Urgent Actions on Aid and G7

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Two Urgent Actions: Aid and G7

Pray and act to get back to 0.7%

On Monday there will potentially be a vote on aid. Former International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has tabled an amendment to the Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill which would require the Government to reinstate our commitment to give 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) in aid for 2022. In essence, the BBC explains, the amendment would “oblige the new agency to make up any shortfall in aid spending if the government were to miss the 0.7% target.”

The commitment to give 0.7% of GNI in aid – a fundamental part of our obligation to help combat poverty – was enshrined in law in 2015 and has cross-party support. Maintaining it was part of the Conservative Party’s election manifesto. But last November, the Chancellor announced a temporary cut to 0.5% – and Government has refused to give a date for when the full target will be reinstated.

The decision to reduce the amount to 0.5% – coupled with a decline in our GNI – has reduced our total aid budget by about £4 billion just at the moment where poorer countries and communities desperately need help fighting the challenges posed by COVID 19, conflict and hunger. The results have been devastating, as our blog on aid and countries affected by conflict shows. While not all aid decisions may be ones that any individual would favour, aid overall has a tremendous positive impact. The cuts are jeopardising key programmes that give food to people facing acute hunger, access to clean water and sanitation to people for whom it could be a lifesaver, funding to crucial research, and assistance with some of the world’s most serious humanitarian crises.

The amendment needs to be selected by the Speaker – who could refuse it on the grounds that it is not within the scope of the bill. If it does get through, then it needs votes. Already at least 30 Conservative MPs have pledged support; only a few more are needed to create a majority. Please:

  • pray that the amendment will be selected
  • pray that the public response will show support for meeting our full aid commitment
  • pray for the success of the amendment
  • ring your MP or email them this weekend. You can use online forms from the Joint Public Issues Team or Global Justice Now, or, use our blog, an article from BOND and/or this CTBI briefing to compose your own email (something you write yourself is always the most effective). And we’d be really grateful if you could let us know if you do it.

 

Pray and act for progress at the G7

From the 11th to the 13th (this coming Friday to Sunday), the G7 leaders will be meeting in Cornwall.

It’s a brilliant opportunity for our Government – as hosts of both the G7 and the forthcoming UN Climate Talks (COP26) – to show leadership in a number of areas. One is vaccine equity. Another is climate finance.

Prayer and Action on Vaccine Equity

On vaccines, the current lack of equity is staggering. The UK, with its population of just under 70 million, had offered more than 32 million vaccine doses by mid-April. But at a recent (3 June) briefing, the WHO stated that only 31 million doses had been administered across the whole continent of Africa, whose population is almost 1.4 billion. Or, to put it in a different way; in high-income countries, about 62 doses have been distributed per 100 people. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 1 dose has. In many countries, even the most at-risk groups – the elderly, health care workers, and people with serious illnesses – can’t access vaccine protection.

Numbers give an overview – but it’s hard to relate to them. All of us, however, will have seen the agonising pictures of individuals grieving in India. And those of us with friends, family or colleagues in other parts of the world will know the sorrow of losing loved ones as countries encounter their second or third waves … people who would have had the vaccine, had they lived here.

Faith, health and humanitarian leaders have issued a joint declaration, which states bluntly: “We have a choice: vaccine nationalism or human solidarity.” It calls on world leaders to, among other things, “Ensure equitable access to vaccines between countries by providing vaccines, sharing knowledge and expertise, and fully funding the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which is working to provide equitable access to and implementation of COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.” They also point out the simple fact that enabling vaccinations to occur globally is not simply altruism: because leaving large numbers of people unvaccinated can lead to the development of variants that may escape vaccines, it is also in wealthy countries’ own interest.

As the statement suggests, a number of things need to happen to achieve vaccine equity. In the short term, countries that have ordered more doses than they need for their populations can donate some of their vaccines to other countries. To put this in perspective, data show that Canada, the US, UK, EU and Japan have collectively ordered 5.3 billion doses of vaccine for their populations, which total around 1 billion. Some are already making a start: the US has committed to sharing 80 million doses and is already beginning to distribute them. The heads of the Wellcome Trust and UNICEF have issued an open letter to Boris Johnson, asking him to commit to donating 20% of the UK’s doses, which could, they say, be done without affecting the UK’s vaccination schedule. They also ask him to call for the G7 to commit to sharing 1 billion doses collectively, and to fully funding the ACT Accelerator.

Looking towards the longer term, there are bigger questions – to what extent should companies be allowed to profit from publicly funded research? When is it legitimate to override current intellectual property rights in order to save lives … and would it be possible to devise a system which both continued to encourage research and enabled greater sharing of the outcomes? How can countries’ capacity to manufacture their own vaccines be increased? Some of these questions are explored in a new briefing from the Anglican Alliance and the Anglican Health and Community Network – it’s worth a look.
In the next few days, if you can, please:

  • Pray for the G7 to take steps which will both address the immediate need for vaccine doses and start to address the longer-term structural inequalities in access to essential medicines.
  • Read the Anglican Alliance or other briefing materials that give insight into the issues surrounding vaccine equity
  • Take part in the ‘Wave of Hope’ campaign

 

Prayer and Action on Climate Finance

On climate finance, there are two main asks. The first is that the G7 countries will reduce their own investment in fossil fuels – and redirect the funds in ways that promote a true green recovery from COVID. Tearfund, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) have produced an excellent report on this – which reveals that in their COVID recovery plans, G7 countries have spent more on support to fossil fuels than on support to clean energy and makes three suggestions to help them ‘clean up their act’. Worth reading.

The second is that the G7 will commit to the climate finance that is needed for a breakthrough at COP26 – and specifically that it will commit to new and additional funding for loss and damage, which helps countries deal with the impacts of climate change, such as the devastation in the Caribbean after Hurricane Maria, for which no level of adaptation can prepare. The Faith for the Climate COP26 Task Force has material on this.

In the next few days, if you can, please:

 

Refugee Week Resources

Refugee Week is coming up! It’s from 14 to 20 June, with 20 June designated as Refugee Sunday/Sanctuary Sunday.
We have a suite of resources to make it easy for your church to participate. Take a look!

  Our new resources include:

We also have a new video – Together in Welcome – which will be available from early next week. In it, eight Thames Valley Christians share their vision of a welcoming society. It’s both inspiring and accessible – watch this space!Pray and Fast June Prayer Points
The June Pray and Fast for the Climate prayer points are now available. Topics: the G7, Young Christian Climate Network relay, evaluating green promises, changes in the making for fossil fuel companies, warnings from the polar region, eco-anxiety in children, and a major court victory for eight Australian teens. Join in the prayers – and share them widely.

Prayers for the Environment and Tax Justice

Prayers for the Environment 

The 5th of June is World Environment Day – and the Sunday nearest that is traditionally celebrated as Environment Sunday. Some of our readers will be holding Climate Sunday or Environment Sunday services in their church – others may wish to focus their personal prayers on this area throughout the coming week.

It’s a great time to browse through the Care for Creation section of our website. We have links to prayers and hymns of thanksgiving and praise, prayers and hymns of lament and confession, prayers of intercession and commitment, preaching resources  and more. Take a look!

Prayers for Tax Justice

The 6th of June is also Tax Justice Sunday this year. It’s a time to note the ways in which “the tax system can play a vital role in building more just and sustainable societies, and in fostering good relations between human beings” (Church Action for Tax Justice [CATJ]) and to commit ourselves to working for fair tax systems that promote the common good.

Tax is very much in the news this weekend, as the G7 Finance Ministers have just agreed a proposal that would create a minimum global corporation tax and require the largest companies to allocate profits (and hence pay taxes) in countries where they make their sales, even if they are not physically present there. The proposal is being hailed by many as a breakthrough, and is certainly a step in the right direction, as it (a) moves the global system away from a ‘race to the bottom’ in which countries compete to attract business by cutting taxes and (b) makes it harder for companies to reduce their taxes by profit shifting. The Tax Justice Nework has noted, however, that there is also scope for improvement, as (a) many would argue that the minimum tax rate proposed is too low, (b) the way in which it is framed will benefit G7 countries far more than developing countries, and (c) the G7 action preempts a larger process being undertaken by over 130 countries in the context of OECD tax negotiations. So there’s material for both thanksgiving and challenge.

You might want to use a prayer from the CATJ Tax Justice Sunday materials – such as Reverend Alison Tomlin’s ‘Thanksgiving’ – which also ties into Environment Sunday and contains a commitment to strive for justice. Download the prayer here.

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Prayers for Humanitarians

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How can we pray for the people who bring vital health care, food, and other forms of assistance where it is most needed?

We’ prepared a powerpoint with images and prayers to help pray:

  • in thanksgiving for their work
  • for strength as they deal with difficult situations
  • for safety, especially in conflict zones.

Download the powerpoint slides here: Prayers for Humanitarians

Prayer Email 12 January 2020: Unity, Farmers, Hope, India’s Citizenship Bill

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Prayer for the Week

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins on Wednesday the 18th, so this week’s prayer has Christian unity as its theme. You can also find the UK materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity here, and the international materials here.

A further collection of prayers for unity is in this Twitter thread.

Lord Jesus Christ,
who prayed that all your followers might be one,
We ask your forgiveness for our divisions.
Unite us, we pray, in your love
And grant that, by your grace, we may come to serve you
As members of the one body,
Guided by your truth
And glorifying you together
Through the gifts you have given us.

 

Focus for Prayer – Farming

Our January prayer for farmers is on our website’s Prayer Space. Further resources are available from the Arthur Rank Centre.

As you pray for farmers this week, please pray especially for:

Those in Australia who have lost farms to the bushfires

All farmers whose livelihoods and lives are threatened by extreme weather, trade uncertainties, and conflict (UK, DRC, South Sudan, and others)

All farmers suffering from mental ill health as a result of the strains of farming. Give thanks for charities, such as FCN and RABI in the UK, that offer support for farmers under stress.

Items for prayer

Reasons for Hope

There are many reasons for concern as we look at the current climate situation – but where do we find hope?

I (Maranda) have recently revisited the brilliant collection of essays on Christian hope and the environment that Margot and Martin Hodson gathered for Anvil. The articles in that collection wrestle with key questions: how do we relate our ultimate hope – our trust in God’s good purposes for the creation – to our proximate hopes for the temporal future? How do we avoid ‘false hope’ which is based on an unwillingness to confront hard realities? How do we harness ‘optimistic hope’ which inspires people to keep working on tough issues? And what is ‘robust hope’? If you haven’t read the articles – or, indeed, even if you have – this is a volume to visit or revisit. The whole volume is freely available online.

Six climate researchers also started the year by sharing news that had given them hope in 2019. One spoke of country-level events, citing Costa Rica’s work to decarbonise its economy – an antidote to people who say that governments can’t or won’t undertake ambitious climate action.  Another cited advances in forecasting that that can make it possible to predict the behaviour of – and hence prepare for – extreme weather. Four cited political or economic movements or actions: the growth of divestment, local declarations of ‘climate emergency’ leading to local action, the rise of the youth climate movement, and the plans for decarbonisation in a recent party manifesto.

Over the next week, can you read some of the pieces on hope? Give thanks to God for the things that give you hope? And pray about how you can best act in order to give hope to others?

 

India’s Citizenship Act

Widespread protests have taken place for more than a month in India in response to the Indian government’s introduction of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act [CAA], which was signed into law on 12 December and took effect last Thursday, 10 January.

The new act offers a path to legal citizenship for migrants from the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian religious communities of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan,  who entered India before the end of 2014.* According to its terms, they “shall not be treated as illegal immigrants.” The government has justified its selection of these groups on the grounds that they  “were compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution.” Critics point out, however, that the act does not offer such a path to Muslims from any country, including those, such as the  Ahmadiyyas or Hazara who have fled religious persecution in the countries named in the act.

The act’s passage represents the first time that the constitutionally secular democracy has made religion a criterion for citizenship, and there are fears that it will be used to marginalise or expel Muslims. It coincides with suggestions that the government might create a nationwide ‘National Register of Citizens’, requiring people to prove their right to citizenship. In the state of Assam, when such a register was implemented, around 1.9 million people were found to lack adequate documentation to show that they qualified and so were deemed stateless and under threat of deportation.  Under the provisions of the CAA, Muslims in this situation would continue to exist under this threat, while members of other groups could claim a right to remain.

This move reflects the BJP’s vision of India as a Hindu nation-state and its idea that  Muslims and Hindus should live in different states. BJP ministers have articulated at various pointsthat their objectives include prioritising Hindu and Sikh refugees and expelling what they call ‘infiltrators’, often seen as code for those perceived as illegal Muslim migrants.

For all – Hindus and others –  who favour a democracy that preserves religious freedom for all its minorities and heeds the constitutional principle that India is to be a “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic”, the moves are profoundly worrying. Politicians from other parties, students, secularists, and religious leaders from minority communities including the Christian churches have united in expressing their concern and opposition.

Fr Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit in India, said, during the debates around the bill:  “The CAB risks tearing the country apart, reopening unhealed wounds of the Partition and ultimately destroying the secular and democratic tenets of our revered Constitution….” adding with respect to the proposal of a national register, “The country today stands at the brink of catastrophic human suffering and injustice, if the government implements it nationwide as planned.”

Students have been particularly vehement in protesting – inspiring many others in civil society – but have been attacked by government forces. The opposition Congress party has ordered its members who govern states not to implement the act, and the leader of another state governed by an opposition party  has also said the state will refuse to implement it. Opposition parties are due to meet this week to decide on a strategy.

Please pray:

  • for wisdom for politicians as they decide how to respond to the CAA and the protests against it
  • for wisdom for those who will be arguing and hearing legal challenges to the CAA in the coming month
  • that India will be a place that conforms to its founders’ vision of freedom and equality under the law for members of all religious groups
  • that India, and all countries, will offer refuge to all who come to it and qualify as refugees under international law
  • for wisdom for Christian leaders, as they consider their response to the act

*The Indian government estimates that of those who have claimed refuge so far on the basis of persecution and would benefit from the act,  81.2% are Hindus and 18.5% Sikhs.

 

Update on Aid

Thank you to all who have prayed and are praying about the Department for International Development (DfID)’s  future. In the past week, as Duncan Green outlines at the end of his piece on the issue, news first came through that suggested a merger that abolished DfID wouldn’t take place. Then almost immediately other news suggested that while a complete merger was unlikely, a restructuring that abolished DfID’s ministerial post and gave the Foreign Office de facto control of DfID’s structures was still possible. Such a plan would continue to raise concerns about the future independence and efficacy of the UK’s development work.  Please continue to pray, asking God to give all involved in the decision wisdom and a desire to do what will further the reduction of poverty and the increase of economic justice.

Short Notes …

Please continue to pray about the situation in Iran, the tensions between Iran and the US, and the tensions across the Middle East. If you would like more detailed prayer points, email us.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives in the United States, Nancy Pelosi, has indicated that she will send the articles of impeachment for President Trump to the Senate this week, despite profound disagreements with Senate leadership about how the trial should be conducted. The Senate leadership has indicated that it wants to put forward rules for the trial that will not involve a decision to call witnesses or to request documents that the President had refused to make available to the House. The Senate Majority Leader has also already suggested that there will be a speedy acquittal, and he has said that “Everything I do during this [trial], I’m coordinating with the White House counsel … There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this to the extent that we can.”

During a Senate impeachment trial, each Senator takes an oath to “do impartial justice, according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.” Whatever the merits of the case, there is a clear danger to the integrity of the Constitution and to the credibility of political processes if there is not a sense that a fair trial is taking place and impartial justice is being done.

As US politicians take the next steps in the impeachment process, pray for wisdom and integrity for all concerned.

Resources

2020 Dates for Prayer and Action
A reminder that the first quarter dates for prayer and action are on our website here.  Many people find them handy for planning services, rotas, and special events – and they can be used to shape your own cycle of prayer, too.

Supporting Refugees: A Guide for Oxfordshire Churches
Churches in Oxfordshire will be receiving this week a new guide to supporting refugees in our area. The booklet has been compiled by CCOW with the assistance of a range of local partner organisations. It introduces the different charities that are standing alongside refugees in Oxfordshire and the opportunities they offer to help with their work. If you would like your own copy (wherever you live), please do get in touch.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity materials this year include a suggestion that Christians and churches “Provide welcome and hospitality for those recently arrived into the UK and Ireland” If this call inspires people in your church who aren’t yet involved to get involved, the guide can help them find out what they can do.

 

Forthcoming Dates and Events

13 January – Asylum Welcome Charity Gala – Oxford
Information and tickets.

19 January 2020 – Peace Sunday
Theme: Peace as a journey of hope’ Materials: Pax Christi

22 January 2020 – Talk by Sophi Tranchell, Oxford
The Oxford Fair Trade Coalition is hosting a talk by Sophi Tranchell, CEO of Divine Chocolate UK at its AGM. She’ll be speaking about her experiences in Fairtrade – well worth hearing. Wadham College, 6:30 – 8:30. Registration.

25 January 2020 – ‘Saying yes to life’ – Reading
Day retreat (9:30 for 10:00 until 2:30 pm) based on Ruth Valerio’s new Lent book. Free. Lunch provided. For further information and registration, email maranda.stjohnnicolle@oxford.anglican.org.

1 February 2020 – Green Christian ‘Way of Life’ Day – London
Day conference on ‘rediscovering and maintaining a radical, creation-centred way of being’. Presentations on prayer, ‘living gently’, public witness and encouragement. Sessions on poetry, prayer and music. Information and registration.

This Week’s Readings

Revised Common Lectionary Readings – Isaiah 42 1-9  •  Psalm 29  •  Acts 10: 34-43  • Matthew 3: 13- 17

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.”

Isaiah 42: 1-4

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