Micah Women Leaders Delegation in Canberra to Promote a Safer World for All
9 Aug 2023
Micah Australia is today bringing together influential women leaders from across the Australian Church in Canberra to advocate for the poorest and most vulnerable people in our world. This year’s delegation includes 45 women leaders representing over twelve different church denominations. These leaders are at the forefront of social justice movements, both in the Australian Church and through the organisations they lead.
Micah Australia, led by Rev. Tim Costello AO, is a coalition of Christian international development agencies that empowers Australian Christians to advocate on the most urgent global justice issues facing our world today — extreme poverty & hunger, rising conflict, and climate change.
Today these women leaders will meet with over 40 Members of parliament to discuss the positive role Australia can play in helping to create a safer world for all.
We know that the world has entered a state of ‘polycrisis’, where severe and mutually reinforcing shocks threaten to derail hard earned progress to improve the lives of millions in our world. Australia is a signatory to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) whose objective is to eliminate extreme poverty and end hunger by 2030. However, due to the confluence of multiple crisis in the past several years – including COVID-19, rising conflict, and climate change – these targets are now way off track.
As it stands, in 2030 if current trends continue, we will see:
- 575 million people still living in extreme poverty
- 600 million people still facing hunger
- 84 million children and young people out of school
Micah in partnership with the Australian Council for International Development, is currently working with Australia’s leading NGOs, foreign policy thinkers, economists and more, to identify the top actions Australia can take to address the impacts of polycrisis, and through this process, to create a new campaign for launch in 2024 titled: A Safer World For All.
This campaign will be designed to garner public and cross-partisan political support for Australia to continue rebuilding its ODA budget and taking a lead role in renewed global efforts to end poverty, fight climate change, and reduce inequality by 2030.
Importantly, the women leaders are in Canberra to engage with and listen to Members of Parliament to get their input into shaping this campaign, in a way that clearly articulates both the moral and strategic rationale for Australia being an effective and generous global citizen.
It is very significant for this group that on Tuesday, the Government released its new International Development Policy. We welcome the new policy and its emphasis on climate change, gender, and disability inclusion, and appreciate the vision it sets for the long-term direction of Australia’s international development engagement with its partners.
Micah has always upheld that our international development program is what best enables us as a nation to show our compassion and generosity towards our neighbours and those in greatest need, both in our region and globally. As such, Micah’s focus will be on ensuring it is people and the alleviation of poverty that remains at the heart of the policy’s implementation.
We see it as our role to help build on the ambition of the new strategy, by mobilising and demonstrating public support for an Australia that acts justly and generously in our world. This includes ensuring the new policy is matched with an increase in resourcing, reflecting the growing challenges confronting those most vulnerable in our world.
The delegation will be addressed by Pat Conroy Minister for International Development and the Pacific, to discuss how Australia’s aid program can respond to the interconnecting crises our world is experiencing, and the Government’s vision for its new International Development Policy.
They will also have a roundtable with the Shadow Minister Michael McCormack, and meetings with Members across the Greens and Crossbench.
Media enquires:
Matt Darvas
0416280340