Anglican Communion News Service – The Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Derby have written to the UK Government to press their Australian counterparts to ensure that a priority for the G20 in Brisbane next year will be ending the scandal of 1 billion people going hungry every day.
Most Revd Dr Barry Morgan of Wales and Rt Revd Alastair Redfern, who is the Church of England’s spokesperson on international development, have written to Prime Minister David Cameron MP on behalf of the Anglican Alliance, which brings together development, relief and advocacy across the Anglican Communion.
Food security is a priority for the Anglican Alliance which supported the work of Anglicans in responding to the famine in the Horn of Africa in 2011, and to the food crises facing communities in Asia and the Pacific.
In their letter, the two leaders said that progress had been made at the 2013 G20 Summit, with the St Petersburg Development Outlook giving priority to food security, with a focus especially on smallholder and family farmers, and the empowerment of women, who are the majority of small scale farmers.
“We in the Anglican Church, which is present in many of the world’s poorest countries, have as a key part of our mission to overcome poverty and injustice, a commitment to ensure that no-one has to go hungry in a world of such plenty. We see it as a priority that the world’s 20 richest nations should do everything in our power to overcome the hunger that still affects so many of our fellow human beings,” they said.
The Australian government takes over the presidency of the G20 next month from the Russians. It has not yet announced its priorities for the year.
The Anglican Alliance is a charitable company and part of the world-wide Anglican Communion with 88 million members in over 160 countries, including a major presence in 13 of the G20 countries. About half of all Anglicans are in Africa, including in some of the poorest countries where hunger and poverty are major problems.