30 religious leaders issue call to end extreme poverty by 2030

Thirty global religious and faith-based leaders today launched a clarion call to end extreme poverty by 2030, saying that for the first time in history there exists an opportunity to fight the "injustice and uplift the poorest in our midst."
"We have ample evidence from the World Bank Group and others showing that we can now end extreme poverty within fifteen years," said the leaders in a joint statement.
The statement 'Ending Extreme Poverty: A Moral and Spiritual Imperative' notes that remarkable progress has been made in reducing extreme poverty.
The announcement from global faith leaders arose from the World Bank's 'Faith Based and Religious Leaders Roundtable' held on February 18, the first high-level meeting between World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and faith leaders.

The statement has been welcomed by the World Bank.
"Faith leaders and the World Bank Group share a common goal -- to realise a world free of extreme poverty in just 15 years," said Kim.

"The moral imperative can help drive the movement to end poverty by 2030 by inspiring large communities to act now and to advocate for governments to do the same. These commitments from religious leaders come at just the right time -- their actions can help hundreds of millions of people lift themselves out of poverty," he said.
In 2015, governments will be deciding upon a new global sustainable development agenda that has the potential to build on shared values to finish the urgent task of ending extreme poverty, the leaders' statement said.

"We in the faith community embrace this moral imperative because we share the belief that the moral test of our society is how the weakest and most vulnerable are faring. Our sacred texts also call us to combat injustice and uplift the poorest in our midst," it said.