Presentation by Minister of International Development Hilde F. Johnson to Bistandsnemnda, Oslo 22.10.2002

Seminar by Bistandsnemnda, Oslo 22. oktober 2002

Challenges from the South –

What is the Role of the Church in Strengthening Civil Society?

Presentation by Minister of International Development, Hilde F. Johnson

The HIV/AIDS Challenge - The Role of the Church

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Ladies and gentlemen, friends and colleagues,

First of all I would like to thank Bistandsnemda for creating this opportunity for a dialogue between such an impressive group of church and mission leaders and representatives. I think our discussions will be very fruitful – not least due to the interesting perspectives brought to the seminar by our international participants.

This year marks the 50 ^th> anniversary of Norwegian development assistance to countries in the South. The substantial and sustained involvement of Norwegian church and mission organizations, which started long before official Norwegian aid began, is one of the main reasons why we, a small northern nation, were able to involve ourselves early, actively and broadly in official development assistance with our partners in the South. Thus over the past five decades our resources, efforts and commitment have been able to make a positive difference to the lives of innumerable individuals in the South for more than a generation. This is motivating for us, but it is by no means grounds for complacency. The challenges we are still facing are enormous.

1.2 billion individuals are still denied their basic rights due to extreme poverty and hunger. This is an intolerable violation of human dignity, and it gives me no peace. Rather than celebrating 50 years of Norwegian development assistance, we should instead be taking stock, refocusing and re-mobilizing.

We have all learned a lot from our successes and failures. Our first major lesson was that aid in isolation will never get societies beyond the take off point and lead to sustainable development. Thus the main lesson we have learned in these 50 years is that social and economic development cannot happen unless there is an overall global and national framework of coherent pro-poor policies, and unless people are mobilized from below – through a rights-based approach.

The way we organize our societies and conduct international relations, in all areas and at all levels, in the north as well as in the south, simply has to be realigned with the rights and the interests of the poor. Private sector investment, financial regulation, debt relief, international trade regulation and policies in the areas of agriculture, energy, biological diversity, and so forth must all be compatible with the goal of poverty eradication. Rather than a take off stage where aid leads directly to sustainable development, we have achieved a "cognitive take off", a take-off in the way we think about global issues. Now we understand that nothing less than a global and concerted effort by both the South and the North, by both state agencies and civil society, will liberate 1.2 billion people from the constraints and indignity of poverty. But this simple lesson, however attractive in its clarity, is extremely demanding as a marching order.

Nevertheless, with the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals, the world community has demonstrated its readiness to march – and to march all the way. All marches and all journeys start with the first step. The adoption earlier this year of the Norwegian Government’s Action Plan for Combating Poverty in the South towards 2015 was – I would say – a major step.

NGOs, including church and mission agencies, have always played a significant role in Norwegian development cooperation. Their importance in the fight against poverty is highlighted in our Action Plan. The reason for this is the vital role the churches can and should play in developing countries. The churches are not only the only example of a vibrant civil society organization that mobilizes millions of people in many of the poorest countries, they are also the most important arenas for civil activities. Furthermore, the churches have important obligations. Obligations founded on the Gospel.

Caring for your neighbour is a crucial message in the Christian Gospel. What does this mean? It does not only mean providing care for the poor and the destitute, for the sick and the dying. This is important. But it is not enough. As long as poverty is something which is linked to policies and economic structures, addressing these issues is also vital. This means a more politically related role, that of the voice of the poor and the destitute faced with injustice, internationally as well as nationally. In St. Matthew 25 we read, "For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink, I was a stranger, and you took me in, naked, and you clothed me: I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." And further, "Inasmuch as you have done this to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done this to me."

Can the Church be silent on the reasons for poverty, destitution and injustice? Can the Church avoid challenging the rich and the powerful, faced with unacceptable poverty? Shouldn’t the Church be the advocate and carer of "the least of these my brothers"? Being a follower of Christ also means addressing these issues. Being a follower of Christ means fighting injustice. One of the challenges that we are faced with, fighting HIV/AIDS, is one of the best examples of how the Church has to take on all these roles. This is a pandemic that kills thousands every day. The issue of HIV/AIDS is linked both to individual morals and to sexuality, and this underlines the Church’s role in guiding our individual lives. The issue of HIV/AIDS is linked with social ethics, with giving a voice to the poor and destitute, those at risk of being affected. This is a question of politics. And the issue of HIV/AIDS is linked to the important role of the Church in caring for those affected, including those in dire straits, the infected and their families, the orphans and their grandparents. It is about saving people’s lives, and caring about them. I will return to this later.

In my mind poverty and HIV/AIDS are links in a causal chain. Poverty prevents development. Lack of development at societal level equals lack of opportunities to take charge of one’s own destiny at the individual level. Poverty can lead to HIV/AIDS, and AIDS cements poverty, in a vicious circle. This is the context in which HIV/AIDS has developed into a pandemic. In order to win the battle against poverty, we have to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and, conversely, in order to conquer HIV/AIDS we have to fight and defeat poverty.

What can the Church and church-based organizations do to help break the vicious circle of poverty and suffering? I would say a whole lot! The World Bank study "Voices of the Poor" documented that poor people find it difficult to relate to local government institutions. These institutions are often perceived as being remote, geographically and psychologically. The respondents in the study expressed a need for institutions that offer them respect, that treat them as human beings and listen to them. For these and other reasons the Church and faith-based organizations scored high among poor people.

This is a vote of confidence in the Church from the people hardest hit by poverty and HIV/AIDS. This should inspire and mobilize the Church to further intensify its efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Church and mission organizations will have to take more responsibility if we are to succeed in breaking the devastating spiral of despair. It is absolutely necessary that the Church take an active part in national and international strategies to combat the pandemic. Its human and material resources, infrastructure, outreach capacity, formidable influence and unparalleled credibility are assets that must be used to the full. Moreover, the Church has at its command a unique local and global network that is geared towards providing care, counselling and education. As Stephen Lewis, the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa, said: "Who else besides religious leaders is so well placed to lead? Who else has access to communities once a week, every week, across the continent?"

AIDS is a global crisis – not only an African crisis. In the countries worst hit, the epidemic is threatening the entire fabric of society. In order to be conscious of the scope of this crisis it is necessary to be reminded at regular intervals of the disastrous facts. Every minute, the HIV virus kills six people. This is more than 8000 people every day. Every 14 seconds, AIDS orphans a child. This epidemic is the most deadly since the Black Death, which killed one quarter of the population of Europe in the 14 ^th> century. In sub-Saharan Africa, which is where most of Norway’s development partners are, AIDS is undermining educational programmes, health systems, public administrations and agriculture. It is reversing decades of development gains. Unless the epidemic is halted, the hardest hit countries may have their GDP reduced by more than 20 per cent by 2020 because of AIDS.

The majority of the people killed by the virus are aged between 15 and 49. By killing people in the prime of life, AIDS leaves businesses without employees, schools without teachers and children without parents. Families lose their loved ones, children lose their parents and caregivers.

In certain urban areas in the worst affected countries, more than half of the pregnant women attending ante-natal clinics are HIV-positive. Of the 26 million infected adults in sub-Saharan Africa, women now make up 15 million – or 58 per cent. If we look at the figures for young people, aged between 15 and 24, 67 per cent of those infected by HIV are young women.

AIDS is a development catastrophe. But it is more than that. The pandemic has a bearing on all aspects of human life and all types of relationships. AIDS raises questions relating to values and ethics, sexuality and gender, rights and responsibilities, relationships and power structures. AIDS exposes our vulnerability.

A particularly disturbing feature is the exposed situation of young people. Young people die, households lose their breadwinners, families break up, and children lose their parents. Orphans and children with sick parents are less likely to attend school. Lack of education and the necessary life skills puts them at risk of contracting HIV.

As Christians we have a particular responsibility to help combat poverty and to protect poor and vulnerable people from suffering, disease and death. Not to speak up, not to act against injustice, is to fail our fellow human beings, and to fail Christ.

I see this as a marching order to us as Christians, a call for action to Christian communities all over the world. Can we hear the sound of marching boots?

Faith speaks to hearts and minds, thereby changing people’s attitudes and behaviour. Thus, the Church has a unique strategic asset in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Clearly, churches and religious communities recognize this. However, churches must admit that their reluctance to address issues of sex and sexuality has hampered sex education and HIV prevention. Certain interpretations of the Scriptures have contributed to stigmatization and exclusion of people with HIV/AIDS. This has undermined the effectiveness of care, education and prevention efforts and inflicted additional suffering on those already affected by HIV. Stigmatization is contrary to the teachings of the Gospel. The Gospel says that we all are created equal, that there is no difference between us. We all have the same human dignity. Look at Jesus. He included all those who were stigmatized and rejected all attempts at labelling people.

Church leaders must use the opportunity they have, through their influence in their communities, to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS. To fight against HIV/AIDS effectively, churches and religious leaders must spread preventive information. In order to take responsibility and protect themselves from the virus, people need knowledge about what HIV/AIDS is, how it infects them and how infection can be prevented. At the moment, however, this is not the case. On the basis of 60 national surveys, UNICEF has documented an alarming lack of knowledge among young people about AIDS, transmission, prevention and sexuality.

Silence on these issues kills thousands of people every single day. The fight against HIV/AIDS includes breaking down walls of silence and denial. Local religious leaders must use their moral authority to combat the stigmas and stereotypes associated with HIV and AIDS and bring about effective change. We have to break taboos and realize that we must be open and direct about sexuality and prevention. The combination of taboos, stigmatization and the HIV virus is a devastating killer. Myths about transmission, derogatory attitudes towards women and taboos that prevent sex education for children must all be fought. If not, these myths will result in AIDS infecting the next generation. We all have a stake in preventing this from happening. Thus, we have to be direct about issues that are normally not talked about in public. The time has come for the Church to be open about condoms and sexual behaviour. Ambivalence in this area has serious consequences. The price of silence and denial has become too high. It is killing millions and millions of people. The role of the Church and of every Christian is to help save lives, not by silence to contribute to the opposite.

HIV-positive people themselves are the best tool we have in the fight against HIV/AIDS-related stigmatization. When they come forward, communities are able to see that HIV-positive people are normal, just like you and me. But in order for them to come forward, a network of protection and care must surround these people; they must be made to feel secure and given the necessary support to break through the barriers of social stigmatization. The Church should be offered as a venue for support groups for people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. When churches work with heavily stigmatized groups, the signal effect is enormous. We need church leaders to speak out against discrimination and stigmatization, to welcome people living with HIV/AIDS into their congregations and use them actively as resource persons.

The Reverend Gideon Byamugisha from Uganda is a HIV-positive resource person as well as a church leader. This is how he has described the complex nature of the HIV/AIDS challenge. I quote:

"Aids isn’t just a disease. It is a symptom of something deeper which has gone wrong within the global family. It reveals our broken relationships, between individuals, communities and nations. It exposes how we treat and support each other, and where we are silent. It shows us flaws in the way we educate each other, and the way we look at each other as communities, races, nations, classes, sexes, and between age groups. Aids insists that it is time for us to sit down and address all the things we have been quiet about – sexuality, poverty, and the way we handle our relationships from the family level to the global level."

Here in Norway a few weeks ago, Reverend Byamugisha was awarded a prize by the Strømme Foundation for his outstanding contributions in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He has led by example and he has given the victims of HIV/AIDS a name and a face. Among his concrete initiatives is organizing children and young people in "Young Leopard Clubs" and "Post-test Clubs" to give them information on how to protect themselves against HIV infection. This concept has since been spread to hundreds of other parishes. His example should become the standard that all churches and church-based organizations should aspire to.

What Reverend Byamugisha has understood is that in order to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS we have to focus our efforts on young people. Targeting preventive efforts at young people has great potential. Information and counselling, especially to young people who are not yet sexually active, are indispensable elements of any strategy against AIDS. Education is the only approximation of a vaccine against HIV/AIDS, at least for the time being. All countries that have achieved a reduction in HIV infection rates have seen the largest reduction in the youngest age group. In Zambia, for example, young people have responded to prevention campaigns. In urban areas where prevention programmes have been offered to young people, adolescent infection rates have dropped by 50 per cent. This shows us that it is possible to combat the epidemic if concerted efforts are made. Lives are being saved, thousands of lives!

To understand and control HIV/AIDS, with its close links to sexual behaviour, we also have to have a clear grasp of the gender and power issues involved. A male UNICEF director put it this way: "Who takes decisions on sex, on where and when? The men! Everywhere, men use their power and this inequality is spreading AIDS. This has to be stopped."

Respect for the right to information, including information about sex, and respect for the right to reproductive health are essential if we are to empower women to protect themselves, reduce their vulnerability to infection, and reduce mother-to-child transmission of the disease. Religious leaders should speak clearly on issues that touch on the vulnerability of certain groups of people. They should confront and fight power structures that make women especially vulnerable, and that force people into situations where they have to sell sex in order to survive. The Church must speak out against situations that force infections on young teenage girls.

In Reverend Byamugisha’s home country Uganda the Church has in fact joined forces with the political leaders in leading the fight against HIV/AIDS. There is no reason why the Church should not take a leading role like this everywhere. There is no scientific evidence that campaigns promoting the use of condoms to save lives encourage a promiscuous lifestyle. On the contrary, studies show that prevention campaigns result in an increase in condom use, a rise in the age of sexual debut and a decline in casual sex. AIDS has changed our way of looking at health care and prevention. Condoms have other functions than birth control. The correct and consistent use of condoms effectively reduces the transmission of HIV in women and men, and therefore condoms should be regarded as a tool to protect people against a deadly disease. HIV is a matter of life and death. Condoms save lives. It is as simple as that.

Faced with the consequences of life and death, the Church has to reflect on its role and on the Gospel: "For I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not take me in, ... I was sick, and you did not visit me." And further: "In as much as you did not do this to one of the least of these my brothers, you did not to it to me."

Many churches have changed their attitude towards HIV/AIDS. The silence has been broken. They have also changed their attitude to the use of condoms. However, some are lagging dangerously behind. Some Catholic priests who have spoken about AIDS and provided information on how people in their congregation can protect themselves have been pressured to resign from their positions. The Catholic Church’s official view is creating lethal barriers that prevent people from using the most effective means to protect themselves. I believe that the official view of sexuality and condoms proclaimed by the Catholic Church is undermining the prevention campaigns of many governments in developing countries. Gunnar Stålsett, the Bishop of Oslo, has repeatedly criticized the Vatican for not recognizing that condoms are a life-saving tool and sanctioning their use. He has been commendably outspoken in arguing that, in the war against AIDS, churches and religious organizations must be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

In addition to the crucial work that has to be done within education and prevention, church-based organizations have a vital role in providing health care services to people. And they are doing an impressive job in many countries. From the smallest village to the largest city, religious organizations offer the largest social infrastructure for providing care and support, sharing information and mobilizing the community. Faith-based communities are already leading the way in responding to the devastating impact of the pandemic. Thousands of volunteers are daily providing support and compassion for the sick and dying. The Church is doing a tremendous job in taking care of AIDS patients in many places in the world. By entering sick people’s homes, caring for them and treating them with the dignity they are entitled to, volunteers help to reduce prejudice and stigmatization.

Fourteen million children have been orphaned as a result of AIDS. As the number of adults dying of AIDS rises over the next decade, increasing numbers of orphans will grow up without a parent’s love and care, deprived of their basic right to shelter, food, health and education. These children are being isolated from their communities because of the stigma attached to the illness and death of their parents.

I am glad to see that the Church and faith-based organizations are responding to this enormous challenge. For example, the World Conference on Religion and Peace has started the Hope for African Children Initiative together with other partners, including Norwegian Church Aid. The project is intended to encourage religious groups to care for children affected by HIV/AIDS, act as advocates for children’s rights and confront issues of discrimination and stigmatization. More than 80 per cent of Africans are active members of a religious community, and the World Conference on Religion and Peace has decided to make use of these organizations to help orphans and other children affected by AIDS in their own communities.

Conclusion

In our fight against poverty and HIV/AIDS, only a gigantic international mobilization will do. We have to create a global alliance involving state and non-state actors such as the Church and faith-based organizations and make maximum use of their combined assets. The test for the world community, as well as for ourselves as individuals and as Christians, is our actions, not our words. We have to practise what we preach. I would like to close with another quote, this time from St. John 3, verse 18: "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and truth."

We see the suffering. We have more resources than we need for our own survival. Now we have to put these resources to work for the poor and the suffering. And we have to break the silence, and speak out. We have to protect as many as possible from HIV, and this includes future generations. And we have to protect the dignity and rights of those already infected.

To do so we need words, not empty words, but words of truth and of compassion. And we need action, preventive action and care. Either is not enough. We need both. We have no time to lose. We must save the lives of our brothers and sisters, and in this way we will be true to the Gospel.