In this interview Mr. Jacques Bertrand, Head of Global Issues, Caritas Internationalis speaks about the organization's most recent efforts in the fight against hunger and about its world partnerships with several UN agencies.

What is Caritas Internationalis?

Caritas Internationalis is one of the world's largest humanitarian networks. It is a confederation of some 150 catholic relief, development and social service organizations working to build a better world, especially for the poor and oppressed, in over 200 countries and territories. Caritas' mandate includes integral development, emergency relief, advocacy, peace building, respect for human rights and support for proper stewardship of the planet's environment and resources. Caritas works without regard to creed, race, gender, or ethnicity. It provides a beacon of hope for tens of millions of women, men and children in times of hardship and contributes to the development of social justice in times of peace. More importantly, it empowers people to participate fully in all matters affecting their lives, and it advocates on their behalf at national and international fora.

What were the main outcomes of the Caritas Internationalis 17th General Assembly recently held in Rome from 7-12 July, 2003?

All 154 members of Caritas Internationalis adopted a new work plan for the Confederation. The 2003-2007 work-plan is based on five strategic goals: Creation of fora, capacity building, fostering cooperation, advocacy and strengthening the confederation. Among the proposed advocacy activities Caritas will focus on three areas:

• Economic justice
• Peace and conflicts
• Trafficking in human beings, especially women and children

Our concern about food, trade and agriculture is related to policies that create unjust economic effects for the world's poorest countries and agricultural producers. We plan to advocate against this situation and be very active especially during the next World Trade Organization meeting to be held next September. When we talk about the advocacy activities in which FAO works with us, we're referring to the first aspect in particular: "Economic Justice". When it comes to our collaboration with this UN agency, our approach is a collaborative one regarding trade, emergencies and of course agriculture at the national level. What we want to do is to raise awareness among our member organizations that FAO exists and can help our National Caritas Organization in many ways. We also want to have closer links with FAO to enrich their work and ours. This way we can create a so called "collaborative advocacy". This type of approach can provide an input into our work by using various instruments. Therefore, we believe that close collaboration at national level can bring mutual benefits to both organizations.

What current activities are being carried out by Caritas Internationalis in the fight against poverty and hunger?

Under the proposed activity, "Economic Justice", Caritas Internationalis will carry out advocacy and awareness activities concerning Debt, Poverty Reduction Strategies, the Millennium Development Goals, ODA and the follow-up to the "Financing for Development" Conference. However, the number one priority will be "food and trade". Food, hunger and agriculture are major concerns for the Caritas member organisations at the national level. Therefore, the most important aspect in the near future is working together against hunger and the International Alliance Against Hunger is the best way to do so. A joint letter has been recently signed between our Secretary General, Duncan MacLaren and FAO Director -General, Jacques Diouf inviting member organizations to join the alliance and collaborate in agriculture initiatives at the national level with FAO. This alliance is going to be of huge importance for us in the next few months.

Another essential program that Caritas has been carrying out is the Advocacy program called "Trade and Food: A World Without Hunger". In this respect, Caritas' big concern is regarding the export subsidies in northern countries and at the same time, the barriers and difficulties developing countries have to export and access markets abroad, especially the European and American markets. These are the main issues that have to be dealt with in terms of policies that need to be changed.

In addition, our main issue for the past years has been debt. However, in terms of poverty reduction, we as a Confederation encourage our member organizations at the national level to take part in poverty reduction strategies and provide input into the works of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) carried out by national governments in order to receive funding or achieve cancellation of debts from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other creditors.

What possible collaboration can Caritas Internationalis maintain with UN agencies at both national and global levels?

Due to the high level of interest in issues such as food, hunger and poverty, various possibilities for collaboration with FAO, at national and global levels have been considered. In fact, the joint letter between FAO and Caritas Internationalis I mentioned earlier was recently signed and a joint statement was made during the General Assembly. This letter is important because it enables all Caritas member organizations to participate directly. Many of them have already started to ask questions showing interest in being very active in the campaign against world hunger.

In addition, Caritas Internationals signed a memorandum of understanding with UNAIDS and the World Food Program. In this sense there has always been close contact and work among Caritas and other UN agencies. In many of the programs that are carried out by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR Caritas is the implementation agency for them in some 25 countries. Many of our member organizations have direct relationships with some UN agencies.

On an international level, our participation in world conferences is an activity we believe is very important. We were very active during the conference on Financing for Development held in Monterrey in March, 2003. We took part in all the Preparatory meetings and we also organized side events very often with the UN structure itself. Another conference in which we participated was the World Summit for Social Development: Copenhagen + five which took place in Geneva in 2000 as a follow up to the World Summit for Social Development that took place in Copenhagen in 1995.

What next steps will Caritas Internationalis take in the near future to achieve the goals contained in the 2003-2007 Work Plan?

The most immediate steps are to convert the work plan into an implementation plan going into greater details and defining who does what and where. Within the next few weeks we are planning to contact all member organizations to follow up on the joint letter with FAO and invite them to be active during the World Food Day and to contact the FAO representatives in each country. Maybe we can have FAO invite its representatives to contact the Caritas member organizations to create momentum. The efforts we are planning on making in Cancún during the WTO meeting are also part of these next steps due to our focus on food and trade.

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