Dates and venue:

Jointly organized by the World Council of Churches, World Communion of Reformed Churches, Council for World Mission and Lutheran World Federation, the 3rd meeting of the Ecumenical Panel on a NIFEA will take place in New York from 21-22 April 2018 just before the United Nations Economic and Social Council Forum on Financing for Development (23-26 April 2018).

Background and rationale:

In January 2014, the Ecumenical Panel on a NIFEA – composed of experts in finance, economics, sociology and theology – produced the report “Economy of Life for All Now: An Ecumenical Action Plan for a New International Financial and Economic Architecture”. The NIFEA Plan maps out areas for advocacy and engagement by churches in the areas of financial sector regulation, public finance and debt, and global economic governance, with a view to transforming the international financial architecture by relinking finance to the real economy, countering greed and embedding economy in society and ecology.

Since it was drawn up, there have been significant and interconnected developments in global economic, political, social and ecological landscapes that bear on the NIFEA Plan.

Economic inequality has consistently worsened since the global financial crisis of 2008 and is at its highest level since the 19th century. Among numerous studies, the 2017 Oxfam report, “An Economy for the 99%”, points out that, today, eight men own as much wealth as 3.7 billion people combined or half the world population. Moreover, the ecological challenges confronting the world today are more daunting than ever. Indeed 16 out of the 17 warmest years ever documented have occurred after 2000.

Against this background it is necessary to reconvene the Ecumenical Panel on a NIFEA to give fresh analysis and new strategy for churches.

Meeting objectives:

• To analyze the signs of the times for the economy and the earth,
• To identify emerging and persisting elements of economic and climate injustice and the key issues ahead,
• To set up a process to update the NIFEA Plan, especially the priority actions, in light of the above and our findings so far,
• To strategize new actions and partnerships as we advocate for a NIFEA.