Everyone is our neighbour: eight core principles for international development
October 1999

This ccfwebsite.com briefing is based on a Listening to Britain's Churches report

Principles of development policy as first laid out in an October 1999 Listening to Britain's Churches report from the Conservative Christian Fellowship

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There is sometimes a tendency to regard international development policy as a separate policy enclave. Churches have correctly criticised the stark separation between the domestic and international policy arenas. The broad principles that have evolved to guide Conservative policy in Britain should also inform our international development policy. However, we need to acknowledge that the challenges in the developing world are far greater and the available resources are more scarce. And, crucially, we must also be respectful of cultural differences. The mistakes of excessive interventionism and cultural insensitivities that have sometimes marked our recent history should not be replayed in the developing world. In return, the emphasis on the extended family and the locality that is characterising development in many international projects offers us food for thought. It is important to debate international development with the same intellectual rigour, the same readiness to learn from experience that we apply when discussing domestic policies.

The eight broad principles proposed in this briefing will undoubtedly evolve as the Conservative Christian Fellowship continues to listen to the churches and as Britain works with, and learns from, our global neighbours. The vast challenges facing the developing world present enormous learning opportunities for the developed nations and this briefing seeks to identify some of these learning points. One of the most significant things to learn is the value of non-material or relational prosperity. The scientific method and our obsession with statistics cannot measure the benefits of settled, loving families and communities and tends to measure a nation's prosperity by focusing on monetary indicators and technological specifications. This is not true in many developing nations where they have a richness of family and community life that we are losing.

Eight Conservative principles for domestic and international policy

(1) Free social and economic enterprise

Individual men and women are best placed to assess their needs and to know how best to meet them. Made in the image of their Creator God - with all the implications of that for their capacity and willingness to develop something better for themselves and their loved ones - every individual human being must be respected and their scope for creative independence recognised.

The Bible teaches that every person is made in the image of God. The church's role in Britain or overseas is to acknowledge and draw out the potential and the worth in each individual it seeks to help. The church typically responds in a local way to local problems, with all the understanding, sensitivity and respect for people that this brings. Within a framework of law and order, Conservatives believe in trusting people with the tools and opportunities to live free and independent lives so that they might build a better future for themselves and their communities. Those countries - including Conservative Britain - with a free enterprise economy have done most to create jobs and prosperity. The policies that sustain an enterprise culture in Britain are relevant to developing nations too: access to health and education; low levels of tax; minimum government interference and regulation; a reliable transport system; and a legal system that protects intellectual and other private property rights. Free trade is also vitally important and western nations must open their markets to the exports of developing nations.

Too often enterprise is understood in exclusively economic terms. But the neighbour who runs exciting Sunday School classes or organises an annual holiday for local old folks is also an entrepreneur. In Britain there are examples where the state has eroded voluntary, community-based action. We must not allow heavy-handed and bloated state authorities to do the same in developing nations. They are in a position to avoid some of the mistakes we have made and to build civil societies that enjoy more independence and strength.

(2) Opportunities for everyone

Alongside policies that promote free enterprise within the economic and social sectors, nations must ensure that the poor are included in a nation's general progress. Policy must ensure that the needs of the poor and weak are prioritised. The following statistics from UNESCO illustrate the plight of children in the developing world:

1. Only three-quarters of children complete even four years of basic education.

2. 183 million children are moderately or seriously underweight.

3. 2 million children die every year from diseases that can be avoided by common vaccines.

4. Another 2 million children have been killed in armed conflicts in the last decade.

We need to be particularly aware of the poverty of women. The United Nations has correctly and vividly argued that poverty has a woman's face. Two-thirds of the world’s billion illiterate adults are indeed women. Ensuring access for women to good education and healthcare is a vital component of ensuring opportunities for all.

(3) Subsidiarity: the autonomy of families and other civic institutions to order their own affairs and form right relationships

The family is still a vital source of learning, welfare and stability in Britain. The extended family (often intimately connected to the local community) is often much stronger in developing nations. We must respect the integrity of families and their chosen priorities. Whilst the liberty of individual members is important we must be careful not to incorporate the worst kinds of western individualist thinking within our relations with developing countries and so allow western policy to introduce alien values into settled moral orders. The principle of subsidiarity is strongly connected with the idea of 'shalom' as described by Tearfund, the Christian relief and development charity, below:

The Hebrew word shalom (often translated 'peace' or 'wholeness') portrays a healthy community characterised by security and sufficiency. In shalom people have the resources to make their own decisions about their own lives, such as the size of their family or the spacing of their children. Tearfund sees its own work as enabling people to live in shalom, which includes a restoration of people to God as well as to each other and to the land.

One example of this approach is epitomised in an Aids project in Uganda, funded by Tearfund. The project offers people counselling, healthcare and also prayerful support. Instead of just minimising the risk of Aids by giving contraceptive advice, the workers also minister to people in a way that combats the sense of loneliness and insecurity that leads people to a life of promiscuity and greater risk of infection.

(4) Religious and cultural liberty

Although Britain is a predominantly Christian country we respect the many minority religions within our shores. The minority religions often defend the establishment model in Britain against liberals' arguments for a secular state. In formulating development policies we must respect and work with the partner cultures and religions - carefully avoiding offence to deeply-held beliefs. This also has profound implications for the nature of missionary work. Missionary organisations now tend to be much more sensitive and, for example, support local Christian witness rather than 'parachute in' culturally-insensitive evangelists. Most UK-based Christian missionary organisations will also testify to the enrichment they have received from working alongside Christian groups in and from developing nations and the new insights that have resulted. Ron Sider, in Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger argues that Christians should never be so preoccupied with social injustices etc that they neglect the importance of evangelism:

Evangelism is central to social change. Nothing so transforms the self-identity, self-worth, and initiative of a poor, oppressed person as a personal, living relationship with God in Christ. Discovering that the Creator of the world lives in each of them gives new worth and energy to people psychologically crippled by centuries of oppression.

There are many countries in the world where religious liberty is not respected. Britain cannot afford to be indifferent to the suffering and persecution of faith minorities in any nation. The work of charities such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide deserves commendation in this regard.

At the last General Election the Conservative proposed the following:

We will appoint an Envoy for Religious Freedom to investigate reports of religious persecution. In co- operation with British Embassies this Envoy will inform relevant Government departments about abuses around the world. This Envoy would be advised by a council made up of representatives of all Britain's faith communities.

Conservative aid policy will be informed by the Envoy's recommendations.

Members of the Immigration Service will receive training in the implications of changing one's religious beliefs in many countries.

A Conservative Government will promote religious freedom in international fora.

Under the Conservatives the Foreign and Commonwealth Office would be in a position to provide legal and technical assistance for governments that are preparing legislation dealing with 'religious registration' - to ensure compliance with internationally agreed standards of religious freedom.

(5) The need for sustainable, organic development

At the Rio Earth Summit the then Conservative government signed up to the principles of sustainable development. The concept is associated with ecological concerns and we must always be aware that we are stewards of Creation for God and future generations. We are not freeholders to do as we please. But the concept of sustainable growth has sociological implications, too. A developing country needs not only a strong, limited government and a strong, free economy but also a wealth of intermediary institutions. These can moderate possible excesses of the political and economic systems as they occur over time. A strong civil society cannot be easily engineered and its strength often lies in its very independence and organic development. What its key components (such as family and community life; centres of worship; and an independent press) need, however, is to be free of meddling but, sometimes, they may require carefully constructed incentive structures. The abolished Married Couples Allowance and incentives to save and give charitably have been examples of this within our own country.

All over the developing world the church sets an example in engaging with the decision making process and acting as a voice for the voiceless. A strong civil society is a prerequisite for accountable governance and equitable and sustainable development.

(6) Britain should play to its natural strengths

A future Conservative Government should focus upon helping developing countries to help themselves. Developing nations must be helped to become strong enough to choose their own paths and this can often be achieved by a sharing of expertise. To this end we must promote Britain's expertise in key areas. The speed of delivery of technical assistance to Central and Eastern Europe by the Know-How Fund is widely celebrated and contrasted favourably with the EU’s PHARE and TACIS initiatives. The Know-How Fund has contributed significantly to the regions' transitions through concentration on areas of traditional British excellence - particularly through technical assistance in the areas of enterprise, retailing, financial services, education and good, professional governance.

Limiting government involvement and the reduction of bureaucracy have always been one of the major strengths of Conservative policy. The benefits of this form of government must be shared with our neighbours in developing countries.

(7) Avoiding 'panacea policies' and fashions in development policy

For far too long there has been a "big idea" of the moment, and efforts have been dominated by whatever philosophy is en vogue. The current theme of the Department for International Development (DFID) is the rights-based approach to poverty elimination. The challenge for each DFID department is to approach policies and priorities within this framework, on the premise that poverty is a denial of human rights. It, of course, follows that within a rights-based approach anyone who is denied these rights has a claim for these rights to be recognised. Whilst there is some usefulness in a language of rights the prospect of real benefits is unclear. Are there answers to the questions of who guarantees these rights? How can these rights be enforced? Does the responsibility lie with national governments, the international community, civil society or the individual?

The rights-based approach does not help us in answering the fundamental questions about how well we can make sure people have enough food in their mouths, sufficient shelter, and basic healthcare to guard against preventable diseases etc. Population control, debt relief and aid expenditure targets are frequently advocated as landmark solutions. Just as there is not one golden policy to deal with the challenges facing Britain so there is no simple solution to the challenges facing developing nations.

In raising the issue of coherence Oxfam has signalled another important way of eliminating the impact of fashions on development: "The single most important issue from our perspective [is] coherence - moving beyond an 'aid-only' agenda to establish a consistent approach to policy on developing countries from all relevant government departments including the FCO, DTI, Treasury and DETR." Our greatest concern should be the inadequacy of coordination, monitoring, complimentarity, accountability and guidance for the sometimes muddled composition of players - not just in Britain but globally. James Wolfensohn, the President of the World Bank, has recently produced a discussion paper which suggests a way of developing a Comprehensive Development Framework. The proposal seeks to examine the pattern for each developing country of the different initiatives, organisations and objectives in place, so that information can be shared and progress can be measured and coordinated.

(8) Securing peace and reconciliation

Economic development needs a framework of social and political stability if it is to take root and grow. In too many situations economic development is undermined, and sometimes destroyed, through conflict and war. An end to the fighting does not bring an end to the bitterness and hatred which can persist from one generation to the next. Peacemaking involves the healing of this bitterness and hatred. Contemporary examples of this include Rwanda and the Balkans. Churches played a leading role in the reconciliation process still ongoing in South Africa.

How can the poison of mistrust, suspicion and hatred be removed from a situation where the legacy of conflict inhibits full development? Is there a way in which people bitterly divided by the past can be reconciled and can co-operate together again?

One particularly exciting initiative is CHIPS - the Christian International Peace Service. The antagonism between the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus in 1964 triggered CHIPS' formation. The mission of CHIPS is to work for peace and reconciliation in areas of conflict and tension. Small teams of Christians, including where possible, members from both sides of a conflict (and from abroad) live together in the area of tension.

The teams absorb the enmity from both sides and serve the communities both practically (eg through water development, agricultural development, road rehabilitation, veterinary services etc) and spiritually. Reconciliation is promoted through:

- living together, which demonstrates the possibility of peace;
- working together with both sides to remove the poverty caused by conflict;
- absorbing mistrust, suspicion and hate and replacing them with practical love.

CHIPS, partly financed by DFID, is currently working in NE Uganda to reconcile the tribes of the Karamojong and Iteso and, in addition to work in Cyprus, has undertaken projects in the Philippines. In Britain work has been done in inner-city London with the West Indian community.