Poverty, wealth and ecology: impact of economic globalization
- Examples for the interconnections between economic and ecological inequities.
Flickr, Nigeria 2006
- Flickr, Guatemala 2007.
Through economic globalization, the structures of trade and finance are increasingly widening the gap between the rich and the poor, posing threats to global peace and to the earth.
At the 2006 WCC assembly in Porto Alegre, it was evident that there are divergent ways of analyzing and acting on this reality; there is hope that the WCC may be able to develop a new paradigm that draws different positions on this question together.
This project encourages churches to explore and advocate for alternatives to economic globalization. It is an attempt to bring churches and ecumenical partners from North, South, East and West together to reflect and act together on finding new and creative ways to use global wealth to eradicate poverty. It encourages them to create new synergies between different standpoints on poverty, wealth, and ecology.
In the context of the AGAPE (Alternative to Economic Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth) process that began before 2006, the project will follow up work with ecumenical partners, focussing on issues such as just trade, debt cancellation, financial markets, tax evasion, public goods and services, livelihoods and decent jobs, life-giving agriculture, power and empire, and ecological debt.
While many studies have provided information on people in poverty, little is known about the rich. The churches will be challenged to develop a "consumption and greed line" alongside the "poverty line" as a guideline for Christians.
A case study and workshop methodology will bring together experiences of churches regionally and globally. Churches will be encouraged to bring their stories and actions on how they deal with poverty and wealth to regional workshops. Seminars will be organized at the World Social Forum. Encounters raising issues of poverty, wealth and ecology will continue with the WB and the IMF.
Persons responsible for economic justice in the churches or those addressing issues of poverty and wealth will be identified so as to form a creative and active network, and a reference group will include representatives of those working on ecological debt, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and people with disabilities.
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Common ground and differences of view between the Bretton Woods institutions (IMF and World Bank) and the WCCDocument issued at a high-level encounter between the three organizations at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva (22 October 2004)
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A jubilee call to end the stranglehold of debt on impoverished peoples"On the eve of the third millennium, the jubilee assembly of the WCC must ponder God's jubilee command and Christ's proclamation, which affirms this vision." This document on debt was issued by the WCC's 8th assembly in 1998.
Peace in the Market PlaceA study paper by Edward Dommen, presented at the AGAPE reference group meeting, June 2008.
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Lead us not into temptationChurches' response to the policies of International Financial Institutions: A Background Document
edited by Rogate R. Mshana in 2001
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