Global Priorities: An International Inter-religious Campaign to Change Budget Priorities is working to combat poverty by mobilizing religious as well as secular communities to alter national and global budget priorities. It is vital to find effective ways to change direction. With global military expenditures exceeding $1 trillion annually, reducing such spending in poor countries as well as rich ones can and must be a central component of the battle to eradicate poverty.
At a time when the world faces the worst economic crisis in recent memory, the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation, the ongoing struggle against terrorism, and crises in the Middle East and Central Asia, nations need a road map to human security that reaches beyond military might.
The initial focus of the Campaign is reducing nuclear weapons stockpiles while devoting savings to nuclear nonproliferation and child survival. Global Priorities is facilitating national and international diplomatic efforts that build on a current bipartisan Congressional resolution, the Global Security Priorities Act, re-introduced on March 24, 2009, as outlined in an Online Broadcast Service news article.
The Congressional resolution calls for reductions in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals that will lead to savings of at least $13 billion annually, and directs $3.5 billion of the savings toward increased nuclear security efforts (including $1 billion in new funds per year to expand and accelerate the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program). An additional $2.5 billion per year will be redirected toward the Millennium Development Goals of enhancing child survival, including alleviating hunger and improving education around the world.
The resolution was first introduced in March 2008. On December 23, 2008, Reps. James McGovern (Democrat of Massachusetts) and Dan Lungren (Republican of California), who are leading the Congressional initiative, wrote to then-President elect Obama, calling for a diplomatic initiative by the United States based on the resolution.
The 2008 resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives (March 2008 resolution and June 2008 article in the Sacramento [California] Bee newspaper) received wide bipartisan support and has laid the groundwork for further initiatives in 2009 and beyond. A revised version of the resolution was re-introduced on March 24, 2009. In recognition of its work in facilitating these efforts, on December 3, 2008, the Global Priorities Campaign received a "Blessed is the Peacemaker" award from the United States Conference of the World Council of Churches, and a January 2009 editorial in the influential Catholic weekly, America magazine, made a strong reference to the Congressional initiative. To view the editorial, click here.
The world is at a crossroads for the future of its children. We know that we can make progress in saving and improving children's lives, even in the world's poorest countries. But we also know that in too many countries, progress on child survival has stagnated, or even reversed, in the past few years. As UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2008 notes, the opportunity to save children's lives has never been clearer -- we know what needs to be done. It is simply a question of political will, action, and funding.
Progress has been made, but not as fast as we want -- and certainly not as fast as we need to in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals aimed at reducing extreme poverty by half by 2015. A 2005 study in the prestigious international medical journal Lancet calculated that for about $5 billion, the lives of 6 million children under 5 years of age could be rescued each year, if the money is spent on proven methods of disease prevention and treatment in the world's poorest countries. This would represent less than one-half of one percent of global military expenditures. To put it another way, UNICEF's annual budget is spent on military purposes every 15 hours, even as one billion children live in almost unimaginable conditions of deprivation.
Deep cuts in nuclear stockpiles can generate tens of billions of dollars which can be devoted both to safeguarding the lives of children around the world and to keeping us safe from nuclear threats, as outlined in the 2008 resolution. The Global Priorities Campaign will follow up on this resolution through national and international advocacy through wide contacts in many secular and religious communities. Strong ties have been established within the Roman Catholic Church, the World Council of Churches' Office of the Decade to Overcome Violence, the Lutheran World Federation, among United Methodists and other denominations on the national and international level, including groups such as Christian Aid (UK) and World Vision; Jewish groups and individuals, and with Muslim networks in the Middle East and Indonesia, notably the Institute for Islamic and Social Studies (Jogjakarta).
Deep cuts in nuclear stockpiles can generate tens of billions of dollars which can be devoted both to safeguarding the lives of children around the world and to keeping us safe from nuclear threats, as outlined in the 2008 resolution. The Global Priorities Campaign will follow up on this resolution through national and international advocacy through wide contacts in many secular and religious communities. Strong ties have been established within the Roman Catholic Church, the World Council of Churches' Office of the Decade to Overcome Violence, the Lutheran World Federation, among United Methodists and other denominations on the national and international level, including groups such as Christian Aid (UK) and World Vision; Jewish groups and individuals, and with Muslim networks in the Middle East and Indonesia, notably the Institute for Islamic and Social Studies (Jogjakarta).
The underlying principle of the Global Priorities Campaign is that human security can be achieved through determined measures to eradicate poverty and to increase economic, social and cultural rights and conditions on a global level. Majority opinion ultimately can be swayed by articulation of values whose roots are in every oral and scriptural tradition of the world's great religious communities: concern for our children, our elders, our disabled, and all the vulnerable members of our societies. The momentum for the Global Priorities Campaign is growing: the impact on the quality of life for children and others all over the world more than justifies the effort we are asking of ourselves and others.
If you or your organization wish to have more information or get involved, please contact
Arnold Kohen
International Coordinator
Global Priorities Campaign
Address: P.O. Box 32307
Washington, DC 20007 USA
Phone: 301 585 3229
E-mail: globalpriorities@aol.com
The development phase of the Global Priorities Campaign has been funded by the Ford Foundation as well as religious and humanitarian organizations.
Copyright © 2009 Global Priorities
