Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat (SJES)
The Global Ignatian Advocacy Network (GIAN)-Ecojesuit Core Group met in Lusaka, Zambia from 8 to 12 July to know first-hand the experience of Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre (KATC), to discuss the organisation and functions of Ecojesuit and find ways to encourage and guide its actions in the future, and to continue to articulate the actions needed to consolidate Ecojesuit’s advocacy action for the COP29 and COP30 climate meetings.
Jesuit delegates from the Jesuit Conference of South Asia (JCSA), Jesuit Conference of European Provincials (JCEP), Conferencia de Provinciales Jesuitas de América Latina y el Caribe (CPAL), and the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar (JCAM) joined the GIAN-Ecojesuit gathering. Also present were the president of JCAM, the secretary of the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat (SJES), the current Ecojesuit coordinator, and other collaborators from Kenya, Madagascar, and Zambia.
The visit to KATC is a source of encouragement and hope with its various programs in agroecology that help small- and medium-scale farmers. We had the opportunity to visit and listen to a group of almost 80 people who are passionate and committed to making real that “the glory of God is the living poor person (La gloria de Dios es el pobre que viva)” (This quote is from the address of Archbishop Oscar Romero, 2 February 1980, on the occasion of the conferral of a doctorate, honoris causa, at the University of Louvain in Belgium, titled The Political Dimension of Faith from the Perspective of the Option for the Poor (La Dimensión Política de La Fe desde La Opción por Los Pobres).
KATC is not only an oasis of life in the dry savannahs of southern Africa, but an institution that has transformed lives and shaped the development of much of Zambia’s land and agricultural policy over the past 50 years.
Secondly, we were able to better identify the demands of Ecojesuit as part of the GIAN.
We recognised the urgency of expanding the work of building an inter-institutional network of different provinces and conferences, focused on the study, deepening, and advocacy action in three areas: a) Finance and Climate change (loss and damage, debts swap, just transition, etc.), the area in which there is great possibility of articulation with the GIAN-Justice in Mining; b) Food Systems (food security, agro-ecology, water issues); and c) Inclusion, focusing on the rights of the world’s Indigenous Peoples.
Three working groups were created to move this work expansion led by Filipe Martins (JCEP), Ngonidzashe Edward (JCAM), and Agnaldo Junior and John Kennedy (CPAL-JCSA). There was also a discussion to revitalize the network in terms of coordination and the composition of the Core Group, which we hope can be renewed in September 2024. The results of the SJES survey on the responses to the 4th UAP (care for our common home) will be essential.
The Core Group also proposed that the three working groups focus their advocacy work at the global level towards participation in the COP30 climate talks to be held in Belém do Pará, Brazil in November 2025. An online meeting was held with a group of companions from the Jesuit Province of Brazil who are engaging with other religious communities, the Church, and various civil organisations.
As Ecojesuit, we want to contribute to the COP30 discussions especially in the three areas of action mentioned. We also want to be with both the social movements and the spaces of formal participation (green and blue zones) in which we can influence or participate in the COP negotiations.
As a way to prepare for the COP engagement, we invite all Jesuits and collaborators to find out the climate action-related “positions” of each of their respective countries (such as each country’s Nationally Determined Contribution or NDC) by participating actively, in their institutional capacity, in the discussion of the points that each nation intends to “position” in the final document of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2024.
We ended our week’s meeting with a short safari in the savannah near Lusaka, and a visit to a Zambian art house/gallery where we were treated to a dinner of typical Zambian food and pleasant conversation.
We thank God for this experience. Thanks also to Pedro Walpole (current GIAN-Ecojesuit coordinator), to Charles Chilufya and his team at Jesuit and Ecology Network Africa (JENA), to Ngonidzashe Edward who was in charge of the logistics, to José Minaku, JCAM President who accompanied us all week with his commitment to integral ecology and who guided us with his words, to all the members of KATC, to Father Provincial Leonard Chiti, as well as to Frank, Admire and all the other Jesuits of the Lusaka communities who made us feel at home: a thousand thanks!
This story is originally published in SJES in English, in Spanish, and in French.
