for
more information, contact:
Programme
executive for Africa
tel.: +41 22 7916111/6215
fax: +41 22 788 0067
email: Contact
Yirol, South Sudan July 8, 2002. During a four-hour visit to Yirol, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser was welcomed by more than 1000 people from Yirol and nearby villages. |
The
WCC Africa Desk links the council to its constituencies in Africa:
89 member churches, over 30 national
councils of churches, three regional fellowships, the All
Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), other regional ecumenical
expressions, and the many Africa desks of common ecumenical and
specialized diaconal ministries worldwide.
The
desk seeks to strengthen its primary constituency through capacity-building,
analysis and reflection. Through the Africa
Regional group (co-convened with the AACC), the desk seeks
to discern and prioritize the needs of the region and suggest
the best ways to address them. Our programmes and activities are
based on and emerge from regional realities.
“For Africa, our stakes are highest in this Summit because our sustainability issues are much more acute than in other regions of the world. Africa remains the poorest continent, with a per capita income of only US$ 300. Four out of every 10 Africans live in extreme poverty on less than US $1 per day. A total of 300 million people live in extreme poverty today, compared to 200 million 14 years ago.
On the social front, only half of Africa’s countries are on track to have universal basic education by 2015, and a handful will achieve gender balance in primary and secondary schools. Only one African Country will reduce infant mortality by two-thirds. Needless to say, the HIV/AIDS scourge is making things considerably worse”.
K. Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, at a plenary session on Regional Integration at the World Summit in Sustainable Development, 29 August, 2002. |
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Action by Churches Together (ACT) International and Caritas Internationalis have joined forces to respond to the ongoing humanitarian emergency in Sudan's Darfur Province. This joint, ecumenical response is known as the ACT/Caritas Darfur Emergency Response (ACDER) |
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