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International Development Team Progress Report: Fourth Quarter 2006
Dear Friends,
The last quarter of 2006 enabled partnerships and programmes begun earlier in the year to come to fruition. Collaboration increased with a number of faith-based and secular stakeholders through joint visits, advocacy, training and programme development.
Late September the team visited several NGOs and governmental organisations in New York, Washington and Philadelphia, out of which a collaborative programme for educational reconstruction in Burundi is currently being designed. As part of the ongoing engagement with the Northern Uganda Advocates for Peace Programme (NUAPP) the Revd David Peck and World Vision’s UK director, Charles Badenoch, visited Northern Uganda in October to better understand the contribution of local churches to peacebuilding and to identify more collaborative and strategic stakeholder approaches, to strengthen and voice and capacity of the church to conduct this vital work. This trip was well reported in the UK and Ugandan media. In November The Revd David then travelled to Angola to meet with church, NGO and government representatives to prepare the way for a visit by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Subsequent meetings with Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Hillary Benn, Minister for International Development as well as No. 10 Downing Street, meant that the advocacy messages from Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan were taken to the top. The crucial role of the Government of Southern Sudan in brokering a peace deal between the LRA and the Government of Uganda in Juba was discussed in a private meeting between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the President of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit.
Helen Stawski travelled to Juba (Sudan) and Bujumbura (Burundi) in November to work in detail with diocesan and provincial staff on their strategic plans for the coming year, both of which are rising to the immense challenges of national post conflict reconstruction and community rehabilitation. The Episcopal Church of Sudan successfully brought together its international partners to think through such issues as education, financial sustainability, livelihoods development, good governance and HIV/AIDS, and has recently secured a significant grant to train thousands of teachers across Sudan. While the Province de l’Eglise Anglicane du Burundi has developed detailed plans to provide education for thousands of more children across the country.
Following a round table on micro finance held at the Palace in March 2006 that brought together stakeholders from the UK, USA, Europe, Australia and Africa, opportunities for cross fertilisation of efforts have arisen. Oikocredit, an ethical investment bank, engaged in global micro finance activities, have entered into dialogue with the Church of England Church Commissioners. The Palace welcomed the news of Mohammad Yunus’ Nobel Peace Prize and with Five Talents we hail his work and that of the Anglican Communion in using this crucial development tool.
Through its work with UNESCO in Paris the team secured and design two five-day training workshops for trainers in micro enterprise for members of the Mothers’ Union in the Great Lakes and Sudan. The Anglophone countries successfully met and trained in October with women from Roman Catholic and Muslim women’s groups and the Francophone workshop is expected in the first half of 2007. These groups have not had the opportunity to partner before, but UNESCO’s superb adult education approach and the MU’s grassroots experience and networks were a winning combination. Helen Stawski was there to analyse the process and identify possibilities for replication of this relationship elsewhere.
The team also spent time working with the Lutheran World Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Geneva on a joint bid to the Global Fund to assist collaborative global HIV/AIDS work for the three churches. Lambeth’s objective was to resource the HIV/AIDS work of individual provinces and the region as a whole through the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA), who were a key partner in this process. Unfortunately in a highly competitive arena the bid was not successful on technical grounds, but many lessons were learnt which can be fed into alternative bids and initiatives. The work of Emmanuel Oluntunji CAPA’s recently appointed HIV/AIDS officer and Paul Holley in Geneva’s UN Anglican support group was remarkable. We pay tribute to Jaap Shep and his expertise in collaboration to get so far ahead.
Building the technical capacity of Anglican provinces to better implement development initiatives and engage with the relevant stakeholders is a key objective of the international team at Lambeth Palace. Several significant gains were made in this area in the last quarter of 2006. As well as the UNESCO training for MU implementers, funds have been secured from Tearfund and the Anglican Communion Fund for capacity building in education in the Great Lakes, including initiatives to quantify current church provision, and identify best practice, particularly with regards to orphans and vulnerable children. In Sudan, where the need it so great and the environment so challenging for even the biggest NGOs to operate, Lambeth Palace helped broker an initial programme for £150,000, from Christian Aid to capacitate the ECS’s participation in large scale schools reconstruction and other community based development initiatives through them. This will open up a host of opportunities for basic service provision in areas of most need in the Upper Nile region of the country, where conflict continues to flare over CPA implementation issues.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was directly involved in a number of international development initiatives in the UK in the last quarter of 2006. His Grace issued a statement on World Aid Day on 1st December offering some reflections on the pandemic and scaling up the Church’s global response. He also issued a statement on the International Day of Prayer for Darfur in September. David joined the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and other faith leaders in reading the prayers before assembled media at Downing Street. Subsequent interviews on Sky TV and ITV gave him the opportunity to speak to international audiences on the vital role of the church in peacebuilding in Sudan and Uganda. As part of the ongoing relationship between HM Treasury and Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop was invited by the Chancellor Gordon Brown to launch his initiative to raise new revenue for child immunisation through the International Finance Facility for Immunisation though buying one of the first of a $1.2 billion of bonds on the day they were brought to market. This collaboration with faith leaders was but one of several in the fourth quarter, the summit of which was an ecumenical pilgrimage to Bethlehem just before Christmas.
Finally the international team launched its website: Anglicans In Development in collaboration with the Anglican Communion Office. This website http://aid.anglicancommunion.org is a forum for posting not only the work of the Lambeth Palace team, but the whole Communion whether institutions or individuals. It also holds resources and information on events and potential networks to empower churches in their community outreach. The site very new but already many stories have been posted. All comments and contributions on it are welcome. Please email helen.stawski@lambethpalace.org.uk for links or material to be uploaded.
As we move into the first quarter of 2007 we pray for the continuing development of collaborative platforms for poverty eradication across the communion and around the world. We pray for the TEAM conference organisers and hope to see many of you in Johannesburg in March. We are keenly aware that everything that we have done is possible because of what others have wished to do with us. We continue then to be inspired in our approach by Fr Jean Vanier who said, “In everything you do seek to be small, humble and vulnerable.”
Yours in Christ,
David Peck
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