Ending poverty through justice

Justice and peace worker Mulima Akapelwa from Zambia [CAFOD]

Mulima Akapelwa of the Catholic Centre for Justice, Development and Peace campaigns tirelessly to ensure the Zambian government is properly held to account for their actions

She runs the Justice and Peace Department, part of the Catholic Bishops Conference, but previously she worked in the Economic Justice department for more than eight years.

“We focused on economic policy - how the national budget is decided, whether it is responsive to the needs of the poor; how debt and trade issues affect people in our countries,” Mulima explains.

“I would read up on government policies and go to meetings, write up and analyse what it meant for people on the ground, for people in the rural or urban areas who are poor and what it meant for us as a church organisation – what should we be saying.

"I would design training programmes to help people fight wrongs whether these took place within a community or in government offices.”

Promoting justice

In the Justice and Peace Department cultural issues are also important. “We look at cultural issues, for example the structures in society that impede or help to promote justice.

"We deal with legal issues – for example, if someone dies without making a will, what is the law, do people know the law… to prevent unjust treatment of widows, widowers or orphans.

"We really need to spread our understanding of Catholic Social Teaching and the need to promote justice.”

The centre also has a parliamentary liaison department, which explores the Zambian parliament’s relationship with ordinary men and women in communities.

“We’ve seen that once parliamentarians are elected they run off and forget about their electorate” says Mulima “so we want to bridge that gap, to help people exercise their rights and be heard by their representatives. We want to build accountability.”

“Our programmes try to educate people to know and exercise their rights as citizens, as people of God, as Christians, also to exercise their faith to create better relationships to hold government officials accountable and to end injustices in our communities.”

Now for the Justice and Peace Department she makes sure that staff are managing projects and using resources effectively.

“I also look to see if we are putting our message across as a Christian or Catholic organisation, whether that is coming through in the contributions that we are making to society,” she adds.

Success with the debt campaign

She is proud of what they’ve managed to achieve nationally and at the international level related to the debt campaign.

“Working with international organisations such as CAFOD or international networks such as Jubilee, we have managed to really make the debt issue important. We have contributed to giving it more attention and action from the world’s rich countries,” she says.

She remembers participating in the 1998 G8 human chain in Birmingham. She also believes there has been progress in Zambia itself.

“We’ve managed to make our government listen to what we are saying in Zambia,” she says.

“When we first started analysing our country’s budget, how they planned to spend the money and at the end of the year looking at what they had actually done, we were told we were just a church organisation that knew nothing about economics. We got quite talked down in the media by government officials.

“But now I get so many letters from government officials asking me to comment on this or that or help organise a meeting.

"Our work has become really recognised. The government acknowledges that we have been very persistent and actually have helped them to question and plan things better.

“As a woman, a mother, a professional and a Catholic all rolled into one, there are quite a number of challenges with such a demanding job.

"During the training I had to go to different parts of the country as well as being involved at international level with various issues. At the same time I had to be with my family.

“In our culture in Africa the younger you are, the easier it is for people to dismiss what you are saying. So when I was working in the Justice and Peace programme I was only 25 but by my nature I’m a bit lively.

"Sometimes it took quite a bit for government officials to take note of what we were saying and sometimes they would just dismiss you, but I persevered.

“But now it’s different. It takes time to stand your ground and not be discouraged.

Bridging the gaps

“So another challenge was having good links between the everyday issues on the ground and the high level policy decisions we could make and making it relevant to both.

“When we’re making radio programmes for rural communities or with justice and peace members we must make it relevant to both. Then you don’t leave those with more understanding thinking what you are saying is uninformed, but also ordinary men and women do not think you were too academic. It is bridging the relationships so that both sides gain something.

“Sometimes you have to make a conscious effort even in the language you use to be ordinary to be everyday. It’s an ongoing challenge that has to be faced.

"CAFOD has had a relationship with the Zambian conference supporting some of the work especially the development projects such as the Structural Adjustment monitoring project, looking at the effects of structural adjustment.

"CAFOD wanted to work in developing countries where the policies of the IMF and World Bank were being implemented and to see how that affected people so that people could contribute.

“When I left university of Zambian Lusaka and was looking for a job, the first job I got was working in an urban settlement – a former squatter settlement, overcrowded and with inadequate water provision.

"It was just a job but over time you see that people just should not live like that. It’s a matter of basic human principles, which you could say in my case are also basic Christian principles that things could be better.

"Things should not continue being the way they are with huge numbers of people suffering whilst others are just enjoying themselves and are not bothered.”

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