Faith in Development: Partnership Between the World Bank and the Churches of Africa

Rating:
Summary: Conference Papers: Alleviating Poverty in Africa
Review: This extraordinary conference in Nairobi in March 2000 on "Alleviating Poverty in Africa" was sponsored by the World Bank and the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa and covered a wide range of critical issues facing African nations today. It was the first followup on discussions between the Anglican Church and the World Bank at the 1998 Lambeth Conference. It should be read by anyone interested in Africa's problems and approaches to helping Africans help themselves.

In addition to introductions by James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank and George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, there are excellent review papers on the overall situation in Africa, and a summary, including some excerpts, of the World Bank's exhaustive survey "Voices of the Poor." Other topics include Conflict Prevention, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Corruption, Gender Inequity, Women's Issues in Health and Education, AIDS, Roles of Public and Private Sectors, Microcredit and Microfinance, the Role of the Christian Faith in Development, the Role of the Church in Poverty Alleviation, and my own paper, "Creating a Climate for Private Sector Investment."

As one who attended most of the sessions, I found this book provides a fascinating glimpse into the spiritual dimensions of poverty. A majority of the authors are African. For that reason, the book provides refreshingly different insights from those often found in publications published in Washington, DC.

This is a useful book for anyone who wants to learn more about the problems in Africa as well as those who are more expert and already involved in trying to help to solve some of those problems. At 243 pages, it is very readable and easy to take along for airplane reading.