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CAFOD Director Chris Bain writes a letter to Gordon Brown outlining key development issues to be addressed as the Prime Minister settles into his new role
The letter forms part of a series of open letters to the Prime Minister written by church leaders, representatives of Christian charities and think-tanks published in Christian Politics, the journal of the Centre for Christian Democracy.
Gordon's challenges
CAFOD sets out the policy challenges for the Brown administration in a briefing for special advisors in key government departments.
Chris Bain's letter is as follows:
Dear Gordon
I would like to take this opportunity to offer you my congratulations on becoming Prime Minister.
As the Director of CAFOD I have witnessed first hand how you have driven the anti-poverty agenda on the global stage, including in meetings in the Vatican.
I have witnessed first hand how you have driven the anti-poverty agenda on the global stage, including in meetings in the Vatican. I hope you will be able to continue this leadership in your new role
I hope you will be able to continue this leadership in your new role and I would like to take this opportunity to set out what I believe to be the most pressing international development issues of the moment.
You are taking on the mantle of Prime Minister in the year that many Catholic agencies are celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples).
This hugely influential document set out what the Church was saying about the growing poverty and injustice of the developing world.
Its central message was that “God intended the earth and everything in it for the use of all human beings and peoples” and a belief that we can all help create a world in which human dignity is respected and everyone can reach their full potential.
This still resonates and forty years later we still have a long way to go to achieve this, as anyone who took part in the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign will know.
I am appreciative of all your work as Chancellor, particularly in leading international efforts to cancel debt of the world’s poorest countries. Your continued leadership as Prime Minister on this issue is essential
I am appreciative of all your work as Chancellor, particularly in leading international efforts to cancel debt of the world’s poorest countries.
Your continued leadership as Prime Minister on this issue is essential and will be strengthened if the Government accelerates its efforts to cancel UK debt to the 67 poorest countries as committed by you as Chancellor last year.
With so many of the challenges facing the world’s poor requiring action by the international community, I hope you are able to find ways to stem the leaking away of influence that has dogged the UK since the invasion of Iraq.
To do this requires your willingness and commitment to put global justice at the heart of wider UK foreign policy.
I feel the spending plans to be announced in the autumn will be a real test of your continued commitment to more and better aid.
I feel the spending plans to be announced in the autumn will be a real test of your continued commitment to more and better aid.
I would like to see the Government provide a clear year-by-year timetable to meet its target of 0.7% of GNI as aid and bring this forward to 2010.
Progress on trade has been glacially slow, despite repeated campaign pledges to show leadership and put the interests of the poor at the centre of Government policy.
A priority for you is to put real pressure on the European Commission to ensure that Europe’s new trade relations with Africa do not lead to forced liberalisation of sectors of importance to poor people and the environment.
Climate change poses an overwhelming threat to developing countries, despite the fact they have not been responsible for creating it.
For so long ignored as an issue the recent Government commitment to tackle climate change is welcome, but will require hard work in international negotiations and a toughening up of the Climate Change Bill in the UK to include an 80% reduction target for carbon emissions by 2050.
Our hopes and prayers are with you as you embark on this challenging role.
Yours sincerely
Chris Bain
Director, CAFOD
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