Humanity Care--UPGs and SDGs 23

 

Global Integration Updates  Special News--January 2023 Issue 79 View this email in your browser

Global Integration Updates Common Ground for the Common Good  Be the people we need--Build the world we need Special News--January 2023 Resisting Despair and Disillusion Will it get worse before it gets worse? Image courtesy and © Ken Shepherd 2022--Virginia USA snowscape   “I welcome this opportunity to gather one last time before the end of the year – and I wish you and your families all the best for 2023. Our world faced many trials and tests in 2022 – some familiar, others we might not have imagined just one year ago. There may be plenty of reasons for despair....These and so many other challenges make some want to throw up their hands and give up on international problem solving and diplomacy. But I end this year with one overriding conviction: This is not a time to sit on the sidelines, it is a time for resolve, determination, and – yes – even hope. Because despite the limitations and long odds, we are working to push back against despair, to fight back against disillusion and to find real solutions. Not perfect solutions – not even always pretty solutions – but practical solutions that are making a meaningful difference to people’s lives.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Remarks at End-of-Year Press Conference, 19 December 2022 --------- Overview In this Update (Issue 79) we focus on progress and setbacks in the efforts to realize wellbeing for all people and the planet. Specifically, we present a sample of short reports and/or stories from 2022 (articles, podcasts, videos) from three civil society organizations: the International Red Cross Movement, The New Humanitarian, and Human Rights Watch. Collectively this material represents just some of the main issues facing our world and showcases why these issues matter for 2023. Underlying the content of this Update are two questions--two messages--to consider: 1 Given the major problems in our world, how do you maintain your sense of optimism and hope for the future of our world?  How are you "resisting despair and disillusion?" 2 Given the major problems in our world, in what sense is it accurate--and helpful--to consider that things overall may not get better? "Will it get worse before it gets worse?" We share the above items with a view towards the upcoming major meetings and reviews in 2023 of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This new year marks the midpoint of the world community's aspirational roadmap, Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. You will recall that the 2030 Agenda was adopted by world leaders and member states in September 2015 and organized broadly around five overlapping areas: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership. We finish the Update, as we often do, with a few personal reflections related to the theme. This time we share a few thoughts on revisiting depair and disillusion as people of faith-hope-love. Suggested Applications--Making It Personal We so want good news in 2023--lots of it!  And we will certainly have good news.  Amidst the mire of suffering and injustice, people continue to tenaciously work together locally through globally to make this world a better place. As Martin Luther King Jr. asserts, "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” (Martin Luther King Jr. Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964). With these thoughts in mind: Review the materials in this Update in the context of its overall theme of maintaining hope for a better future. Do you have any reactions that might reflect your own sense of the future?   Probe further into a few of the items that interest you, including the upcoming resources and events related to progress on the SDGs. Are there any SDGs that you are particularly interested in tracking?   Share this Update with your colleagues, organization(s), and networks. Discuss it together and consider practical applications--for both your work and life. Going further--see these Global Integration Updates: --Perils, Paralysis, Hope: Sustainable Development-Sustainable Destruction? (Oct. 2022) --Climate-Conflict-Corruption: Safeguarding People and the Planet (July 2021) --Wellbeing for Who? Global Reports from Seven Sectors (Feb. 2020)   Warm greetings, Kelly and Michèle       MCAresources@gmail.com Featured Resources Resisting Despair and Disillusion Will it get worse before it gets worse? Image courtesy and © Ron Williams 2022--Texas USA rail line “I am more determined than ever to make 2023 a year for peace, a year for action. We can’t accept things as they are. We owe it to people to find solutions, to fight back and to act. At times, discreetly but always with determination – we will fight back. To promote peace and security. To advance the Sustainable Development Goals and address inequalities. To reform a morally bankrupt international financial system. To ensure human rights for all as we mark next year’s 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And to deliver a livable planet to our children and grandchildren. Thank you.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Remarks at End-of-Year Press Conference, 19 December 2022 ---------- 1. A Selection of Materials--International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement  "2022: A Year of Challenges...and Inspiring Stories" “2022 has been a heavy year for humanitarians. Conflict, mass movements of people, natural disasters of all types, many of which do not get international attention. Meanwhile, many people face personal crises and challenges that may only be known to their close friends, family or local community....These are our special picks in this special end-of year newsletter.” --Faces of Yemen: Our lives beyond conflict --Kyrgyzstan--Quiet crises, quiet heroes --Bangladesh: Rising above --Unanswered Questions about mental health, climate change, and disasters --Angola-Namibia: ‘Because of hunger I am here’ --‘What made me try to cross this sea? I must be crazy’ --To trust or not to trust 2. A Selection of Materials--The New Humanitarian "Editors’ Picks: Read These Stories Now to be Ready for 2023" “While you may have a bit of end-of-year time on your hands, here are a few stories our editors would hate for you to have missed, along with their thoughts on why they will still matter in 2023. They include a Dalit journalist’s look at caste discrimination in Indian disaster response, an illustrated diary that explores how life changed in villages around Kyiv as Russian tanks rolled in, and a profile of a farmer in Mali whose peacebuilding efforts with jihadist extremists led to some unlikely victories for his community.”  --Reporting on Yemen's war whilst living through it --Aid sector: Tiny steps, not big reforms --India: Caste discrimination in aid  --A Syrian refugee reflects on EU asylum double standards --Life on the front line of Russia’s invasion --Easing violence in West Africa’s Sahe--South Sudan: When peace triggers war --Lebanon’s collapse, behind and beyond the headlines Also from The New Humanitarian: What’s on our aid policy radar in 2023--The issues and dilemmas shaping humanitarian policy over the next 12 months and beyond (article, 4 January 2023) 3. A Selection of Materials--Human Rights Watch "Top Human Rights News of 2022--The Most-Read Stories of the Year" “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 dominated headlines this year as horrific attacks harmed civilians around the country. We worked to tell the stories of people on the ground, including those trapped in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, and document potential laws-of-war violations. But throughout the year, we covered many topics from around the world. From the Taliban’s ongoing assault on women’s rights in Afghanistan, to abuses against LGBT people in Qatar ahead of the World Cup, to a rollback of abortion rights in the United States, these were the most-read stories on our site this year." (see link above for the stories) Top Human Rights Videos for 2022 “What were your favorite human rights videos of 2022? Millions of you watched our reels on topics...We counted the views on social media and YouTube, and below are our top ten videos of the year–with the number one video, hitting on a story we bet you know, garnering nearly 4 million views.” Ten Good News Stories for Kids in 2022 “Despite enormous challenges facing many children around the globe, 2022 also brought good news. As we approach the end of the year, here are 10 areas of progress for children we can celebrate...These areas of progress show what is possible. In 2023, governments should do much more to protect and advance children’s rights.  Note from Kelly and Michèle—We appreciate very much the work of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in general. However we do take issue with a few of the perspectives presented by HRW in the materials above. A main case in point is that we affirm the importance of protecting the rights of both women (pregnant or not) and children (prenatal or postnatal). Some Details of What's Coming in 2023 Tracking Our Success, Setbacks, and Strategies for Sustainable Development Header image from the GSDR 2023 website 1. Global Sustainable Development Report 2023. “The 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report will be launched as the world approaches the half-way point of the 2030 Agenda and struggles to rebuild in the aftermath (or in the midst) of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, practical solutions that can accelerate progress on the SDGs will be urgently needed. The 2023 Report will build on the 2019 Report providing evidence that can help decision-makers to accelerate action and overcome impediments that stand in the way of progress on sustainable development. The focus will be on accelerating transformation through important entry points and enabling science to support this acceleration." 2. High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Council (10-19 July 2023, UN New York). "The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), through its outcome on "The Future We Want", established the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in 2012. The HLPF is the central United Nations platform for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global level. It is the apex of the architecture for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda established by the 2030 Agenda and General Assembly resolution 70/299." 3. High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development under the auspices of the General Assembly–SDG Summit (September 2023, UN New York). "The SDG Summit marks the mid-point of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. It will bring together political and thought leaders from governments, international organizations, private sector, civil society, women and youth and other stakeholders in a series of high-level meetings. They will carry out a comprehensive review of the state of the SDGs, respond to the impact of multiple and interlocking crises facing the world, and provide high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions leading up to the 2030 deadline for achieving the SDGs. The SDG Summit will be chaired by the President of the General Assembly. The outcome of the Summit will be a negotiated political declaration." 4. See also: SDG Indicators--Metadata Repository (UN ECOSOC). “The metadata available in this repository is a work in progress. It reflects the latest reference metadata information provided by the UN System and other international organizations on data and statistics for the Tier I and II indicators in the global indicator framework. This repository will be further updated and periodically reviewed in cooperation with the respective data compilers.”   SDG Tracker (civil society organization). “Our SDG Tracker presents data across all available indicators from the Our World in Data database, using official statistics from the UN and other international organizations. It is a free, open-access publication that tracks global progress towards the SDGs and allows people around the world to hold their governments accountable to achieving the agreed goals....The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are defined in a list of 169 SDG Targets. Progress towards these Targets is agreed to be tracked by 232 unique Indicators. Here is the full list of definitions. For many Indicators data is available, but major data gaps remain.” Personal Reflections Revisiting Despair and Disillusion Being People of Faith-Hope-Love in our Precarious-Perilous-Precious World Image courtesy and © ENOD 2016--California USA Coastline "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” Martin Luther King Jr. Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964 As people of faith who practice Christian spirituality, we are committed to responsibly engage with others in the challenges facing our world, locally through globally, while holding firmly to our belief that we are in God's hands. We pray that God's purposes "will be done on earth as it in heaven;" acknowledge that prayer, repentance, and relationship with God are key to human-planetary wellbeing; and live in hope for the time when God through Jesus Christ will decisively intervene in human history with equity--righteousness and justice--to restore all things. And in the meantime, we seek to embrace lifestyles that prioritize a deep, practical love for truth, peace, and people. We do not want to further problematize our world's plight by focusing primarily on the negative. Rather we want to also promote the many examples of the good going forward, as people of good will find common ground for the common good.  Finally, we want to highlight that the despair and disillusion that result from seemingly intractable problems can actually be quite positive. They can embody a crucial existential message about reality that can be "revisited"--explored and heeded--rather than simply "resisted." They can point us to Someone who is bigger than ourselves, the SDGs, humanity, and our world--the knowable, Eternal One who is both in and beyond space-time and who loves us all dearly.  The above thoughts build upon the Personal Reflections in Perils, Paralysis, Hope: Sustainable Development-Sustainable Destruction? (Global Integration Update, October 2022). Member Care Associates MCAresources@gmail.com Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a non-profit, Christian organization working internationally from Geneva and the USA. MCA's involvement in Global Integration focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of personnel and their organizations across sectors (e.g., mission, humanitarian, peace, health, and development sectors) as well as global mental health and integrity/anti-corruption, all with a view towards collaboratively supporting sustainable development for all people and the planet. Our services include consultation, training, research, resource development, and publications.   Click on these items below to access our: Member Care Updates, Global Integration Updates, member care books, and recent MCA publications. Global Integration     Global Integration (GI) is a framework for actively and responsibly engaging in our world--locally to globally. It emphasizes connecting relationally and contributing relevantly on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity, in light of our integrity, commitments, and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, human rights, faith-based). GI encourages a variety of people to be at the “global tables” and in the "global trenches"--and everything in-between--in order to help research, shape, and monitor agendas, policies, and action for all people and the planet. It intentionally links building the world we need with being the people we need.   Our Global Integration Updates are designed to help shape and support the emerging diversity of global integrators who as learners-practitioners are committed to the "common ground for the common good."  2015-current (75+ issues). Some examples of foundational ones: Doomsday?--June 2017 Living in Global Integrity--April 2017 Peace and Security--December 2016 Global Citizenship--June 2016 Faith-Based Partners in Transformation--August 2015 Global Pearl The image at the top of the Update (global pearl) is a cover detail from our edited book, Global Member Care (volume 2): Crossing Sectors for Serving Humanity (2013). William Carey Library.  ------   Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.  Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 1963)

MC Sync-Link 11

Member Care Update—November 2017

Special News—1 November 2017

During 2017 we are syncing our CORE MC entries with our monthly MC Updates. Essentially, we'll add a monthly weblog entry that contains brief excerpts from the MC Update for that month. By linking their two strap lines together, the purpose and potential for connecting these two MCA tools becomes clear: "expanding the global impact of member care...reflections, research, and resources for good practice." May these materials encourage and equip you as you endeavor to practice member care well, with character, competence, and compassion.

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Helping the Helpers

50 Resources for Humanitarian Workers

(reposted from the Global Integration Update, October 2017)
Click HERE to access it.

ICRC staff in Yemen. Reposted from Global Geneva magazine.

Unbreakable? Recognizing Humanitarian Stress and Trauma (Oct 2017)

“What pushes me to act as a humanitarian?...It’s possible to go two days without eating. But if you have water, you can survive.” “Of course we feel homesick, we are away from our families. But this is the humanitarian world and we have to accept how it is.” “Why would anyone kill a child?” “All these little girls [sexually abused] that came to us. And I have my own girl… [But helping] is the greatest joy that I can have.” Voices from the Field video, United Nations (August, 2014)

 In this Update we focus on the wellbeing and effectiveness (WE) of staff in the humanitarian sector. Organized into six topics, the sample of 50 resources are a mixture of current, core, and classic materials over the years. Several are translated into different languages. Keep in mind that everyone involved in the humanitarian sector benefits from special support to stay resilient and healthy. This includes administrators, managers, leaders, volunteers, international and local/national staff, the family members, and the organizations themselves. 

This Update’s emphasis on humanitarian WE is a follow up and application of the 10 October World Mental Health Day theme of “Mental Health in the Workplace” and the 19 August World Humanitarian Day theme of “#NotATarget.” The resources we feature and reference are also relevant for the overlapping sectors of health, development, mission, etc. We conlcude with a brief reflection on "Knitting the Network..for WE."

Warm greetings from Geneva,

Kelly and Michele

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MC Sync-Link 8

Member Care Update--August 2017

During 2017 we are syncing our CORE MC entries with our monthly MC Updates. Essentially, we'll add a monthly weblog entry that contains brief excerpts from the MC Update for that month. By linking their two strap lines together, the purpose and potential for connecting these two MCA tools becomes clear: "expanding the global impact of member care...reflections, research, and resources for good practice." May these materials encourage and equip you as you endeavor to practice member care well, with character, competence, and compassion.

*****

Love
A command to cherish and obey

 (Click HERE to access this issue.)

I Corinthians 13:8

Love never ceases.

In this Update we focus on love. We see love as the essence of member care. Love is the foundation, motive, strategy, goal, measure, and future of member care. It is a practical, sacrificial, and celebratory command.  Love never ceases.

We hope that you will be able to ponder and apply the brief, central thoughts from Scripture in this Update. The commands for love--for loving God and others, for laying down our lives--are meant not just for our member care work of course, but also for our overall, daily lives. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (I John 3:16). 

Share your comments/resources about this Update
on the MCA Facebook page. 

Share this Update with your colleagues and networks.

Kelly and Michèle

Global Integrators—21

7Is for GIs

Seven Indicators for Global Integrators

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Member Care Updates and Global Integration Updates.

 

We think that the time is coming for a diversity of colleagues to join together intentionally, visibly, and practically on behalf of global integration (GI). GI put simply is how we skillfully integrate our lives and values on behalf of the issues facing humanity. Likewise we think that the time is coming for colleagues to carefully reflect and act on what it means to be good global learners-practitioners--to seriously consider what it means to be what we are calling global integrators (GI-People).

*****

This entry identifies seven core indicators--seven I’s--that we think are important to help guide Global Integrators. There are surely more too! The seven indicators are qualitative markers rather than quantitative measures. The descriptions below also include Member Care Updates which provide resources that specifically relate to the indicators. Indicator 7, Imparting your life (love) links them all.

Clarify your:

Interests
Involvements
Influences

Cultivate your:

Interior
Integrity
Inspirations

Impart your life

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1. Issues--Pursue your passions.

What issues matter to you the most? What are you passionate about? What are you naturally motivated to learn more about? In short: explore, expand, engage.

Clarify your interests further as you explore what other sectors, organizations, countries etc. are doing with regards to these issues. Be prepared to expand your “experiential boundaries,” knowing that it can be a bit uncomfortable but also rewarding. It may take time and effort to significantly connect and contribute. Don’t go alone but get involved with others. Find compatible colleagues with similar interests and key groups and networks in which you can be part and engage together on global issues.

2. Involvements--Till the terrain.

How much do you want to get involved in specific global issues?  With whom? What is realistic for you given your current commitments and need to make a living? Here is a “continuum of involvement” for clarification.

Informed----------Included----------Immersed

The continuum begins with more minor involvement in a global area, such as reading the reports, a journal, or a UN publication about things like human trafficking, climate change, or the sustainable development goals (informed). It then proceeds to a midpoint and the inclusion of a global area in one’s work such as road traffic accidents, child disabilities in a specific region, or non-communicable diseases (included).The end of the continuum could involve becoming a recognized participant in a global area or part of a group (organization, sector) such as working part-time in a human rights advocate in a non-governmental organization, developing culturally relevant psychosocial support for victims of gender violence, or setting up elementary schools for refugee children in a country (immersed).

 3. Influences--Get a grid.

What has influenced your desire and ability to connect and contribute more globally? The gird below can help you clarify these influences.

List 3-5 items for each of the six categories below. As you review your past, you will likely get a better sense of what your future course might look like.

•      Principles/Beliefs
•      Documents/Materials
•      Organizations/Groups
•      People/Models
•      Milestones/Gravestones (important events/experiences, for the better or worse)

 à Charting a Future Course

Applications for Member Care—Interests, Involvements, and Influences

Strategies for Crossing Sectors: February 2014. “How do we practically connect and contribute across sectors in order to stay in touch with our globalizing world and to further develop our member care skills? The first resource links you to core suggestions for Charting Your Course through the Sectors (from chapter two in the new Global Member Care book) [interests, involvements, influences, as per above in this entry]. This chapter also updates the international member care model (five spheres, 2002, O’Donnell and Pollock) to help guide us into the next developmental phase of member care. The second resource provides suggestions for how you and your colleagues can effectively use the multi-sectoral materials in the new Global Member Care book (from the Application section on the Global MCA website). Crossing sectors is a crucial direction that supports and shapes good global practice in member care.”

4. Interior--Self-Care 

How do you cultivate your inner world? What things do you do practically for self-care, personal growth, and resiliency?

Grow deeply as you go broadly. Practice the basics of self care, such as good nutrition, sleep, expressing gratitude, prayer/reflection, time with friends, exercise, etc. especially during seasons of stress and times of adversity.

Member Care Application—Interior

Resiliency Toolkit–Strengthening Ourselves and Others: November 2015. “This Update focuses on developing resiliency. It provides practical resources to  promote well-being and effectiveness (WE) for workers in mission, aid, and development as well as for member care workers themselves. The resources include brief assessments and articles–core items in a versatile toolkit to strengthen yourself and others. Periodically we do special Updates that feature items to put in such a member care toolkit. Five past examples are archived HERE: 12/2009 Resiliency, 8/2010 Self-Care, 3/2012 Work-Life Balance, 1/2013 Cool Tools, and 10/2014 Creative Healing. We finish the Update with a reflection on resilience from Pearls and Perils of Good Practice (available now as an ebook) as well as one of our favorite resiliency songs, Ready for the Storm.”

5. Integrity—Being Moral

How do you cultivate your highest standards and values? To what extent do you follow them both privately and publically? In what ways can you be susceptible to corruption—the opposite of integrity--in its many subtle forms?

Integrity is moral wholeness. It is living consistently in light of your highest virtues and values (moral wholeness). It acknowledges personal weakness and wrongness, including the possibility and likelihood of self deception/justification, and seeks to live act virtuously with courage and consistency.

Member Care Applications—Integrity

Counting the Cost–Living with Integrity and Courage: January 2015. “This month’s Update is a summons to act with integrity and courage in our lives–to support us as we “count the cost” of doing what is right and helping vulnerable people. The first set of resources features three thought-provoking items: a) a TEDx presentation by a humanitarian journalist on her experiences covering war and the courage of ordinary people; b) a compelling exegesis on Christ’s parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25; and c) the millennial homily by John Paul II honoring Christian martyrs in the 20^thcentury. The second set of resources feature three items that point us towards the personal qualities needed to do member care and mission/aid well: a) the recent Global Integration webinar on healing/mental health in our violent world; b) the compilation of articles in b) Sorrow and Blood and c) Serving Jesus with Integrity. We finish this Update by taking the call for integrity and courage to the macro level: the final video lecture from Jeffery Sach’s online course on The Age of Sustainable Development (safeguarding the world’s future—people and the planet).”

Member Character: July 2012. “This issue focuses on the development of character for all those in mission/aid, especially member care workers. We see character as the core qualities of a person. These qualities are consistent over time and also reflect one’s moral goodness. Character is shaped by our life experiences, including hardship and role models. We include two set of resources from a Christian Perspective and a Social Psychology Perspective, in order to stimulate your own character growth and to support you in your work.”

6. Inspiration—Sustaining Sources

What gets you going in the morning? And what keeps you going through life? Is there a set of beliefs and values, sense of purpose and meaning, to motivate and sustain you? Something transcendent? Humanitarian principles, ethical imperatives, sense of duty, love, faith, God? How do you cultivate these?

Member Care Applications—Inspiration

Jesus Christ—The Lord of Member Care: September 2015. “This month we feature the main person in the Member Care field, Jesus Christ. We have lovingly referred to Him in our member care writings over the years by many different names: the Master Carer, the Good Practitioner, the Heart of Member Care, the Multilingual Messiah, the Pearl of Great Price, the Precious Pantocrator (The Almighty), and the Pierced-One. These names are actually titles of great honor and they are the focus of this Update: Jesus Christ the Lord of Member Care (a new title!), the One whom we all seek to know, love, and serve with all our being.“

 7. Imparting your life--Love

How much is laying down your life and serving others part of your work and life in general? How much do you want to give of yourself to others, being compassionate, maintaining the human quality of your work--doing to others as you want them to do to you?

Love is not a soft skill. It is tough work. And it is core, in our view, for doing member care well, and doing global integration well, for doing life well.

 Member Care Applications—Imparting your Life.

Ordinary Heroes: March 2013. “This month we focus on ordinary heroes, especially those whose ongoing, sacrificial and often unrecognised acts of goodness truly help others. Member care workers, and the mission/aid workers whom they support, and the people with whom mission/aid workers support, can often fit into this definition of ordinary hero. The first set of resources focus mostly on understanding ordinary heroism. The second set of resources focus on supporting ordinary heroes, emphasizing women whose lives are ransacked by exploitation, poverty, and degradation.”