Last week I wrote about plans for sustaining global momentum on development and against poverty after 2015. 2015 feels a long way away. And yet in the last few days we have seen, very practically, how government, civil society and faith can come together to make a difference now.
Speaking on 5 June, Pope Francis reminded the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square how the monumental waste of food in many countries “is even more despicable when all over the world, regrettably, many individuals and families are suffering from hunger and malnutrition”. He urged us all to take “common responsibility for the earth”, for “the members of our human family”, and “especially for the many children in the world lacking adequate education, health care and nutrition”.
His words were echoed by the presidents of the Catholic Episcopal Conferences of all the G8 countries in a letter to leaders gathering shortly in Northern Ireland for the G8 Summit under the British Presidency. “Too many of God’s children”, they affirmed, “still go to bed hungry or suffering from malnutrition”. The “If” campaign – “Enough Food for Everyone” – led by religious leaders of all denominations, has called on world leaders to do what they can to prevent the hunger suffered by one in eight in the world.
The British government is responding to the call. At the G8 Nutrition for Growth conference in London, Prime Minister David Cameron spoke passionately about Hawa in Mozambique, who has had to bury several children because they died of malnutrition, and of the 1 in 4 children in the world suffering from chronic malnutrition. He committed a further £375m of core British funding to tackle undernutrition. And he brought other world leaders together to sign a Global Nutrition for Growth Compact, committing governments by 2020 to improve the nutrition of 500 million pregnant women and young children.
Pope Francis warned on 5 June that “the human person is in danger”, and called for “a culture of solidarity” in relation to man and the environment. David Cameron replied on 8 June that it was the responsibility of the international community – governments, but also scientists, charities, businesses and people of faith; in short, all of us – to fight for the future of generations to come, “today and every day until hunger is beaten and poverty is ended forever”. Bold words. Nutrition for Growth, our post-2015 commitment, and our plans to end absolute poverty by 2030 are the practical follow-up.