Short chides Church on debt relief

CLARE SHORT gave the Anglican Church a stern lesson in economics yesterday, criticising its campaign for the cancellation of Third World debt by 2000 as simplistic, and urging it to rethink its strategy. Poverty is "not all the fault of evil Western bankers", she said.

In an uncompromising speech to the General Synod, the Secretary of State for International Development warned that churches should not see debt relief as the "magic bullet" to end all poverty. Debt relief should go to only those countries that are committed to the eradication of poverty - not to those which would simply spend more money on arms, palaces or corruption, she said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, has made the campaign for the cancellations of Third World debt before the millennium - coordinated by the charity Jubilee 2000 - one of his main focuses. The Jubilee 2000 group, which organised a mass lobby of the G8 summit in Birmingham this summer, also insists Britain should take unilateral action on the issue.

However, Ms Short made plain she "profoundly disagrees" with Jubilee 2000's campaign for "unconditional" debt relief. She told members of the synod: "We are the first generation of human beings that has the capacity to eliminate extreme poverty from the human condition."

She welcomed the work done in campaigning for debt relief and in providing aid, but she also stressed the role the church had to play in both raising awareness of poverty in Britain and building opposition to the "corrupt dictators, weak and craven governments" holding back people in developing nations.

Ms Short added: "We need a moral economics that is truthful, and practical economics. Debt relief should not go to all poor countries; it should support those committed to poverty eradication. It should not be unconditional and it is not better if it is unilateral... some very poor countries are not heavily indebted because they struggled to pay their debts. If debt relief is our only answer, they get no help... the campaign on debt is very fine, but if it ends up propagating simplistic and misleading solutions, it will not help eliminate poverty."

Ms Short said that poverty was "the biggest moral issue" in the world today. The Government is committed to the target of halving the proportion of people living in abject poverty by 2015. There are 1.3 billion people living in absolute poverty throughout the world.

Ms Short announced a pounds 25,000 grant to help support the dialogue set up by Dr Carey between world faiths and the World Bank.

"The churches have a moral mission outside politics," she said. "They are often more trusted than politicians, especially in areas of conflict."