Steve Bradbury is National Director of TEAR Australia, Chair of the Micah Network, and International Co-Chair of the Micah Challenge. See www.micahnetwork.org. In this article

• he argues that now is the time for global change,
• that there is a momentum for change
• he shows how the Micah Challenge can help
• and how the Micah Challenge in Australia is working.

At the turn of the millennium all 191 member states of the United Nations pledged themselves to the achievement of the eight Millennium Development Goals. In so doing, the world’s heads of state have provided us with an extraordinary opportunity to dramatically shrink the world of poverty. What makes these goals so remarkable is their clear commitment to a timetable.

By being so time-specific, they give us an exceptional set of “advocacy levers”. The development community, and all who are committed to working for a more just and compassionate world, can and must use these levers to hold our leaders accountable and insist that they fulfil their promises. If we fail in this, the MDGs will undoubtedly go the way of many other “commitments” to end poverty - another set of broken promises to the poor, another tragic joke at their expense.

In his compelling address at the Annual Meeting of the World Bank in September 2003, James D. Wolfensohn stressed this time-sensitivity – the urgency of acting now against poverty and injustice:

“It is time to take a cold, hard look at the future. Our planet is not balanced. Too few control too much, and too many have too little to hope for… If we act together now, we can change the world for the better. If we do not, we leave greater and more intractable problems for our children… There is no better time than now to join in a common effort to make a better world. You are the global leaders to make it happen. Delay is reckless. This is time for courage and action – for a new vision of the future.” (my emphasis)

Now is the time. This same theme was picked up by the authors of the 2003 Human Development Report:

“...today the world has an unprecedented opportunity to deliver on the commitment to eradicating poverty. For the first time there is genuine consensus among rich and poor countries that poverty is the world’s problem. And it is together that the world must fight it.” (my emphasis)

I hope and pray that over the next few years we will see the emergence of a host of national and global grassroots campaigns clustered around the MDGs. Together, reinforcing one another, these campaigns could build an inexorable and irresistible momentum for change. Now is the time. Poverty can be halved by 2015.

In recent years we have seen the enormous potential for good of well-organised, IT-savvy global campaigns that express the widespread moral outrage in our communities against the persistent violence of poverty. We can take heart from the achievements of recent campaigns, such as those that urged the elimination of landmines and cancellation of the crippling debt repayments required of most low-income countries. When political will to fulfil the MDGs wavers, as it surely will, a massive grassroots campaign in support of those goals will reinvigorate it.

This conviction is one of the core motivations behind the Micah Challenge, a multi-year, global MDG advocacy initiative of the Micah Network and World Evangelical Alliance.

We are persuaded that this may well be a God-given time of unique potential. Has there ever been an occasion before when the intentions of the world’s leaders echo something of the mind of the Biblical prophets and the teachings of Jesus concerning the poor? What better time, then, for Christians around the world - poor and rich - to raise our voices in a prophetic and urgent call to governments, insisting that they deliver on their MDG promises to the poor?

At the heart of the Micah Challenge is a deeply spiritual conviction: that the Creator of the universe requires all governments to “give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and destitute”, and to “rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82).

What we have in this Psalm is a profound prophetic vision. The world’s political leaders are gathered by God into a global forum, but it is starkly different from what we normally see when political leaders meet together on an international stage.

There is no posturing, no pontificating, no points scoring, no photo opportunities - God is in charge. He has but one question to ask of these powerful men and women:

“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?”

He does not ask, “What sort of economic growth have you achieved?” Or, “How secure are your borders?” No, he asks: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?”

Without waiting for their answers - he knows the truth of every situation - the Creator of the Universe gives these leaders their instructions:

“Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

This is God’s mandate to all governments, regardless of their political ideology or religious persuasion. All political leaders are accountable to God for their performance in delivering policies that respond effectively to the needs of poor and oppressed communities.

Underwriting this profound prophetic utterance in the Psalms is the fundamental theological conviction that we are all made in the image of God. We each bear the stamp of the Creator – and he values and loves each of us equally. A consequence of this belief is that the way we behave towards others reflects and affects our relationship to the Creator.

In a paper presented to the Micah Network at its consultation in Mexico in September this year, Sri Lankan Theologian Vinoth Ramachandra stressed:

“It is God’s love for all human beings that authorizes the poor and oppressed to stand up and claim their rights to sustenance and freedom. Injustice is a violation of God’s own being. Both the Bible and Christian tradition have taught that the poor and oppressed have legitimate claims on us, so that striving for economic, social and political arrangements that help them secure their rights is a matter of doing justice, not merely engaging in acts of compassion.

 Thus the Church is called to bring before the public gaze the ‘forgotten’ people in our societies- the poor, the disabled, the elderly, the outcast - both in its public proclamation of a different understanding of humanness and its demonstration of it in the Church’s own social practices.”

The Micah Challenge will provide Christians around the world with the strategy and tools to campaign with and on behalf of the “forgotten people”. The momentum is already building up, and the first tool – the Micah Call - has been developed.

In addition to the political dimension of the Micah Challenge is its call to Christians everywhere to deepen our commitment to work as agents of hope. We recognise that it is not enough to “talk the talk”, we must also “walk the walk” of justice and mercy.

Work has also begun on constructing the Micah Challenge campaign in Australia. An Australian Micah Challenge coalition is developing, a National Steering Committee has been established, and state action committees are in the process of being formed. For further information, and to keep abreast of the latest developments, you can visit www.micahchallenge.org.au

There are steps that you can take right now:

• Visit the website, and sign the call as an individual.
• Spread the word – encourage your friends to sign the call.
• Speak to the leadership of your church, or any other Christian organisation you are involved with, and encourage them to sigh the Call.

As the campaign unfolds there will many opportunities for fuller participation. There will be coordinated letter writing to our parliamentarians, and special state-based publicity events. We will be a spur to those politicians who are supportive of the MDGs (genuinely supportive, that is), and a burr under the saddle of those who are not.

TEAR’s initiative in starting the Jubilee 2000 campaign in Australia has taught us that strong grassroots campaigns can and will make a real difference. The Micah Challenge is another such opportunity. We will need to be both highly informed, so that we can debate policy matters at the highest levels, and very noisy, so that the highest levels will feel compelled to enter the policy debates with us.

In many countries ordinary citizens have little opportunity to make their politicians accountable. Thank God that this is not so in Australia. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we effectively used our democratic freedoms and responsibilities to hold our political leaders to the pledge they made to the poor, on our behalf, when they signed the Millennium Development Goals?

The Australian Evangelical Alliance an organisation of 350 Christian organisations and other individual members aims to be a catalyst for Christian unity, cooperation and mission within Australia.

The World Evangelical Alliance, founded in 1951, embraces about 2 million local churches in 111 countries. At its 2001 General Assembly it committed itself to back the MDGs with ‘prayerful, practical actions in our nations and communities’.

 The Micah Network is a global alliance of more than 275 evangelical relief, development and advocacy organizations. One of its 3 core objectives is to be an effective advocate with and for the poor. TEAR Australia was a founding member of this new and rapidly growing network.

The Micah Challenge is a multi-year, global Millennium Development Goal advocacy initiative of the Micah Network and the World Evangelical Alliance. The Micah Call is the first step in this process. Go to www.micahchallenge.org

Jubilee Australia began in late 1996 as Jubilee 2000 led by Tear Australia, who invited Christian/Church overseas development agencies, churches, aid agencies and community groups to come together in response to the international call for Jubilee debt cancellation. The campaign in Australia, like in other countries, has continued largely unchanged from the Jubilee 2000 identity (except for dropping the "2000"). The organisational structure is essentially the same as previously - a coalition of organisations and supporters from across Australia, coordinated by the Jubilee office in Sydney housed at the National Council of Churches of Australia (NCCA) offices. See see www.jubileeaustralia.org.

The Millennium Development Goals for 2015 aim to

1. eradicate poverty and hunger
2. achieve universal primary education
3. promote gender equality
4. reduce child mortality
5. improve maternal health
6. combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. ensure environmental sustainability and
8. develop a global partnership for development.

There are always many ways of contributing to the well-being of a society. The Evangelical Alliance would encourage everyone to be as involved as possible. Some issues are not as prominent as others though, and we would like to encourage Christians to consider the following actions which are aimed at helping those who are sometimes forgotten at election time.

• Sign the Micah Call. www.micahchallenge.org.au
• Support Jubilee Australia and send an “Unhappy Birthday Card” to the World Bank. www.jubilee2000.org.au or visit the Jubilee Australia web-site www.jubileeaustralia.org.
• Spread the word – encourage your friends to sign the call.
• Speak to the leadership of your church, or any other Christian organisation you are involved with, and encourage them to sigh the Call.
• Write or speak to your local politician – this will only get on the political agenda if politicians are convinced that people are interested and concerned

As the Federal election campaign unfolds there will many opportunities for fuller participation. There will be coordinated letter writing to our parliamentarians, and special state-based publicity events. We will be a spur to those politicians who are supportive of the MDGs (genuinely supportive, that is), and a burr under the saddle of those who are not.

Many millions of the poorest people in the world suffer from their countries indebtedness. Jubilee Australia contends that in many cases creditors have made billions of dollars of irresponsible loans to regimes and dictatorships for military expenditures and wasteful infrastructure projects, from which most ordinary people gained no benefit. Jubilee sees that it is particularly unjust that after dictatorships have fallen, the debt --with interest-- remains and creditors still insist on repayment.

Jubilee Australia sees developing country indebtedness as a key obstacle to the achievement of these goals. Jubilee Australia calls for the Australian government to:

1. Cancel the unpayable component of poor country debts—in particular to Indonesia, Philippines, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
2. Develop debt sensitive guidelines for Australia’s Export Credit Agency - the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) and for greater levels of cooperation between AusAID, AusTrade and EFIC.

Jubilee Australia calls on the Australian government as a member of the three critical bodies which cancel sovereign debts –the IMF, the World Bank, the Paris Club-- to:

1. Support the cancellation of the unpayable component of poor country debts in Africa 1 , developing Asia and Latin America.
2. Support the creation of an international sovereign bankruptcy body that involves both creditors, debtors and independent arbiters in (a) determining the necessary level of debt cancellation and (b) in placing safeguards on how the money freed up by debt cancellation is used
3. Ensure creditors take ethical responsibility for the loans they make.

Jubilee Australia recognises these actions will have a symbolic and practical benefit to many millions of people. However, these accomplishments alone are just part of a process. Jubilee concedes that corruption, greed and selfishness—realities in both developed and developing countries—require members of a country’s government, administration and business community, to ensure the basic needs of the people, and the most vulnerable and marginalized are met.

Jubilee will continue to argue that the lives and well-being of the poorest people are more important than the repayment of debt, especially where debts were generated by irresponsible lending practices.

1 Africa pays $15 billion a year in debt repayments making debt the greatest economic challenge to fight HIV/AIDS which is devastating the continent.