African Churches Have Hope in Blair’s Africa Commission

Immediately after concluding his visit to Sudan, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has gone on to open a meeting in Ethiopia of the British-sponsored Commission for Africa on Thursday 7th October.

The commission was set up in London during May 2004 to help African countries fight poverty by creating a partnership with the developed world. Development aid, fair trade and debt relief will be the main addresses of the meeting and future policies will be drawn up.

The whole world, and in particular the UK and Africa, have high expectation from the meeting. In the run up to 2005, the UK has a clear intention to stand in a more influential position in the international arena by holding the presidency of the G8 and the EU next year.

The UK is hoping to use this advantage to lead the world in reaching out helping hands to Africa, as Blair told the delegates in Addis Ababa, Capital of Ethiopia, that it was “time to turn international attention into international action”. Churches and faith-based aid agencies have therefore put much hope in this meetings and have seen this event as very crucial.

The Prime Minister also pledged, “We have made it clear that Africa should be the dominant theme - along with the issue of climate change - at our G8 presidency next year.”

According to Tearfund, a UK-based Christian charity, Church leaders involved in relief and development programmes in 18 African countries have submitted a declaration to the Africa Commission. In the declaration they appealed to the Commission for tougher action on a range of issues, from corruption, to the sale of arms in conflict zones, and the need to invest in disaster prevention in vulnerable countries.

As this group of Church leaders are part of the Micah Network, they have especially stressed on the reinforcement of world trade justice. The Micah Network involves 150 church development agencies in 72 countries. Next week in New York, it will launch a campaign to encourage millions of churchgoers around the world to press their governments to achieve the halving of poverty by 2015, as promised in the Millennium Development Goals.

Churches in Africa - the most effective structure for reaching poor communities - had a significant role to play in working with governments, the African Union, and NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) in order to combat poverty.

The vision behind the formation of the Micah Network was explained in the declaration, “Christians everywhere are called to be agents of hope for and with the poor and to work with others to hold national and global leaders accountable to securing a more just and merciful world.” The Micah Network calls for:

- A ‘bribery index’ of western countries caught offering bribes to African governments.
- Urgent discussions about land tenure reforms to benefit poor people.
- Incentives for companies to develop technologies to benefit Africans.
- Special action in response to the disproportionate number of ‘women enslaved in poverty’.

CAFOD (The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) representative in Ethiopia, Beverley Jones reported that two million people in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia are facing serious food shortages. He echoed, “It’s clear from the situation in Ethiopia that far more could be achieved if Tony Blair’s Africa Commission could help secure a fairer deal for trade, an increase in debt cancellation, and more aid.”

One of the leaders of the Micah Network, Zemedkun Baykeda, head of relief and development at Meserete Kristos’ Church, Ethiopia, stressed that it was of extreme importance that the Commission listen to the Africans about their aspirations for the future.

This is also what Prime Minister Blair believes, “Progress in Africa has to be led by Africa and there was no single path to development. Countries should not be forced to sign up to policies which they do not believe will work because a donor thinks they will be good for them,” he said.

The 17 commissioners attending this meeting are mostly of African nationality, and they will hear directly from civil society organisations.

The BBC’s Peter Biles in Addis Ababa described Blair’s speech in Ethiopia as an impassioned plea to the international community to do more to help Africa reduce poverty. He insisted the Commission would inspire real progress, saying, “It is the action in the end that people need, not the words.”