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At the second-ever convening of the Moral Imperative in New York City on 22 September, advocates from faith-based groups joined World Bank representatives and UN officials to discern the next steps for a diverse group of people trying to end extreme poverty by 2030.
The meeting occurred as a side event during the UN General Assembly. Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, the World Council Church’s representative to the United Nations and coordinator of the Ecumenical United Nations Office, spoke at the meeting about the challenge of prioritizing advocacy.
De Faria has been leading an Advocacy Working Group as part of the Moral Imperative for the past year. After discussions, the group chose two potential major areas for advocacy work on both international and grassroots levels: land and water rights, and violence against children.
Within these two areas, the Advocacy Working Group discussed how rural poverty becomes even more concentrated when the land or water is under threat. Climate change and economic inequality are also increasingly seen as factors of poverty.
The group also discussed how violence against children is related to child marriage, child labor, unjust relationships, and power dynamics between different societies and different individuals.
“We revisited the faith-based action plan, and talked about how we will be able to form the advocacy dimension, how we will foster synergy in advocacy,” said DeFaria. “We still have significant questions: what will advocacy mean in the global and grassroots contexts? How will evidence support advocacy work?”
De Faria was referring to the Moral Imperative’s “Action Framework to End Extreme Poverty and Realize the SDGs,” created in September 2015 and focused on strengthening evidence, advocacy and collaboration. The SDGs, or Sustainable Development Goals, are seen by the group as a framework around which to discuss moral, theological and practical approaches.
Although ending poverty, defending human rights, and building peace seem like natural extensions of many theological ideas, sometimes there is a controversy between human rights and theology, said Sally Smith, adviser for faith-based organizations for UNAIDS. “We are the solution but we are also part of the problem,” she said. “We’ve got to make sure we are addressing areas in which there is some controversy between theology and human rights.”
Besides the Advocacy Working Group, the Moral Imperative includes an Evidence Working Group and a Collaboration Working Group.
What is the Moral Imperative?
The Moral Imperative had its beginnings in February 2015 when a group of faith-based leaders met with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to discuss ways to end extreme poverty by 2030. They agreed to develop a statement that would build on their shared convictions, beliefs and commitments — a statement that was entitled “Ending Extreme Poverty: A Moral and Spiritual Imperative,” and launched in April 2015 with more than 30 endorsers from global faith-based organizations.
At the second-ever convening this week, Daniel Pieper, sustainable development coordinator for the ACT Alliance, asked: “How is the Moral Imperative going to talk about itself to others? Is the language we are using with respect to our faith traditions translating on a community level?”
Pieper, who has been heading the Collaboration Working Group, said it is important to bring together the stakeholders of the Moral Imperative for an “organic conversation.”
The third working group, the Evidence Working Group, explored several key questions as well, including: How do you provide evidence-collecting tools to people at a community level?
The Moral Imperative is an “important convening space with a strong impetus to come together,” agreed Dr Azza Karam, coordinator of the Interagency Task Force on Religion and Development. She also posed the question: “How can the Moral Imperative propel itself forward?”
Ensuing discussions centered around goals and priorities for the next year; selecting “pilot countries” in which to develop advocacy tools and resources; and developing ways to better connect the three working groups.
The gathering also included a Policy Dialogue on Religion and Faith, Refugees and Forced Migration. Participants talked about the implications of policy conversations for religious engagement in response, the role of faith-based organizations serving refugees, and opportunities to increase engagement with local faith networks.
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