WHY CHANGE POLICY

Consider the following issues that are just a few of our policy concerns:

• Forced Migration Issues and Rule of Law
• Environmental Issues and Sustainability of Life
• Financial Uplifting and Underpinning of Safe and Productive Societies
• The Needs of Women and Children

Forced Migration Issues and Rule of Law

The need for humanitarian programs regarding the issues of forced migration, refugees and immigrants has escalated to the greatest degree since the 1800’s. War, lack of food, abuse of natural resources, trafficking in women and children for the sex trade and increasing abuse and torture from religious, cultural and tribal conflicts has taxed the present aid and assistance groups to their limit. There seems to be no end in sight regarding the need for assistance in alleviating these dire circumstances. While societies must constantly strive to meet these immediate needs of relief it is apparent that solutions to stem the growing tide of human suffering must be met through policy change. Current governmental policies have failed to provide for a stable humane society that is underpinned by the Rule of Law in all nations and especially in developing nations and war torn areas.

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Environmental Issues and Sustainability of Life

The desertification of our planet is moving at a greater rate than ever before. Climate changes due to global warming, degradation of the ozone layer, pollution of our waters, pollution of our air and the need to provide a safe food supply, all point to the failed policies of industrial nations as well as developing countries. Current policy has failed to provide a sustainable and healthy way of life for all humanity. Sustainable development goes far beyond just “green building” or “organic farming”. Sustainable Global Development must be considered in light of creating sustainable housing that is gentle and conducive to the development of compatible social exchange, adaptive development in relation to area cultures, use of the biomass to provide energy, control and encouragement of environmentally sound industries, technology transfer and policy that protects the global natural resources. Policy that encourages individuals, industry, business and governments to “become one with the earth” must be developed and encouraged.

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Financial Uplifting and Underpinning of Safe and Productive Societies

The unequal distribution of wealth has created a cult of envy, jealousy and hate that has become a catalyst for terrorism. The lack of adequate income leading to the destruction of the family has led to war. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and various U.S. Government grant programs or International Development Agencies have not led to an end of global poverty or sustainable development. Indeed, we are nowhere near that goal. Despite the World Bank’s formulation of Millennium Development Goals, critics feel the achievement of those goals is highly questionable.

As well intended as direct financial assistance from developed nations has been, in many cases the results have been disappointing. In some cases unreasonable conditions attached to this financial assistance has caused the programs to fail. Poor policy regarding financial assistance has contributed to instability in the long term development of natural resources, imbalance in the exchange of goods and services and has led to trade barriers and trade wars, thereby creating a climate of despair for these developing countries. “Tied” financial assistance has not achieved the long-term development of stable international societies. In short, a host of specific financial assistance policy factors warrant greater examination.

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The Needs of Women and Children

The most vulnerable people who are either helped or hurt by global policy changes are women and children in the developing nations. Among the children of the world with ages of less than five years, more than 11 million a year and 30,000 a day die of preventable causes, principally from five treatable diseases, injuries, hunger, and degraded environments. Millions more women and older children die daily from the same causes.

Today, 125 million school-age children are not receiving any form of the most basic education. In many developing countries, the illiteracy rate among women and girls is more than 70% of the female population. Health care, including access to knowledge, medicines and medical supplies as well as medical facilities and personnel, though readily available in the developed nations, is either unaffordable or inaccessible for other policy reasons.

The United Nation’s Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria says that last year six million lives, the vast majority of them women and children under five, could have been saved from these three epidemic scourges if provided with adequate dedication of resources and the political commitment to change policies that stand in the way of this global effort. It’s a similar story in every category of humanitarian need related to women and children, including education, health care, food security, clean water, air, and sanitation as well as protection of fundamental human rights and welfare.

As the world moves from 6.2 billion people to 9-12 billion by year 2050, with more than 97% of that growth in these same developing nations, policy-makers must consider these needs of women and children in crafting a life sustainable future. Otherwise, this “silent holocaust” now suffered each year will grow grotesquely, and swamp governments and societies in all nations of the world.

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