May 2006

Dear Friends,

    The Organizing Committee of Global Priorities invites you or your organization to endorse the Global Priorities Campaign. You can do this by endorsing our Statement of Principles at the end of this message.
 
The aim of Global Priorities is to mobilize religious-based communities and also civil society groups throughout the world to help bring about change in national and global budget priorities in favor of eradicating poverty and meeting human needs. The initial focus of the Campaign will be child survival. The Campaign was launched at UNICEF headquarters in New York on October 17, 2005, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

    Dr. Lawrence Korb, Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration, spoke at the October 17th event, highlighting unproductive military spending and illustrating how funds needed for child survival and related Millennium Development Goals can be made available for these vital investments in human security without adverse effects upon defense capabilities in the US or most other nations. This helped form an authoritative frame of reference for religious leaders speaking who underscored similar messages about international priorities at the October 17 event. Dr. Korb's speech and those of others at the Oct. 17 event are available elsewhere on this Web site.

    The theme of Global Priorities - as stated at the launch - is people of all faiths and religious traditions combining our voices to challenge current government spending priorities and joining hands in long term action, in essence to shift a portion of investment in human security from the military to the Millennium Development Goals. Keeping the tragic imbalance between spending for military purposes vs. human needs in sharp focus, a concerted effort by the Global Priorities Campaign (GPC) will seek greater investment to address neglected and especially urgent child survival needs. The first two-year phase of the Campaign will aim for new investments of at least $5 billion a year .

    The Campaign will work to achieve its aims through international advocacy, including Parliamentary resolutions and action through partners on the international, national and regional levels. With global military spending exceeding $1 trillion while pressing human needs including nutrition, clean water, access to health care and education for tens of millions of children and their families go largely unmet, the time has come for a concerted, determined international effort to change global priorities.

    We are seeking formal endorsements - including yours - of Global Priorities and active participation to build a more visible, vocal and effective Campaign.

    Through wide contacts in many religious communities, a larger and more potent constituency for child survival than ever assembled before can make a real impact, one we believe will grow exponentially over time.  Global Priorities has already developed strong ties in the Roman Catholic Church, including the Vatican, with the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, among United Methodists, Anglicans and other Protestant denominations on national and international levels, Jewish groups and individuals, and with Muslim networks in the Middle East, North Africa and Indonesia. The founders of Global Priorities have devoted more than five years to assembling an Organizing Committee with far-reaching contacts in religious communities and, just as important, with many decades of collective experience in strategic advocacy, humanitarian campaigning and work with the news media. Join Global Priorities and let your voice be heard!

    Though the issues the Campaign will address are global, each region and nation must be approached with careful consideration of the circumstances specific to each.  While excessive and wasteful military spending is not limited to the great military powers and this imbalance does not apply similarly everywhere, nevertheless every nation can participate in shifting priorities to invest in child survival. By working with local networks and leadership, Global Priorities will ensure that this effort will find resonance in local media and society, and thus the greatest chance for concrete results. Paying particular attention to conditions in each nation or region is a fundamental principle of this effort.  As momentum grows, the impact on the quality of life for children all over the world will more than justify the effort we are asking of ourselves and of you.
 
    Since receiving an initial development grant from the Ford Foundation in 2001, our consultations as a group and in private meetings have included participants from the US Fund for UNICEF, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran World Federation, the Vatican, World Vision International, Christian Aid (UK), the Center for the Study of Islam (Indonesia), Muslim intellectuals from the Sudan and Egypt, the Middle East campaign and membership coordinators of Amnesty International, the Congress of National Black Churches (USA), the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church (USA),  the National Council of Churches (USA), the Netherlands Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (Geneva), the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace of Liberia and the International Affairs, Peace and Human Security department of the World Council of Churches. We have forged particularly close contacts with the World Council of Churches' Coordinating Office of the Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace 2001-2010.  Participants have also included a former deputy to the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.


    The Global Priorities Campaign is governed by an Executive Committee of seven persons:  Jack Arthey, Christian Aid (London); Dennis Frado, Lutheran Office for World Community (New York);  Arnold Kohen, international coordinator; (Washington, DC); Albaqir Mukhtar, Middle East Campaign Coordinator, Amnesty International, (London); Sullivan Robinson, former executive director, the Congress of National Black Churches (USA); Victor Scheffers, President, (Catholic) Commission on Justice and Peace (the Netherlands); Elizabeth Tapia, World Council of Churches Ecumenical Institute at Bossey (Switzerland). 
                      
    Among senior religious leaders, Global Priorities has been endorsed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate; Gunnar Stålsett, Lutheran Bishop Emeritus of Oslo and former general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, 1996 Nobel Peace Laureate Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo of East Timor, and Bishop Melvin Talbert, former chief ecumenical liaison for the United Methodist Church in the USA. 
  
    Please review our Statement of Principles, which you are asked to endorse. If you, or your organization, wish to have more information or to get involved in Global Priorities, 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

Victor Scheffers
General Secretary
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace,
The Netherlands, and European Coordinator,
Global Priorities Campaign
Address: Postbus 16334, 2500 bh,
The Hague, The Netherlands
      Phone: 31-70-3136803
      E-mail: v.scheffers@justitiaetpax.nl

Copyright © 2006 Global Priorities