinary difference to children facing poverty and injustice in some of the toughest places in the world and we are in an amazing position to be able to link around 120,000-plus people with children and communities all around the world. I want to see more and better of that. I want us to grow the connections between the UK and children in communities elsewhere and make a bigger and better difference to their lives. And as a Christian organisation, I’d love to see us witness and bring honour to God by doing that.

CT: Your work with children really seems to resonate with churchgoers in the UK.

JB: I think that resonates with people in general and within the church it is very easy to see the special place that Jesus had for children. That’s a jumping off point for us in many conversations. We have been in the UK for nearly 30 years now but there are other organisations that have deeper and stronger roots in the church than we do and I would love to see us working collaboratively with other organisations to strengthen and deepen our relationships with the churches and Christians, and people in general.

CT: And that would link in with your new campaign Child Health Now?

JB: Yes. I think no one organisation can change huge things like the fact that almost 9 million children are dying every year almost all of preventable diseases but we believe that working with others, we can bring influence to decision makers and policy makers not only in the UK but worldwide. We have an incredible grassroots network of people working in 100 countries around the world and we work in 17 of the G20 countries and all of the G8 countries – places of power and influence in the world. If we can get the voices of children to speak more clearly to those in power then we believe that enormous things are possible. We want to be part of ending the deaths of 6 million children each year from preventable diseases. We hope the Child Health Now campaign will do what it says on the tin and bring child health now.

CT: It’s interesting that you say you want to strengthen the voices of children because usually NGOs speak for the children.

JB: Yes. Our role is to bring the lives of those we serve closer to the people here. I’ve been so incredibly fortunate and blessed to work in and amongst children and communities in more than 30 countries of the world so I’ve been able to see and touch and hear it and that’s the fuel that keeps me on fire for the work but most people in the UK don’t get to see that. If we can find a way to get those voices into the eyes and ears and minds and hearts of the people here … that’s what we want to do.

CT: 2010 is going to be a big campaign year for many NGOs working in development with only five years left to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals (goals set by governments to halve global poverty). What will your big message be in 2010?

JB: We are nearly two-thirds of the way towards the MDG target date so we will be focusing on child health and MDG 4, to reduce child mortality. We work across all the MDGs and there are other organisations, not only Christian ones, working towards the same goals so we want to work with everyone together. Focusing and magnifying the voices will make the biggest difference.

|PIC1|CT: There is a general sense among NGOs that some ground has been gained going towards the MDGs but not enough has been done. Would you agree with that?

JB: Absolutely, yes. Aid works, development does work, and many things are getting better in many parts of the world but it’s too little and too slow. It’s not enough to reach the MDG targets in 2015. But also there are places in the world where it’s not getting better. There are some really tough places, fragile countries, countries with oppressive regimes. Particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, things are not going as well as they should be. So we want to focus on a number of countries that have the largest number of deaths from children under five.

The MDGs will not be met largely by 2015 but we need to continue beyond 2015. Some countries will meet some of the MDGs. But it’s very unlikely they will all be met unless there is real change now. With the educational goal for example, there’s only one cohort of children going through primary school that will get there so if they are not in school now there’s no way that by 2015 they can be finishing secondary school. So I think it’s unlikely they will be met in full but I don’t think in any way that means we should be taking our foot off the pedal in terms of working towards them.

CT: How much is climate change impacting on the work you are doing? Is it throwing up new developmental problems?

JB: It is already having a very big impact and we know that it is only likely to get worse over the coming decades. The poor are more likely to be affected than we here in the UK. We are seeing it a lot in the Horn of Africa, places like Kenya and Ethiopia, Somalia, where rainfall patterns have become unpredictable and the inevitable droughts are happening more frequently and more severely than before. With the food shortages in many places, there is undoubtedly a link between that and climate change. But then of course we are also seeing vulnerable coastal places, like in Bangladesh, and they are at greater risk of climate change and rising sea levels. So essentially the ones most vulnerable and most on the edge already are being made more so. We don’t know over what time period it will happen but we do know it’s started already and more is to come.

CT: So you’ll be taking an interest in the outcome of the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen next month?

JB: Yes very much so. We hope and pray that the international community will stand tall and take strong action but whatever does happen there, we will inevitably still need to work with communities that are affected. It won’t turn the tide completely no matter how well we do things.

|PIC1|CT: How would you like to see the church engaging with these issues?

JB: I am a member of a church myself and I think that as Christians if we believe the Gospel, we have an absolute duty and responsibility to love our neighbours across the whole world. It is an integral part of our faith. Through our churches we should be praying about these issues, giving to charities like World Vision, and really grappling and wrestling with our understanding of these issues. Poverty is complex. Climate change is complex. These are not easy issues.

And then of course we must speak out as individuals with politicians but also as churches in the local communities we are in and across the nation as individual denominations. We should be speaking out for these issues to those who are taking decisions and the church should be seen as a leader on these issues just as it was at the turn of the century around the Jubilee Debt Campaign. We really want to see the church take that lead role in influencing things and the governments are open to this, even the current government. Many times they have said to us that they know the church has an influence. My hope and prayer is that we do that better and more.

CT: Have you found that giving has tightened in the recession or are people still donating?

JB: We are truly amazed at the faithfulness of our supporters. We all know that it’s been a difficult year financially and we are just amazed by how people have stuck with us. Being a Christian organisation it doesn’t surprise me entirely, as with people of faith their faith is part of their stickability through tough times. But yes we have been affected. It’s been more difficult to find new donors and some people are not able to give as much as they could have before. But most people have stuck with us and the children they are sponsoring. We’ve had to be very efficient in how we work together with our budget in order to make sure that our money goes as far as it can. Unfortunately the pound has lost value against many other currencies so in terms of the funding that goes for our programmes overseas that’s been stretched further still by the loss of exchange rate. It’s been a very tough year.

CT: If there was one thing you would like the church to pray for in seeing your vision of ending poverty come true what would it be?

JB: I’d want Christians to pray for the people of this country to do more and reach out to communities not only with one part of the gospel but the whole gospel and be catalysts for our nation, so that they can be part of changing the world, the world here and now.