News : Advocacy

Superbadger is here – 2 Nov 2010

Superbadger is Tearfund’s Facebook campaigning application

It allows Facebook users to send emails direct from their profile to the people making the decisions. Whether it is badgering politicians about climate change, or badgering supermarkets to stock more Fairtrade products, we need you to start badgering now!

Find SuperBadger on Facebook now! (Facebook sign up required)

(You need to set your Hometown setting to a place in the Republic of Ireland. This is easy; just go to Profile -> Edit -> Hometown)

Badger Brian Cowen to keep Ireland’s promise

Up to 400,000 more children a year may die if the global economic crisis persists, according to the World Bank. So it’s vital at this time that governments keep their promise to help the poor.

The Irish Government has made an international commitment to give 0.7% of their GDP as overseas aid by 2012. And yet, in the past year, the Irish Government have cut their spending on overseas aid by €195 million, which is more than 24% of the overall budget.

The Irish government will set out a new national budget in December. Please badger the Irish Government to keep their commitment to the poorest, even when times are tough.

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A billion people still go to bed hungry – 1 Sep 2010

Tearfund’s Advocacy Director Paul Cook was in New York for the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit this week.

New York was swarming with international visitors this week, as the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called world leaders together to accelerate progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs are a set of promises that the world made back in 2000, to halve global poverty and to bring an end to the injustices that lead to a child dying every six seconds due to hunger. There was widespread agreement that this is a global embarrassment and that we wanted to be the generation that would change the world – forever.

The promises are to:

1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2 Achieve universal primary education
3 Promote gender equality and empower women
4 Reduce child mortality rate
5 Improve maternal health
6 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7 Ensure environmental sustainability
8 Develop a global partnership for development

Ten years on, it was time to take stock.

At Tearfund, we believe in tackling the structural causes of poverty as well as dealing with its effects, which is why we spend a lot of time talking to world leaders and speaking up for justice with and for the world’s poorest people.

This week, we were in New York to do just that.

We met with Government ministers from around the world, and took part in debates about the best way to end hunger, address violence against women and bring hope to people living with HIV.

Everyone agreed that we want to build a better world for our children, but it was disappointing that we didn’t see a more clear description as to how we’re going to do that.

Lots of progress has been made over the last ten years, and we should certainly celebrate that. There are people who are alive today who wouldn’t be if it hadn’t been for the investment in foreign aid and the prioritisation of the issues highlighted through the MDGs.

But, by now, we should really be seeing a very clear plan for the remaining five years that sets out exactly how we’re going to achieve fully the MDGs.

We went to New York hoping that we would come away with such a plan, but we didn’t get it.

We’re pleased with the Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, and it would have been great if we had seen the same level of unity and clarity for the other MDGs too.

And we’re especially pleased that Minister Michael Martin recommitted the Irish government to investing 0.7% of GDP in foreign aid. Let’s pray that Ireland keeps it’s promise and doesn’t cut the Overseas Aid funds again in December’s budget.

It’s also encouraging that we’re seeing more recognition of the role and value of the church in being change-makers in their own communities.

But it’s not enough, and we will continue to lobby Governments to make sure they continue to prioritise the needs of the poorest people in the world. And at the same time, we will continue to support churches to be the change they want to see in their own communities, and to respond to disasters and emergencies around the world.

Let’s continue to pray for people who are living in poverty, that they will know we have not forgotten them and that they will find hope.

Let’s pray too for our leaders, and that we will find ways to work together through global partnerships to tackle material and spiritual poverty.

Make your voice heard – Micah Sunday 10.10.10

On Sunday 10th of October, churches all across Ireland will join churches worldwide to pray that governments keep their commitments to tackle poverty and to create a more just world. It’s called Micah Sunday because the Bible verse which inspired this campaign is Micah 6: “the Lord has shown what He require of us – to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God”.

Encourage your church to partake in Micah Sunday on 10th of October. Download prayer resources, background information and advocacy material here.

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