::: Micah Challenge ::: Organisation :::

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and the Micah Network are facilitating a global campaign to mobilise Christians against poverty.

The campaign aims to deepen Christian engagement with the poor and to influence leaders of rich and poor nations to fulfil their public promise to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and so halve absolute global poverty by 2015.

All 191 members states of the United Nations have promised to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The Goals include measurable, time-bound targets addressing poverty and hunger, education, maternal and child health, the prevalence of diseases including HIV/AIDs, gender equality, the environment, debt, trade justice and aid.

The goals are achievable, but not by 'business as usual'. Informing and involving civil society is critical to ensuring that governments keep these promises.

The measures of success for the campaign will be policy change and participation by Christians in the campaign. Progress towards the achievement of the MDGs is being carefully benchmarked and tracked by the United Nations Development Program, while the contribution made by Christians will be indicated by a register of churches, organisations and individuals who have signed the Micah Call and participated in advocacy activities. The campaign will also raise awareness of, and track improvements in, direct contributions by Christian organisations towards achievement of the MDGs.

The Micah Challenge will be launched globally on October 15, 2004 in conjunction with the UN ceremony for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. 2004 will see the formation of the first group of approximately eleven National Campaigns. 2005 will include release of educational materials and participation in advocacy focused on events including the G8 and the UN Heads of State Summit. A further 15 national campaigns will be launched in 2005-2006. An annual global Micah Challenge Sunday will commence in 2005.

The advocacy objectives for the campaign will reflect both a prophetic tradition (the tradition of speaking out for and with the poor that is deeply ingrained in the Bible) and the long experience of Christian organisations and churches working in partnership with poor communities. They will also be framed to link with broader civil society campaigns, particularly those focussed on the MDGs. The Micah Challenge is a foothold for a movement of Christians that will go beyond the MDGs agenda, but it sees the MDGs as a well-shaped tool and seeks to make a powerful contribution to their achievement.

The focus for civil society in the North is likely to be advocacy for the structural changes included under Goal 8 of the MDGs. Work on some of these has begun, most particularly the successful work of the Jubilee 2000 and subsequent debt and trade justice campaigns. In the South, advocacy will also focus on empowering the poor to play a greater role in shaping national planning to alleviate hunger, water and sanitation deficits, disease, illiteracy, gender inequality and environmental destruction.

The Micah Challenge will bring together knowledge experts, leaders and Christian communities to frame global advocacy objectives and specific national and regional objectives. High quality, in-language materials will be developed, particularly in response to the needs of local churches, who are seen as the primary focus and driver for the campaign.