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Southern Africa Trip Report December 11th, 2012
Mary O’Herron, a long-time staff member of the JPIC Office, recently traveled to South Africa with her family. She wrote up some reflections on her time visiting Oblates in Durban. Read her trip report (Download PDF)
UN Update: Fall 2012 November 18th, 2012
POST-2015 AGENDA: THE WORLD WE WANT
In 2000 the United Nations agreed on eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to address the needs of the worlds poorest by 2015. While efforts to achieve the original MDGs continue, the UN has launched a global conversation to determine steps after 2015. An Inter-Governmental Working Group is preparing Sustainable Development Goals, and a High Level Panel of twenty-six members of government, civil society and the private sector is working on a Post-2015 Development Agenda. Beyond2015, a coalition of 400+ organizations, is also addressing this issue. UN Agencies are leading nine thematic consultations and more than fifty national discussions. Countries participating in consultations include Brazil, Peru, Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa; plans are in place to add more countries to the list. For an overview of the entire Post-2015 process, go to www.beyond2015.org (in English, French, and Spanish).
There is a good opportunity for participation in a collaborative effort between the United Nations and civil society: The World We Want Campaign invites people around the world to share their visions for the post-2015 world. Materials are accessible in multiple languages.
Go to www.worldwewant2015.org/ and click on your language.
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TAKING THE CONFLICT OUT OF CONFLICT MINERALS: HOPE FOR CONGO
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2012 Fall/Winter JPIC Report Available November 8th, 2012
The Fall/Winter Issue of our bi-annual print newsletter is now available on-line. (Download the PDF)
This issue includes articles on Faith Consistent Investing, social justice education in Sri Lanka, campaigns against torture and the effort to ban conflict minerals, Oblate work in the Peruvian Amazon, faith-based principles for US immigration reform, JPIC network updates, the impact of climate change on the poor, the state of faith-based community organizing and the bountiful Oblate garden in Washington, DC.
We hope you enjoy this issue, and would welcome your feedback on the newsletter. Comments can be left below.
Interfaith Investors to Score Banks November 6th, 2012
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, an influential investor coalition, will issue scorecards for the seven largest US banks next year, based on factors such as risk management and executive compensation.
The coalition has been influential in the field of corporate governance, pushing on issues such as “say on pay”, an advisory shareholder vote on executive compensation, which was included in the Dodd-Frank financial reform act.
ICCR has sent questionnaires to the seven largest US banks: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. Sustainalytics, a provider of environmental social governance research, is partnering on the research.
Reverend Séamus Finn of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate said in the organisation’s annual report: “What is frustrating for many of us is the knowledge that the vast majority of these problems can be avoided by adopting the appropriate risk management safeguards and the requisite checks and balances. With each new scandal we think ‘maybe this time they will get it’, and then we open the morning paper to see that we still have work to do.”
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Oblate Helps Develop Young Citizens in Texas November 3rd, 2012
Kids Voting USA-Brownsville mock-election results are in, reflecting a 65.5% voter turnout. Father Armand Matthew, OMI helped found the organization and is still involved at age 90. He said, noting the high turnout, “Studies show that when young people go through Kids Voting, the adults in their life become more informed and more people are voting,” Matthew said. “Based on the evidence, we have a real hope in Brownsville of seeing 50, 60, 70 — even 90 percent — of adults turning out to vote, and of students leaving high school with a deep sense of responsible citizenship.”
Responding to two questions included on the ballot, eighty-one percent of the student voters said they had researched their choices by studying the student voter guide created by Kids Voting USA-Brownsville, and just under 92 percent said the experience of having voted via Kids Voting would motivate them to vote in the future.
