Comment: Combating World Poverty
Julian Bremner
Public relations editorial intern
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
How to do good without doing harm. This was the key takeaway thought from a Sydney Adventist Forum-sponsored Combating World Poverty seminar, held at Avondale College, September 18.
Harwood Lockton, the former international program director for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Australia, spoke about the issue, noting many well-intentioned people try to do good but cause harm. An example: a large donation of mosquito nets helped keep out mosquitos but put the local manufacturer out of work. The result: doing good but causing harm makes more people dependent on aid.
Harwood also noted an error in our assessment of poverty. As Westerners, we view poverty as having a lack of things, but poverty is different, he said. It is not being safe or not being able to support yourself. One can be generous without being helpful, so it is best we forgo ego and self-interest, he added. Providing aid without involving the local community creates no accountability, no sense of ownership.
Steve Wawrzonek from AusAID and Dr Paul Crawford from Aid-IT spoke about the benefits and limitations of the aid Australian provides—Australia contributes 0.25 per cent of its gross domestic product to developing countries, the equivalent of a person earning $100,000 contributing three tanks of petrol. They noted poverty is not a far-flung issue for Australians, with 18 of our 20 neighbours being developing countries. Providing more aid means better living conditions for people in these countries, which, they said, lessons the driving force for many refugees and asylum seekers.
Pr David Syme, a former ADRA Australia chief executive officer, preached the Sabbath sermon on the biblical imperative to address poverty, oppression and exploitation.
The seminar coincided with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit at the United Nations. World leaders established the goals 10 years ago to increase aid and reduce poverty by 2015. As with any issue involving politicians, advocacy is key. The consensus among the presenters: while the Seventh-day Adventist Church has traditionally shied away from advocacy, sometimes it is called for.