Farmers improve agriculture and business skills in Sudan.

Credits: Zanetti/ Caritas Switzerland

Caritas seeks to challenge unjust systems and promote the common good, addressing the structural causes of poverty. Caritas believes that economic structures should put people before profit; we support fairer trade, further debt cancellation and increased aid,more wisely spent.

The fallout from the 2008/2009 global economic crisis pushed more vulnerable communities into extreme poverty. The poor in Asia were badly hit. Caritas Cambodia said that the garment industry, construction, tourism and agriculture had all been affected. As factories closed and unemployment rose, more people were in need of their services, while aid levels dropped.

An increasing number of people in Europe and North America faced poverty in 2009 due to the global economic crisis. Thirteen percent of Italy’s 58 million people were considered poor, according to Caritas Italy, with a rising number just above the poverty line. The situation was similar in the rest of Europe.

Children, the elderly, unemployed and disabled were particularly hard-hit. Higher food and fuel prices meant that working and retired people were also in need of help. “Some families have real trouble making their income last until the end of the month,” said Francesco Marsico of Caritas Italy.

Caritas work in 2009 on economic justice included:

  • Providing the vulnerable with social services
  • Promoting livelihoods in poor communities
  • Advocating for economic structures that put people first
  • Holding governments in rich and poor countries to poverty reduction commitments

Economic crisis hits poorest

Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aim to halve poverty by 2015, is under threat because of the global crisis. Through its advocacy work, Caritas Internationalis sought to keep poverty on the agenda of world leaders...

Another world is possible

One hundred and fifty Caritas representatives from 14 countries attended theWorld Social Forum (WSF) in Belém, Brazil. TheWSF is seen as a vital opportunity for social movements, NGOs and civil society networks to discuss the issues of poverty and the effects of globalisation...

1 in 6 go hungry

World hunger reached an historic high in 2009 with over a billion people going without enough food every day. Malnutrition increased by 13 percent in Asia, 8 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean and 6 percent in Africa...

Empowering the poor in Europe

European Caritas members set up various projects to help the poor. Some provided specific rehabilitation initiatives for particular sectors of the population such as street children, the mentally ill or homeless women...