Uganda. Poverty and globalization
The rich countries should respect the commitments made
«Human dignity and freedom are the
objectives of development», but this «cannot be reached while the resources to
guarantee real progress in health care, in education and in the infrastructures
are lacking». This is one of the more characteristic passages from the closing
Declaration of the international seminar on “Poverty and globalization”, held
on 9 July last in Rome on the initiative of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace. Spokesmen from many governments, UN agencies and non-governmental
organizations attended the conference and discussed the subject of the
financing of poor countries. In the closing document, the participants
confirmed the need for rich countries to respect their commitment to contribute
0.7% of their gross national product for the progress of developing countries.
In this context, support for new initiatives such as the International Finance
Facility was expressed, spoken of during the conference by the British
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. At the end of the conference the
president of the Pontifical Council, Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, told
Vatican Radio:«There was unanimous agreement about confronting the need and
urgency to find other sums so as to achieve the goals the international
community set itself for 2015. If these funds are not found the developing
world will indeed have to wait centuries, according to the predictions made by
Chancellor Gordon Brown. Therefore it is extremely urgent that the funds be
found. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace will collate these
conclusions and make a summary of the conference discussions, which it will
circulate both through the Episcopal Conferences as well as through the normal
channels of communication and all the
interested bodies».
John Paul II sent a message to the convention in
which he affirmed that the Catholic Church «committed to a “preferential option
for the poor” … energetically backs the millennium goal of halving the number
of people who live in poverty by 2015».