Eradicating Poverty
The eradication of poverty. That was the vision of the United Nations at the turn of the millennium. As if that wasn't ambitious enough, it added seven more development objectives, ranging from universal primary education to environmental sustainability. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to be achieved by 2015, were subsequently adopted by all 192 member countries.
With only five years left to go, are we on course to achieve them? The UN recently held a summit to address this question. Delegates took stock of the devastating impact of the global economic crisis, while cautiously noting areas of progress. The one goal about which they were overwhelmingly optimistic was the first one - to halve by 2015 the proportion of people who in 1990 had an income of less than $1 per day.
Good news like this can prompt odes to the effectiveness of international aid. But we need to note the key reason this target may be met: the economic growth of China and India. When such growth is looked at from the bottom up, the real change makers in overcoming poverty turn out to be commercial entrepreneurs, even though the infrastructural improvements of aid programmes can be crucial to their success.
This Sunday the date is 10-10-10. Development organizations around the world are marking the day by stepping up their advocacy for greater economic justice. Spearheading the campaign is a global coalition of activists called Micah Challenge, which is mobilizing millions of people around the world to take action to help the poor.
The key action Micah Challenge is calling for on Sunday is prayer. But surely that's no strategy for change, as its effectiveness can't be measured! True, but today's generation of believers has prayed against fierce injustices that have eventually crumbled before their eyes, the tyrannies of fascism, communism and apartheid included. No causal link can ever be proven, of course, and historians are right to document the range of observable factors involved.
Likewise, many agents will be involved in eliminating poverty. But it is time to acknowledge the leading role that will be played by those most often overlooked - the world's entrepreneurs. Without them, there are few prospects for a life of dignity for the millions trapped in poverty. Even if we regard their release more as a matter of aid, rather than of enterprise, there is no aid without the wealth creators. Perhaps they deserve a mention in prayers for the poor.
Author: Peter Heslam
Links
Transforming Business is a project at Cambridge University directed by Dr Peter Heslam that analyzes and catalyzes enterprise solutions to poverty. The project's website contains relevant information, resources and links.
Transforming Business plays an active role in other initiatives that seek to enhance the role of business in human development, including the Transformational Business Network and Business Fights Poverty.
Two books that have recently appeared on this issue are:
- Peter Heslam, Transforming Capitalism: Entrepreneurship and the Renewal of Thrift (Grove, 2010) - see here for a description. It is available from the publisher or via Amazon.
- Ann Bernstein, The Case for Business in Developing Economies (Penguin, 2010). Some editions of this book are alternatively entitled In Defence of Business in Developing Economies but it is the same text. Ann's book is also available from the publisher or via Amazon.
The website of Micah Challenge International can be found here. Micah Challenge in the UK has produced a prayer that can be used to pray for the poor. It is based on a prayer by Nehemiah that is recorded in Nehemiah 1:1-10 and it is available here.
The UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) referred to in the reflection was held in New York, 20-22 September 2010. Statements, reports and other communiqués related to the proceedings are available on the summit's website here. For the UN website dedicated to the MDGs, click here.
Another ode to the wealth creators, to add to successive UK governments' slavish pandering to the City. If all these wealth creators leave, we are told, the UK economy will collapse. If the wealth creators don't rise up in the developing world, there will be no economic justice. We would do well to remember Deuteronomy 8v17-18: You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. Wealth creators are not inherently good, they are not messiahs. God gives the ability to create wealth, and the same wealth should be invested in a way that glorifies him by exemplifying kingdom values. The creation of wealth in China and India is not just, it is not fairly distributed, there is still much to be done and still an awful lot of rich people keeping their hands in their pockets whilst the poor starve. We rich in the West - myself included - should keep giving out of our plenty to those we have not and praying for revival that will shake the established order so hard that the needs of all are met. We can't rely on amassed wealth trickling down to meet the needs of the poor; it doesn't in our society, why should we expect it to elsewhere?
Date:
2010-10-11 09:15:19
Author:
Heather Williams