• POVERTY ALLEVIATION
The pursuit of Poverty alleviation continues to be at the heart of DOSS as it was for its precursor PDO. Matters of poverty as a concept are complex and cannot be addressed in isolation.
In Kenya , poverty cuts through many thematic areas including Gender, Development, Health (and especially HIV/AIDS), markets & market access and services provision among others.
The church recognizes its role in speaking out on matters of poverty as it is in close touch with the communities it serves. It is therefore best placed to tackle poverty by either empowering the communities to initiate development amongst themselves for the sake of uplifting their livelihoods or by challenging the government of the day to remove all barriers to wealth creation by formulating sound policies and demonstrating their commitment to the well being of the populace.
DOSS will therefore take up its role in poverty alleviation by lobbying the government to amend existing policies or formulate policies that are favourable to the poor, many of whom are small scale (peasant) farmers, fisher folk and small entrepreneurs. In recognition of the link between corruption and poverty (i.e. as the misuse of public funds meant for development initiatives) DOSS will commit itself to challenging the government to tackle corruption at all levels to ensure efficient use of funds and subsequently for the development of all.
DOSS completely supports President Mwai Kibaki's call for a ‘working nation' as a way of eradicating poverty in this nation. We shall support this call by campaigning among the communities to adopt the noble culture of hard work. By doing this, we hope that the communities will positively contribute to nation building that translates into better livelihoods for all.
In the light of the glaring inequalities that exist in Kenya in terms of regional distribution of resources, education & employment opportunities, gender equity, etc. DOSS and the RCCS have committed themselves to greater advocacy and lobbying to ensure that the government addresses this issue conclusively. This includes challenging the government on its promise to create 500,000 new employment opportunities every year.
DOSS realizes that poverty is also a direct result of the move towards globalization. While appreciating the potential benefits of globalization as evidenced in the developed nations of the world, the church sees the destructive nature of the same forces in the imbalanced nature of world trade and how this has perpetuated poverty greatly in the developing and least developed countries.
The church therefore sees its role in speaking out against unfair and unbalanced trade through lobbying the government to protect local industries and stimulate wealth creation through trade in value added products other than the export of raw materials.
The church in conjunction with other like-minded actors within the Ecumenical fora will be involved in lobbying and campaigns at regional and international level to push for fair trade rules in order to stop the exploitation of the developing nations by the North.
In the same vein, DOSS will collaborate with members of the Civil Society to lobby for debt forgiveness. This is in recognition of the fact that Kenya is heavily burdened by crippling debt that translates into millions of shillings going into debt repayment instead of development.
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