ZION MAGAZINE JOURNAL FOR CHRISTIANS 1

Faith Leaders’ Summit on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

Uganda has just witnessed the biggest event hosted by the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda

where African Faith Leaders from different countries came together to discuss the Millennium

Development Goals Agenda post-2015. The summit was organized under the auspices of the

African Council of Religious Leaders; Organizations of African Instituted Churches; Symposium

of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar; All Africa Council of Churches; Council of

Africa; Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa; Union of Muslim Councils of Central, Eastern,

and Southern Africa; the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i; the Association of the Evangelicals of

Africa; Christian Aid; Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes and Horn

of Africa; and Arigatou International, Nairobi.

The aim of the summit was to strengthen and scale up the engagement of Faith Communities

and Faith Leaders in shaping the Post 2015 Development Agenda. The Millennium Develop-

ment Goals (MDGs) that have been a hallmark of the global and national development agenda

since the year 2000 expires next year 2015. The current MDGs include eradication of poverty,

achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women,

reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health and combating HIV/AIDS, malar-

ia and TB. During the discussion it was mentioned that faith and religion plays a vital role in the

this issue

Faith Leaders’ Summit on the Post 2015 Development Agenda P.1

Ahunna Eziakonwa – Onochie P.3 Jonah Lwanga P.5

Rev.Nicta Lubaale P.7

All about OAIC The Organization of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) is an

association of African Independent and Instituted Churches

(AICs), which has its origins in the work of HG Bishop Markos of

the Coptic Orthodox Church (Egypt) with AICs since 1976, in

Kenya. In 1978, HH Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Orthodox

Church invited leaders of AICs from seven countries for a confer-

ence in Cairo, where the OAIC was founded. The basic aims of the

organization were teaching and training. On purpose, develop-

ment work and political involvement were left out. The main

activity was Theological Education by Extension (TEE ), which

received much support from ecumenical partners.

The second conference of the OAIC, in 1982, was attended by

representatives of AICs from 17 countries. The conference

approved a constitution which required member bodies to be

Trinitarian, based on the New and Old Testament, and confessing

Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. In terms of organization, the

constitution placed ultimate authority with a general assembly to

be convened every four years, and composed of representatives

of the member churches. This model proved not to be suitable

for the OAIC, which was lacking the resources to implement

adequately such constitutional requirements. In spite of these

shortcomings, the conference stimulated conciliarity among AICs.

It sought to establish an AIC identity, distinct from the other

church groupings in Africa, such as the All Africa Conference of

Churches, the Association of Evangelicals in Africa, and more

conservative groups.

In the early 1980s, the international headquarters of the OAIC

were established in Nairobi, Kenya. The TEE programme contin-

ued to spread throughout the continent and became the support

structure of the organization. As of 1990, three new departments

were set up: Rural Development, Women, and Research and

Communication. A serious review of the organization was con-

ducted which resulted in a regionalization, whereby churches

would first adhere to one of the OAIC regions, or chapters, and

the general assembly would be composed of representatives of

these regions. The internal administration would be re-organized.

The new structure was put in place in 1997, when the assembly

was able to meet, in conjunction with a joint OAIC-WCC consulta-

tion on the relationships between the AICs and the mission-

founded churches in Africa.

The OAIC has made a significant shift in the direction of a more

ecumenical profile. This is mainly due to the growing self-

confidence of the AICs in their own identity. There are now

chapters in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe,

Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Ghana, Madagascar, Nigeria, and

the Democratic Republic of Congo. The mission of the OAIC

continues: "to bring African Instituted Churches together in

fellowship and to equip and enable them to preach the good

news of Jesus Christ in word and deed.".

ZION MAGAZINE JOURNAL FOR CHRISTIANS

ISSUE 15 JULY 2014

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African Faith Leaders moving Africa forward

According to the census of 2002, Christians made up about 84% of Uganda's population. The Roman Catholic Church has the largest number of adherents (41.9%), followed by the Anglican Church of Uganda (35.9%). Evangelical and Pentecostal churches claim the rest of the Christian population. There's a growing number of Presbyterian denomi-nations like the Presbyterian Church in Uganda, the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Uganda and the Evangelical Free Church in Uganda with hundreds of affiliating con-gregations. The next most reported religion of Uganda is Islam, with Muslims represent-ing 12% of the population.

The Muslim population is primarily Sunni.

There are also minorities who are Shia (7%),

Ahmadiyya (4%) and those that are non-

denominational Muslims. The remainder of the

population follow traditional religions (1%),

Baha'i (0.1%), other non-Christian religions

(0.7%), or have no religious affiliation (0.9%).

The northern and West Nile regions are pre-

dominantly Catholic, while the Iganga District

in eastern Uganda has the highest percentage

of Muslims. The rest of the country has a mix

of religious affiliations.

Prior to the advent of alien religions such as

Christianity and Islam, traditional indigenous

beliefs were practised as a means of ensuring

welfare of the people were maintained at all

times. Even today in contemporary times,

these practices are rife in some rural areas and

are sometimes blended with or practised

alongside Christianity or Islam. In addition to a

small community of Jewish expatriates centred

in Kampala, Uganda is home to the Abayudaya,

a native Jewish community dating from the

early 1900s. One of the world's seven Bahá'í

Houses of Worship is located on the outskirts

of Kampala. See also Bahá'í Faith in Uganda.

Founded by JJ Keki, an interfaith movement

bringing together Muslim, Jewish, and Christian

coffee farmers has resulted in the Mirembe

Kawomera (Delicious Peace) Fair Trade Coffee

Cooperative in Mbale, Uganda. Members of

the cooperative sing about interfaith peace in

Uganda on the Smithsonian Folkways album

"Delicious Peace: Coffee, Music & Interfaith

Harmony in Uganda."

Indian nationals are the most significant immi-

grant population; members of this community

are primarily Ismaili (Shi'a Muslim followers of

the Aga Khan) or Hindu.

lives and cultures of the majority of people

in Africa. Faith based institutions have a long

history of action on development and often

deliver a multiplicity of services to individu-

als and communities affected by poverty,

conflict, humanitarian and natural disasters.

The summit was attend by delegates repre-

senting children, women, and persons with

disability, youth and people living with HIV/

AIDS. A pre-summit meetings was held on

the 30th of June 2014 where delegates rep-

resenting different groups had the oppor-

tunity to review, discuss current goals and

measure the achievement so far. Each group

was tasked to present a report on the issues

which needs more attention. Some of the

issues raised during group report was that

children should be allowed to have a voice

and should be listened to. Even though en-

rolment in education has increased, most

children start school two years later than

they are supposed to, and most of them

drop out of school. A boy child is becoming

more vulnerable since more attention is giv-

en to a girl child. Today we have more or-

phans because of violence and the pandemic

diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

It was mentioned during youth report that

Africa has the fastest growing and youthful

population in the world. Youth under the

age of 15 amount to 40% and age 15-20 con-

stitutes to 20% of African population. African

economies has grown at an impressive 6%

but this growth has not created good jobs

for the youth entering the labour market.

Youth unemployment has remained above

10% during the past decade, four times high-

er than South East Asia and it is expected to

continue growing. The education system has

produced more graduates whose number

have exceeded what the labour market can

accommodate and the curriculum has creat-

ed a mismatch with the employment re-

quirements. As we look forward to shaping

the future, our agenda should aim to pro-

mote interventions like innovation, skill for-

mation and productivity that specifically

target the youth.

During the discussion it was realized that

more commitment and awareness is needed

to ensure that persons with disability are

always considered when decisions are taken.

Disability is a cross cutting factor affecting all

the issues being addressed in the document.

Disability rights should be emphasized in

very clear terms. The document language

should be written according to the letter in

the UN convention in the rights of persons

with disability. The goal of addressing ine-

quality need to emphasize issues of improv-

ing access to facilities in relation to principles

of the United Nations. People on the ground

should be empowered by giving them a

voice to be listened to and address their

issues. People’s attitude towards the poor

and people with disability should be changed

by analyzing socio-cultural issues and issues

of maternal health that usually leads to disa-

bility. The Faith Based Organizations should

take a leading role in changing society per-

ceptions that is negative stereo types about

people with disability and disability itself.

————————————————————

“The purpose of the summit was to

develop strategies for the engage-

ment of faith communities across the

continent in the post 2015 processes

as well as involvement in the imple-

mentation process of the new frame-

work at national levels.”

Religion in Uganda

Meeting Point Children Choir

ZION MAGAZINE JOURNAL FOR CHRISTIANS 3

Ahunna Eziakonwa – Onochie (UN Resident coordinator and UNDP Resident

Representative in Uganda)

Commended the efforts of all the different

faith communities for taking the initiative in

convening a summit to consolidate their

views on the post-2015 development agen-

da. Onochie further mentioned that this is a

critical time in the history of the world as the

world leaders and communities all over the

world are engaging in developing an agenda

that will guide the next phase of the devel-

opment efforts. Within the United Nations,

this is particularly a moment of both reflec-

tion and renewal. Reflection on the target

that we were able to achieve against what

was set as the millennium development

goals and renewed efforts to see how best

we can learn from the experiences and take

further actions for resolving some of the

developing challenges that are still with us. It

is in this sense that this summit come at an

opportune time and as religious leaders,

your contributions to the shaping of this

agenda is critical.

In orders to provide a context for this sum-

mit, let me highlight some of the progress

that has been made since the formal adop-

tion of the MDGs and allow me to make

brief observations on the emerging issues in

the post 2015 agenda. I’m very certain in the

course of this two day summit that this is-

sues will be looked at more deeply. Since the

MDGs were adopted in 2000, there is a clear

evidence that poverty which is one of the

biggest challenges of our generation has

shown declining trends across the globe. The

proportion of people living in extreme pov-

erty has been halved at the global level. In

developing countries, the proportion of peo-

ple living on less than 1.25 $ a day fell from

47% in 1990 to 22% in 2010. There is a gen-

eral consensus that MDG frameworks have

helped in shaping the policy frameworks in

many countries across the world including

Uganda. As you might be aware that Uganda

already met target associated with halving

the number of people living in absolute pov-

erty and achieving death sustainability and it

is very much on track to achieve another

eight of its seventeen targets.

Facts about Uganda’s Coat of Arms...

The coat of arms of Uganda was adopted three weeks before the proclamation of independence by the Uganda Legislative Council. On the 1

October 1962 the arms was approved by the Governor of Uganda Sir Walter Coutts, and formally established by law on 9 October. The

shield and spears represent the willingness of the Ugandan people to defend their country. There are three images on the shield: those on

top represent the waves of Lake Victoria and Lake Albert; the sun in the center represents the many days of brilliant sunshine Uganda

enjoys; and the traditional drum at the bottom is symbolic of dancing, and the summoning of people to meetings and ceremony.

The above explanation, about the symbolism of the drum, is a distortion that came about after the bloody 1966 national crisis when the

Prime Minister of the day, Milton Obote, made a violent military attack on the king of the Kingdom of Buganda in central Uganda, Edward

Mutesa II, who was the ceremonial president of the state at the time. The following year,

1967, the nation's constitution was abrogated and replaced with a new one which abolished

the country's ancient monarchies—the kingdom's of Buganda, Bunyoro, Ankole, Toro, and

the Principality of Busoga, turning Uganda into a republic and making Milton Obote president

with unlimited executive powers. Before Obote's rule, the drum was symbolic of royalty and

the authority of Uganda's kings. On a related note, the kings of Uganda were the first to use

the traditional lentil shaped African shield in their heraldic arms.

The shield is flanked on the right by a Crested Crane (Balearica regulorum gibbericeps), a

subspecies of the Grey-crowned Crane and the national bird of Uganda. On the left is the

Ugandan Kob (Kobus kob thomasi), a species of Kob that here represents abundant wildlife.

The shield stands on a green mound, representing fertile land, and directly above a represen-

tation of the River Nile. Two main cash crops, coffee and cotton, flank the river. At the

bottom is the national motto: "For God and My Country".

ZION MAGAZINE JOURNAL FOR CHRISTIANS 4

are women and to leave 50% of our tal-

ents out of decision making, out of all

spheres of our lives will be to prescribe

failure for ourselves and for post 2015.

Another important issue which we seek

to develop on MDG and SDG is social

protection. We have talked about grow-

ing inequality and the only way to handle

this as we create employment and the

opportunities to bring those who are

vulnerable out of vulnerability is at least

also to provide social protection. Anoth-

er of the important element we seek to

see as we develop the MDGs and the

SDGs is a framework of accountability

implementation and co-ordination. One

of the weaknesses of the MDG frame-

work was the fact that we could make

Lazarus Kampambwe – AU Representative (Special Adviser on Economic

Affairs)

There was no development agenda prior to

2015 that we are succeeding, instead we

have a millennium development goals and

they did not constitute the development

agenda. Millennium development agenda

were addressing the symptoms of a prob-

lem. Now we have the opportunity as we

develop the post 2015 development agenda

to address the root cause of these symptoms

which were being addressed by the MDGs.

As we conceive the post 2015 we should not

only think of renewing the MDGs frame-

work. The MDGs are but one of the ele-

ments of the post 2015 development agen-

da.

The second of those elements has been the

sustainable development goals (SDG) pro-

cess, the RIO + 20 process because we are

trying to develop through that process sus-

tainable development goals. Whether we

have the good millennium development goal

framework and good sustainable develop-

ment goal post 2015, still we will not have

had a post 2015 development agenda that

could succeed. The third element is the suc-

cessful implementation of existing frame-

works. With regard to the MDGs, taking

three components one by one, some of the

basic points that are being made by Africa in

its common position is that we must raise

the level of ambition. In the MDGs we were

content to talk about reductions. In the post

2015 we must talk about eradication of pov-

erty, universal access to education, good

quality education, universal access to safe

drinking water, universal access to health

facilities and good health facilities.

The second point under the MDGs is that we

have to recognize that unemployment is one

of the most threatening explosives that we

have and we must find a way of addressing

it, in particular youth unemployment. There-

fore we are hoping that as we develop the

post 2015 at the negotiations to take place

in New York, we must develop SDG and

MDG on unemployment with measurable

targets. Another element is based on wom-

en and how we integrate women in decision

making. More than 50% of our population

By: Lazarus Kampambwe – AU Representative (Special Adviser on Economic Affairs)

ZION MAGAZINE JOURNAL FOR CHRISTIANS 5

pledges and commitment but we were not held to those commit-

ments. Many are the commitments that remained unfulfilled. We hope

that one of the things that you can do, given the strength that you

have, given the leadership that you have, is to help create a movement

for justice, a movement for the implementation of the post 2015 de-

velopment agenda.

In the same way that in the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a move-

ment on debt cancellation and it is this movement that eventually per-

suaded the governments to finally do the right thing. The post 2015

development agenda and its implementation belongs to “just wars”, it

is a war for global justice.

Jonah Lwanga, Chairman of the Inter Religious

Council of Uganda and Orthodox Church Leader

Cited the endemic abuse of public resources and human rights in most

African countries. Religious leaders should speak out when resources

badly needed for the provision of critical services to our people are

squandered by a few, corrupt officials. Lwanga urged religious leaders

to make arrangements for settling people displaced by armed conflicts

and saving the majority of Africans, who continue to languish in pov-

erty despite progress made since 2000. He condemned violence that

has clouded Africa, in its extreme forms, in countries such as Nigeria,

Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Egypt and Mali. He

said these violence manifest religious undertones. We are further

challenged as religious leaders to explain how religion, a tool for

peace-making can be used to kill and maim.

——————————–———————————————————-

The Millennium Development Goals summit was opened by the

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni who in his opening re-

marks requested delegates to read Mathew 22:32-39 which teach-

es us to love God and also to love each other. The President fur-

ther mentioned that “A Christian who sings the whole day, praises

the whole night and does not love his neighbour is a liar. Who are

you to look down on anybody created by God? We are all here by

our own rights. You have to right to try to prove that you are

better than the other”. About the conflicts in Africa, the President

said they are caused by failure to observe religious teachings. On-

going sectarian and unjust wars are caused by failure of the reli-

gious leaders to guide their followers.

The President blamed lack of knowledge and laziness for most of

the problems affecting Africa. Genesis encourages us to work hard

and have knowledge in order to dominate. Africans have to work

hard and stop relying on aid because the continent needs trade

not aid. Only trade will change the fortune of Africa. He quoted

Deuteronomy 28:11-15 to support his statement.

——————————————————————————————

Honourable President

Yoweri Museveni gracefully

walking into the “Faith

Leaders’summit” in Uganda

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Rev. Nicta Lubaale – Secretary General of

Organization of African Instituted

Churches

The future demands that we should not accept the abnormal to be normal.

We need to look at the theology we have accepted. Mortality rate numbers

are very high for us to accept and as we move towards 2015 Development

Agenda, we have to be bold enough to reduce the figures. Poverty is not an

accident, it does not come from hell neither does it come from heaven, and

it is man-made. The structures, the institutions, and the processes that

cause poverty and suffering are in the hands of us human beings and we are

the ones who can bring about change.

As we move to the future 50 years of Africa we must look at the theology we

have accepted. We have buried many people who have died pre-maturely of

HIV/AIDS, men, women and children, and we say Lord we have brought

back your servants. God is not in the business of calling African men, wom-

en and children, He is a God who gives life.

The next development agenda will be about us creating a better world

where dignity is possible for all. Not everyone will be a millionaire, and not

everyone will live in a big mansion, but each of us should have access to at

least two decent meal a day. The future will is on us to lay new foundations

on which shared posterity is built. More wealth has been generated in the

last 50 years of the world than any other period, but at the same time ine-

qualities are increasing the gap between the rich and the poor. As faith

communities we have the responsibility of bringing our moral voice and say

this is not right.

Proposed areas for Post 2015

Development Agenda

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

2. End hunger, achieve food security and adequate nutrition for

all and promote sustainable agriculture.

End hunger and ensure that all people have access to adequate,

safe, affordable, and nutritious food all year round by 2030

3. Attain healthy life for all at all ages

4. Provide equitable and inclusive quality education and life-

long learning opportunities for all

5. Attain gender equality, empower women and girls every-

where

6. Secure water and sanitation for all for a sustainable world

7. Ensure access to affordable, sustainable, and reliable modern

energy services for all

8. Promote strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth

and decent work for all

9. Promote sustainable industrialization

10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

11. Build inclusive, safe and sustainable cities and human settle-

ments

12. Promote sustainable consumption and production patterns

13. Promote actions at all levels to address climate change

14. Attain conservation and sustainable us of marine resources,

oceans and seas

15. Protect and restore terrestrial ecosystems and halt all biodi-

versity loss

16. Achieve peaceful and inclusive societies, rule of law, effec-

tive and capable institutions

17. Strengthen and enhance the means of implementation and

global partnership for sustainable development.

Levhuwani Nhlambo

078 182 1005

levhu.nhlambo@zionmagazine.co.za

Or levhu.matumba@gmail.com