Building a fairer world to show poverty the door

After a ‘tumultuous’ past year in politics both here and abroad, what is our place in a globalising world? asks Kathryn Llewellyn

THE political events of the past 12 months can fairly be described as “tumultuous”, with unexpected results in the EU referendum, the US presidential election and the recent snap general election causing worldwide shock.

So profoundly surprising has the last year been that even the veteran BBC foreign correspondent John Simpson described it as “the worst of my lifetime”.

What is at the centre of so many of these events and what underlies them is the big question; what is our place in a globalising world?

The combined forces of technology and globalisation are rapidly making our world a much smaller place, and for those of us who work in international development this poses profound challenges.

All those obscure issues that we’ve been campaigning about for years are now at the centre of the political storms that have overtaken our societies.

Our politicians are grappling with a series of serious and diverse global concerns including migration, climate change, international trade and extremism and terrorism.

And yet there has been more progress in the past 15 years in reducing poverty than at any time in human history.

The opportunities for us to make further progress in ridding the world of the scourge of preventable hunger and poverty have never been greater.

At the same time the challenges involved in making that case in a turbulent and divided nation that risks turning inwards have never been greater.

That’s why I think our cause to engage and build a globally interlinked world – but one that is fair and nurtures the planet – has never been greater

But this requires us in the world of international development to challenge ourselves, to take seriously the underlying issues that allow the antiinternationalists to gain traction and to come out fighting – now more than ever.

At United Purpose, we have been fighting to help eradicate global poverty and inequality for more than 40 years. During that time our activities have had fundamental life-changing impacts, benefiting more than 35 million people across 13 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

We do this by challenging the dependency culture, providing practical local implementation of the sustainable development goals and placing communities in the leadership of innovative solutions.

By enabling people to improve their lives for the longer term, one day we hope to see a world where justice, dignity and respect prevail for all.

We at United Purpose have three pillars to our approach:

Staying focused on how we empower communities by helping them get access to the finance, organisation, legal rights, knowledge and technology they need to help them even things up;

honestly acknowledging that the world is changing and that we in international development need to harness fresh thinking and innovative approaches for the same core mission of tackling poverty and inequality in a changing context;

staying relentlessly focused on how our contributions can have the maximum life-changing impact with the precious resources our donors entrust to us.

We believe we can’t possibly achieve this alone; creative partnerships are the key to achieving our goals and making a real impact

That’s why we are so excited about our new home in Cardiff, and so thankful for the warm Welsh welcome we have had not only from the international development community, but from the Welsh Government, local authorities, businesses, funders, the voluntary sector and many others.

We are already involved in discussions about all sorts of exciting ideas for new partnerships and collaborations and we look forward to working further on developing these.

Wales has a long tradition of internationalism and global engagement and we know there are many people here who are as passionate as us about building a fairer, more prosperous and sustainable world, whatever political challenges may get in the way.

Kathryn Llewellyn is chief executive of United Purpose, an international development charity based in Cardiff.