wrestling with world-sized issues: christian responses to global poverty and oppression grace chapel...

Wrestling with World-sized issues:Christian Responses to Global Poverty and Oppression

Grace ChapelSpring 2012

(Week 3) Poverty and poverty reduction

• Why are some people poor?

• What barriers prevent people from leaving poverty?

• What can Christians and Christian development organizations do to help people escape poverty?

• Why isn’t this easy? What can go wrong?

• What does good stewardship in poverty reduction work look like?

Themes

• Many kinds of change are required to bring about widely-shared poverty reduction

• Christians and Christian development organizations can help bring about needed changes in many ways:

▫ programs of diverse sorts

▫ advocacy and partnership in developing countries

▫ advocacy in developed countries

Themes

• Generosity is important and has brought grace into many lives

• Generosity is not enough, because:▫ well-intentioned efforts may fail

▫ well-intentioned efforts may even do harm

• Christians should be especially well equipped to avoid the pitfalls, and to play special roles, because good work requires:

▫ humility, investment in relationships, nurturing of trust and cooperation, long-term commitment, more humility

Today

• Motivation

• Why are some people poor?

• What barriers prevent people from leaving poverty?

• What can Christians and Christian development organizations do to help people escape poverty?

• The importance of humility

• Book report

Motivation (Deuteronomy 15)

• “There will always be poor people in the land.” (Deut 15:11)

• “There need be no poor people among you.” (Deut 15:4)

Definitions

• Poverty

• Well-being

Living at a level of well-being below some minimally acceptable level

How good or bad a person’s life circumstances are, paying attention (at the very least) to:• what she is able to consume • how long and arduously she works• her health• the quality of her housing• the social services to which she has access• her hopes and fears regarding the future

What determines a family’s level of well-being?

• Assets• Market opportunities• Non-market opportunities


• Assets▫ able-bodied adults, health, education, training

▫ land, animals, tools, vehicles, market stalls, inventory, natural resources

▫ technology

▫ housing

• Market opportunities• Non-market opportunities


• Assets• Market opportunities

▫ for selling crops, buying fertilizer and seeds

▫ for earning wage income

▫ for buying consumer goods

• Non-market opportunities


• Assets• Market opportunities• Non-market opportunities

▫ for cooperating with other farmers

▫ for mutual assistance

▫ for security and honest dealings

▫ for equal treatment

Why are some people poor?

• they have few assets and limited opportunities• many are born into this• many are thrust into this by devastating events

What barriers prevent people from leaving poverty?

• barriers to building up assets• barriers to creating better market and non-market

opportunities


• barriers to building up assets• incapacitation• immediate costs that are too high to bear• difficulties saving• lack of credit• risk• lack of knowledge• legal, social, bureaucratic barriers

• barriers to creating better market and non-market opportunities


• barriers to building up assets• barriers to creating better market and non-market

opportunities• need for local cooperation• agricultural cooperatives, building schools

• need for larger-scale cooperation/government• roads, water systems, other infrastructure, ag research

• need for change in societal rules and norms• need for change in government institutions

What can Christians and Christian development organizations do to help people escape poverty?

• long-term assistance for the incapacitated and children

• programs that provide individuals with opportunities to build up assets:

• programs that help catalyze useful local cooperation, coordination and trust

• advocacy and partnership with developing country governments

• broader partnerships to encourage change in societal norms

• advocacy with rich country governments



▫ transfer programs, nutrition interventions for pregnant women and young children, pre-schools



• advocacy and partnership with government





▫ public health, health care, education, agricultural extension, training, modes of saving, credit








▫ promoting creation of health agricultural cooperatives, community water committees

▫ efforts to bring farmers together with supermarket chains or exporters of organic vegetables




• long-term assistance for the incapacitated and children• programs that provide individuals with opportunities to build up assets:• programs that help catalyze useful local cooperation, coordination and trust• advocacy and partnership with government

▫ infrastructure, agricultural research▫ legal and law enforcement systems▫ capacity-building so communities can hold government institutions

accountable▫ broader policies







• broader partnerships to encourage change in societal norms▫ race, gender, religion, harmful traditional practices

The importance of humility and real interest

• poor people are diverse• no single type of program is a panacea• the “poorest of the poor” often fall through the cracks

• poor people may face multiple barriers, some of them subtle• it is easy to make incorrect guesses about what is needed• it may be impossible for one organization to do all that is

needed well

Case studies

• spreading the use of insecticide-treated bed nets

• getting all children into primary school in Ethiopia

Jesus’ example of caring and meeting multiple needs

Matthew 8:1-4 (NIV)

1 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy[a] came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%208:1-4&version=NIV

Book report

• Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor and Yourself, Moody Publishers, 2009.

wrestling with world-sized issues: christian responses to global poverty and oppression grace chapel...

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