In 1999 a group of concerned individuals from differing faith traditions initiated Global Priorities to begin toexplore ways to address the imbalance between world military spending and expenditures on unmet human needs. By late 2000, members of the U.S. Congress agreed in principle to initiate a bipartisan effort centered on American military spending. The attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001 led to a reconsideration of this earlier commitment.

Meanwhile strong ties had been established by Global Priorities with the Roman Catholic Church, the World Council of Churches' Office of the Decade to Overcome Violence, The Lutheran World Federation, among United Methodists and others on the national and international level, including groups such as the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (Netherlands), Christian Aid (UK), 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).

Global Priorities then initiated a series of international meetings to develop ways to make progress in the post- Sept. 11 security environment and confront questions of human security more broadly. Through an emphasis on child survival, major religious traditions were able to agree.