Micah Challenge An Evangelical Experiment in Development Advocacy Report and Evaluation Emily Winter and Linda Woodhead Lancaster University

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Executive Summary This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the work of Micah Challenge, situating it within the broader context of faith and development, particularly the evangelical contribution. The report notes Micah Challenges position at the cutting edge of the rethinking of development work, in terms of:

Closer integration of development with religious groups and people Harnessing the vast potential of evangelical churches worldwide in development

work and not in an instrumental way, but with theological integrity, i.e. by appealing to the Gospel imperative of social action as well as personal conversion

Shifting the North/South balance Moving to post-paternalist modes of operation which involve groups previously

marginal to Christian leadership (the young, women etc.) Educating for advocacy, policy change, and developments in civil society

The evaluation rates Micah Challenges achievements in the following rank order, from the most successful to the least:

1. Organisational effectiveness and efficiency

2. Modelling a new mode of post-paternalist development work

3. Encouraging a shift in evangelical consciousness towards social action

4. Influencing other evangelical agencies, including partners

5. Encouraging evangelical advocacy work around the world (through national teams)

6. Securing adequate resources and support from partners and others

7. Assisting in delivering policy goals, especially towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

The report concludes that the case for continuing Micah Challenged is evenly-balanced, and will depend upon how its funding partners view potential linkages with their work and strategy.

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Evaluation of Micah Challenge An Evangelical Experiment in Development Advocacy Foreword- Steve Bradbury and Marnix Niemeijer 4

1. Introduction 6

2. Contextualising Micah Challenge: a paradoxical situation 6

3. Micahs evolving strategy 8

3.1- Mobilising global evangelicals 8

3.2- Messy Micah 10

4. History and profile of Micah Challenge 12

4.1- History 12

4.2- Profile and positioning 14

4.3- Funding 15

4.4- Organisation 17

4.5- Relationships with other organisations 20

5. Micahs global moments 21

5.1- Global Call to Action against Poverty 21

5.2- Blow the Halftime Whistle! 21

5.3- The 10.10.10 campaign 22

5.4- EXPOSED 22

6. Evaluation 24

6.1- Mixed fortunes of national campaigns 24

6.2- Internal evaluation 30

6.3- General evaluation 31

6. 4- Summary evaluation 36

7. Conclusions and where next? 37

Bibliography 42

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Evaluation of Micah Challenge An Evangelical Experiment in Development Advocacy Foreword Steve Bradbury and Marnix Niemeijer In February 2003 a dozen men and women from across the world came together in Seattle to give serious prayer and consideration to what on the surface seemed to many a highly improbable dream. The background to this gathering was a truly remarkable pledge made by the worlds political leaders a couple of years earlier a millennium promise to halve world poverty by 2015.

Those sat around the table in Seattle wrestled with some big questions. Was there something they could or indeed should do to support those leaders to make good their pledge? Could the networks represented at that table be mobilised to encourage the worlds leaders to achieve their so-called Millennium Development Goals, or to call them to account if they appeared to be shirking? Was this a God-given opportunity to do something that would serve both as a catalyst for alerting millions of Christians around the world to Gods passion for justice and Gods compassion for the poor, and as a vehicle for them to give expression to these deep concerns of God?

And so they talked and prayed, and talked and prayed some more, and by the time they left Seattle a few days later they were of one mind and heart. Micah Challenge International was born.

That was some ten years ago, and now 2015 is just around the corner. Has all the effort and energy put into Micah Challenge been worthwhile? What has been learned from the experience? Where to from here? These are important questions.

This report from Emily Winter and Linda Woodhead provides an external analysis and evaluation of a decade of Micah Challenge, answering some of these questions. It offers a particular view, written as it is from the vantage point of the International office, through interviews and eight thousand electronic documents! While the scope of the study did not enable extensive fieldwork with national campaigns, we are given unique insight into the lifecycle of the campaign from the operational and spiritual core of the initiative.

Micah Challenge is qualified in the report as an Evangelical Experiment in Development Advocacy. We hope that lessons are drawn from this meaningful and appealing global experiment, so that churches continue to be involved in and committed to advocacy in the post 2015 era.

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Whatever flag we might do it under, the prophetic responsibility to call upon our leaders to rule and govern in the interests of the poor remains as long as people continue to live and struggle in poverty.

The Talmud, one of Judaisms sacred texts, includes this exhortation:

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the worlds grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

Micah Challenge has grappled with this task. But there is unfinished business. There is still a long way to go on the road towards justice, mercy and humility in our world. This report is offered as something of a compass for continuing the journey.

Steve Bradbury & Marnix Niemeijer

(Chairs, Micah Challenge International 2008-2012, and 2012-14)

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1. Introduction This report offers an evaluation of Micah Challenge within the broader context of evangelicalism, development and advocacy.

It begins by situating Micah Challenge within the wider context of faith and development, particularly the evangelical contribution, before examining the origins and history of Micah Challenge, its political and religious positioning, its funding and its organisational structure.

The next section highlights Micah Challenges main international campaigns, before moving on to the evaluative component of the report. These sections will explore the organisations aims and performance indicators and subsequent successes and failures, including some key case studies.

The report concludes with an exploration of lessons learnt and how these might inform future faith-based development and advocacy work.

Micah Challenge is a significant case study which has the potential to inform future advocacy work, provoke political and religious dialogue, and foster further academic thought around these issues.

2. Contextualising Micah Challenge: a paradoxical situation The importance of faith in development work has been increasingly recognised in recent years. In 2012, for example, the UKs Department for International Development (DFID) published a paper entitled Faith partnership principles: Working effectively with faith groups to fight global poverty, in which Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Department, speaks of the unique contribution of faith groups in both delivering development and connecting with communities in the UK and abroad. He also states that faith groups are doing excellent work in providing not only humanitarian relief, but delivering health, education and other services in some of the most troubled parts of the world (DFID 2012).

Introducing Micah Challenge

Micah Challenge was launched in 2004, as a joint initiative of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and the Micah Network. It is an evangelical response to global poverty issues which adopted advocacy as the best means by which to address these problems.

Micah Challenges initial two aims were: to deepen Christian engagement with impoverished and marginalised communities; and to challenge international leaders and leaders of rich and poor nations to keep their promise to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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Despite this growing interest in faith and development, the contribution of evangelical and charismatic churches has not been a topic of much study. One reason is because such churches have typically placed less emphasis on social action than on personal salvation. However, that is changing, and the global strength and vivacity of the evangelical movement gives it the potential to make a very significant contribution to global development.

The first major study to take up the challenge of examining this area is a recent edited volume by Freeman, which explores and evaluates the role of Pentecostal (charismatic) Christianity in development processes and social change in Africa. Micah Challenge is not a Pentecostal movement. However, this volume remains instructive and the situation, opportunities and problems identified by Freeman et al have been recognised as being features of the evangelical sector more broadly, thus illuminating the context in which Micah Challenge operates. The volume recognises that involvement in Pentecostal congregations is first and foremost about personal transformation and empowerment (Freeman 2012: 3). However, because Pentecostal transformation of the self is...closely related to an ongoing process of social and economic transformation, Freeman argues that Pentecostal churches are often rather more effective change agents than are development NGOs (2012: 164, 3). A further advantage over NGOs is that churches, being embedded in local communities, are less likely to be considered by local populations as socially contrived (Jones 2012: 198) or imposed from outside the culture.

Freemans volume nevertheless acknowledges the disinclination of Pentecostal congregations to demand structural change (van Dijk 2012: 97), a characteristic which is not challenged by the rise of a new wave of evangelical revival or neo-Pentecostalism with its emphasis on a Prosperity Gospel which promises personal blessings on individuals and families who turn to God. The increased sense of personal agency fostered by Pentecostalism tends to be directed towards individual behavioural change rather than social action. Thus, whilst the element of agency...instilled in the modern believer, through which the person is empowered to take control of their life (van Dijk 2012: 104) has potential to be harnessed for advocacy and campaigning on poverty and development, there can be reluctance to engage in advocacy, to create a public voice and insert the cause of the poor into political space. Tony Campolo speaks of this as a broader evangelical problem, asserting that challenging...structural evils is not common among evangelicals (2008: 93). This suggests that the findings of this volume are highly relevant to the experience of Micah Challenge as an evangelical advocacy agency.

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This situation presents a challenge for advocates of global change. The enormous vitality of evangelicalism worldwide and the mobilisable nature of evangelical congregations offers huge scope for effective action, yet this potential is checked by internal constraints which inhibit evangelical involvement in political advocacy.

3. Micahs evolving strategy Micah Challenge has allowed its strategy to develop over time. Its direction of travel has been away from a top down, paternalistic or colonial model and towards increasing delegation to national teams. In a sense, this can be viewed as an anti-strategy insofar as it has aimed to shift power from hub to spokes, to the extent of allowing national teams to set strategy. This has resulted in a loosening of control and the emergence of a deliberately messy Micah.

3.1- Mobilising Global Evangelicals The original aim of Micah Challenge, finalised at the Seattle meeting of February 2003 under the strapline of mobilising Christians against poverty, was to provide the global evangelical community with a means of influencing national and international policies affecting key poverty areas and to increase the involvement of evangelicals in poverty campaigning. These had developed, by 2005, into two clearly-focused aims.

Micahs context and challenges

It is within this context that the work of Micah Challenge its challenges and accomplishments, opportunities and threats can be situated and understood. Micah Challenge seeks to harness a small part of the vast potential of the evangelical and charismatic movements for social change, whilst recognising that this form of Christianity has inbuilt resistances to this kind of work.

Twin aims 2005:

Aim 1- to deepen Christian engagement with the poor by embracing integral mission and being prepared to advocate with the poor in addition to participating in other responses to poverty including welfare and community development

Aim 2- to hold international and national leaders to account on their promise to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and thus halve poverty by 2015

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The early strategic focus was on Aim 1, perceived as a pre-condition for achieving Aim 2. The Seattle meeting highlighted the importance of Aim 1 by stating that Micah Challenges key goal was granting a prophetic voice to the 400 million evangelical constituency.

Micah Challenges rationale implicitly sought, in addition, to move from a colonial and paternalist mode to a post-paternalist one. It wished to:

facilitate the participation of countries in the Global South in Micah Challenges leadership

ensure that calls on national and international leaders are demonstrably consistent with the beliefs and actions of a significant grassroots movement among Christians

ground advocacy in tested and valuable contributions of Christians

This led to a focus on developing national campaigns in the Global South, a strategic priority that was reaffirmed at the Micah Challenge Council meeting of July 2006. Specific goals have included: the education of 40 million in the Biblical response to poverty; the

The Micah Call- statement of Micah Challenges vision and values:

This is a moment in history of unique potential, when the stated intentions of world leaders echo something of the mind of the Biblical prophets and the teachings of Jesus concerning the poor, and when we have the means to dramatically reduce poverty.

We commit ourselves, as followers of Jesus, to work together for the holistic transformation of our communities, to pursue justice, be passionate about kindness and to walk humbly with God.

We call on international and national decision-makers of both rich and poor nations, to fulfil their public promise to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and so halve absolute global poverty by 2015.

We call on Christians everywhere to be agents of hope for and with the poor, and to work with others to hold our national and global leaders accountable in securing a more just and merciful world.

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engagement of 40 million in changed lifestyle patterns that positively impact upon the poor; knowledge exchange between one million leaders; 10,000 people becoming skilled in advocacy techniques; and the development and maintenance of fifty active national campaigns.

Micah encouraged policy aims tailored to the contexts of national campaigns. Thus a key aim of campaigns in the Global North, especially in the early years, was to encourage their donor governments to commit to spending 0.7% of their GNP on aid. This was based around a theology of the importance of keeping promises, rather than an incursion into the debate over aid. It was also acknowledged that 0.7% might be inappropriate for some countries, such as Spain and Portugal, indicating the flexibility of policy aims dependent on local context. From 2006 onwards, national campaigns in the Global North were also encouraged to focus upon Goal 8 of the MDGs - building a global alliance. By contrast, advocacy in the Global South focused upon grassroots work, though a few campaigns prioritised persuading their governments to develop MDG-focused Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. Southern campaigns also sought to empower impoverished communities to play a greater role in shaping national poverty-reduction planning to alleviate hunger, water and sanitation deficits, disease, illiteracy, gender inequality and environmental destruction.

3.2- Messy Micah As part of a rethinking and rebranding exercise in 2009, Micah Challenges aims were consolidated into a new vision statement. The intention was to provide Micah Challenge with a coherent identity across the national campaigns and to produce clearer objectives, aims and strategy.

In recognising good governance as the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development, the 2009 statement heralded the move towards such

Micahs vision statement, 2009:

To establish a global movement to encourage deeper Christian commitment to the poor and hold governments to account for

their pledge to halve extreme poverty by 2015

Four key dynamics: inspire; educate; mobilise the church; impact

Overarching focus: good governance

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campaigns as EXPOSED. Joel Edwards commented that good governance was established as the crosscutting theme which will underpin our work.

Further changes followed. In 2010 and 2011, there was a sense of growing frustration at what was conceptualised as the old model of Micah Challenge. This old model was characterised by: integral mission, advocacy around all 8 MDGs, annual Micah Sunday events, global moments, and the development of national campaigns to facilitate these things. The proposed new model would focus on: ten seed campaigns; strategic links with the WEA and Micah Network; links with agencies and denominations beyond the national campaigns; and the development of strategic partnerships. Global moments remained important, as did the focus upon the MDGs. It was however advised that national campaigns narrowed their focus to just two MDGs.

The idea behind the seed campaigns was to select ten campaigns which would be provided with significant support and resources in order to create models of effective advocacy. In addition, national campaigns were increasingly encouraged to focus their attention upon just two MDGs in order to provide greater coherence and focus. This change in strategy was reflected in the more general idea of a shift towards a more organic, messy Micah with greater openness to initiatives flowing up from the national teams rather than being planned from a central hub. The messy Micah approach intended to prioritise creativity, maximise media attention and build strategic partnerships with global Christian agencies which allowed groups to walk with us but without controlling them. This suggests a more fluid, alliance-based Micah Challenge.

The overall change in strategy was partly influenced by what was already developing within the national campaigns. Zambia, for example, had successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of focusing on one region and a limited set of issues, through its Ndola copper belt campaign for better schools and clean water, while Australia had showed how effective it could be to focus on one or two MDGs and to work with other groups, such as Make Poverty History. Such campaign examples demonstrated that general awareness-raising could be strengthened through specific, focused policy goals and strategic local alliances.

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4. History and profile of Micah Challenge

4.1- History The origins of Micah Challenge lie in changes in global and British evangelicalism from the latter part of the 20th century onwards.

A key development was the growth of evangelical confidence from the 1970s onwards, as the movement became more mainstream within Christianity in the West and elsewhere (Chester 2004). A more outward-looking evangelical Christian faith was apparent at the First International Conference on World Evangelisation, or Lausanne Conference, of 1974, whose covenant declared that we affirm that both evangelical and socio-political involvement are part of our Christian duty. Lausanne reconceived global mission for moderate evangelicals as a synthesis of evangelism and social action ... and initiated a postcolonial re-conception of global evangelicalism (Warner 2008: 97).

Such developments became more mainstream within evangelicalism in the early 21st century. In 2001, for example, the World Evangelical Fellowship (later the World Evangelical Alliance) adopted a resolution at their General Assembly, which stated that as a global Christian community seeking to live in obedience to Scripture, we recognise the challenge of poverty across Gods world. We welcome the international initiative to halve world poverty by 2015, and pledge ourselves to do all we can. The statement recognised the role of trade and called for a new deal on international debt.

It was also in 2001 that Micah Network emerged. It arose out of the Interchurch Relief and Development Alliance (IRDA) Network and Tearfund, and was made up of evangelical agencies working in social justice, relief and development work. The Networks aims were: to strengthen biblically-shaped responses to the needs of the poor and oppressed; to speak out about the mission of the Church to proclaim and demonstrate the love of Christ to a world in need; and to call upon leaders to maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed and rescue the weak and needy. The Network was rooted in a commitment to integral mission. Its Declaration on Integral Mission (2001) stated:

Integral mission or holistic transformation is the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are to be done alongside each other. Rather, in integral mission our proclamation has social consequences as we call people to love and repentance in all areas of life. And our social involvement has evangelistic consequences as we bear witness to the

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transforming grace of Jesus Christ. If we ignore the world we betray the word of God which sends us out to serve the world. If we ignore the word of God we have nothing to bring to the world.

This declaration witnesses to at least an implicit move away from paternalistic and top-down approaches to development, and begins to embrace a postcolonial development standpoint:

Treating the poor with respect means enabling poor people to be the architects of change in their communities, rather than imposing solutions upon them. Working with those living in poverty involves building relationships that lead to mutual change...We object to any use of the word development that implies some countries are civilised and developed while others are uncivilised and underdeveloped.

As well as this rise of evangelical political engagement and the discourse of integral mission, there were also several other factors at the start of the 21st century which influenced Micah Challenges development. These included: the success of the Jubilee 2000 campaign and extensive Christian involvement in this movement; the announcement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 and global commitment to them; and a strengthening relationship, across the world, between Micah Network and the WEA. This led to conversations about the possibility of an evangelical Christian global campaign against poverty which focused on the MDGs, and which would be able to release, Joel Edwards recalls, the largely dormant global strength of evangelicalism on poverty issues. Given shape in dialogue between the WEA and Micah Network, these ideas led to the formation of Micah Challenge. Micah Challenge was announced at the Seattle Council in February 2003 as a global poverty campaign of the WEA and Micah Network, and formally launched in October 2004.

History of Micah Challenge

Micah Challenge is one manifestation of growing evangelical confidence in the late 20th century, a confidence which looked backwards to a heritage of evangelical social action in the 19th century, and forwards to a new global role. By the turn of the millennium, Pentecostals and evangelicals who had thought of themselves as part of a sub-culture, found themselves in conversations with government ministers. Micah Network (2001) sought to bring together different evangelical agencies working for social change; Micah Challenge (2004) would be its campaigning front.

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4.2- Profile and positioning

Political profile Micah Challenge positions itself as a critical partner to government which critiques, highlights injustices, and condemns where necessary, but always as partners committed to fulfilling the promises made (Edwards 2008: 2). This distinguishes Micah Challenge from those taking a more oppositional stance.

This is further articulated in terms of the 8th MDG, which is to develop a global partnership for development. Micah sees itself as helping Christians to play a vital role in helping global partners meet their commitments. However, Micah also perceives its role as being a wider movement of Christians for less poverty and greater justice that goes beyond the MDGs. The Seattle meeting spoke of its aim as being to capture Gods heartbeat for His church, not to follow the worlds agenda.

Christian profile Micah Challenges theological stance is absolutely central to its mission. In deepening Christian commitment to the poor around the world we are primarily appealing to Scripture as our source and authority states the Micah Challenge Visions, Values and Mission statement of 2003. It prefers Biblical language to more typical NGO, policy and human rights discourses. Its leaders believe that Biblical discourse of, for example, bringing Gods Kingdom a bit closer (from the Jesus Agenda, a nine-week DVD course for small groups) has greater potential to encourage evangelical Christians to become active, politically-engaged citizens.

Micah Challenge affirms Micah Networks focus upon integral mission, and situates this as the midpoint of a Christian spectrum between the dichotomised positions of proclamation only Christianity, which views political action as a distraction from preaching the gospel, and liberation theology, which asserts that the gospel is preached by a deed-only approach through transforming unjust societal structures. Integral mission, by contrast, makes no distinction between compassion and gospel proclamation: we do good because we are Christians.

Micah Challenge distances itself from the prosperity gospel that has become increasingly commonplace in Pentecostal churches in the 21st century. Its EXPOSED leaflet (an anti-corruption campaign) states that there is simply no place in our faith for preaching which presents God as some sort of dispensing machine. We tend to call it prosperity preaching but its more like the gospel of greed. The leaflet reclaims the idea of Biblical prosperity

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and urges that sowing and reaping, deeds and rewards are integral to life and faith. And its particularly true in the fight against poverty.

Micah Challenge also positions itself as a centred but not bounded campaign, which has an evangelical Christian centre and gives particular attention to mobilising evangelical congregations, but also hopes to facilitate broad involvement of churches, Christian community development organisations and other Christian organisations. As such it is principally but not exclusively evangelical, allowing itself the flexibility to go where the energy is. It has an evangelical heart, but with ecumenical relationships.

Post-colonialism and the North/South relationship Micah Challenge also reflects a wider, faltering and gradual, movement towards post-paternalism and post-colonialism within development and advocacy work.

Until recently the academic disciplines of post-colonialism and development have been sealed off from one another, but a postcolonial perspective is starting to influence the theory and practice of development. It aims to reposition the relationship between the global North and global South, and begins from an awareness that from a postcolonial perspective, development praxis may perpetuate colonialist and western-centred discourse and power relations, even as it seeks to focus attention on the marginalized (Sharp and Briggs 2008: 7). A number of popular books highly critical of the efforts of western development work and NGOs, combined with popular anti-colonial feeling in many post-colonial countries, reinforce the challenge. In this spirit, Micah Challenge aims to ensure that southern voices are heard and to create a more southern-led campaign, involving greater ownership of national campaigns by key stakeholders. The difficulties in establishing this are explored below.

4.3- Funding Throughout its lifespan, Micah Challenge has been plagued by financial worries and concerns, leading to what Joel Edwards describes as a hand to mouth existence. This is the result of several factors:

1. Micah Challenge does not have charitable status refused by the Charity Commission on the grounds that its aims are too political and is instead registered as a limited company in the UK. This makes fundraising far more difficult.

2. Advocacy organisations often struggle to gain funding in comparison with relief and development agencies and, whilst the appetite for funding advocacy work may have

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increased in Micah Challenges lifetime, the financial climate has worsened following the impact of the 2008 recession.

3. For much of Micah Challenges existence, poverty has dropped out of the headlines, a development Bradstock locates as following the Make Poverty History campaign of 2005 (2008: 173).

A major early funder of Micah Challenge was DFID (Department for International Development), which in 2005 granted 140,000 over three years for the promotion of educational materials. Between 2009 and 2013, Micah Challenges major funders have been: Evangelical Alliance UK, Tearfund, World Vision International, Compassion International, Salvation Army UK (through the provision of rent-in-kind since 2009) and, from 2011 onwards, Christian Aid. The contributions of these organisations are highlighted in the table below:

2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Evangelical Alliance UK

70,000

Tearfund 20,000 20,000 13,000 10,000 World Vision International

24,000 40,000 67,000 32,000

Compassion International

15,000 12,500 25,000 25,000

Compassion UK

50,000 80,000 25,000

Salvation Army UK (rent in kind)

25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000

Christian Aid 30,000 5,000

The breakdown demonstrates the extent to which Micah Challenge has, in its later years, been financially supported by organisations with similar missions to itself, rather than by government or the private sector. In total, these organisations have provided Micah Challenge with 663,500 since 2009. This compares, in the same time period, with 170,000 from Trusts (90,000 from a single Trust), 125,000 from individuals (including individual donations of 50,000, 18,000 and 15,000) and around 74,000 from church donations and ministry gifts. Although the WEA and Micah Network are Micah Challenges parent bodies, they have offered little financial support, their main contributions, respectively, being granting credibility and legitimacy and providing expertise in development theory and practice.

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4.4- Organisation Micah Challenge is made up of a small dedicated team led by the charismatic figure of Joel Edwards, and by a Board of Trustees. The Board has responsibility for Micah Challenges vision and values, key objectives, overall strategy and indicators of success. The team is responsible for international campaign tactics, national campaign strategies, infrastructure, staffing, leadership, and organisational issues.

The first International Coordinator of Micah Challenge was Michael Smitheram, who had a background in development, policy and government. Joel Edwards took up the re-named lead role of International Director in 2009, following on from being Joint Chair of the Micah Challenge Steering Group between 2004 and 2009, and Director of Evangelical Alliance UK. Michaels leadership had prioritised travelling and networking, while Joels arrival at Micah Challenge signalled a change in leadership, becoming more directive and active. This was a response to the work done by Michael and to the fact that some national campaigns wanted more direction. To a significant extent, Micah Challenge is now driven by Joels vision.

The full team consists of Joel Edwards; Amanda Jackson, Head of Advocacy and Campaigns; Vikki McLachlan, Head of Operations (involving strategy, HR, recruitment, the budget and fundraising); and Felicity Cowling, Digital Communications. All, except Felicity, joined Micah Challenge in 2009. Vikki had worked for Joel at the Evangelical Alliance, and Amanda had previously led Micah Challenge Australia. Felicity became an intern for Micah Challenge UK in 2011 before moving to the international team. All are based in office space in the Salvation Army UK HQ in London.

Micah Challenge also has several smaller paid roles and volunteer positions, including a press and media officer (contracted to work for six days a month) and a volunteer writer, who works one day a week collecting and refining stories and writing longer opinion pieces on faith and advocacy for the Micah Challenge website. In addition, Tom Baker, who works for Tearfund UK in Advocacy Promotion, works twenty days a year for Micah Challenge to encourage the growth of effective campaigns in the global North.

The Micah Challenge Board of Trustees is currently chaired by Marnix Niemeijer, Managing Director of Tear Netherlands. Other organisations represented on the Board include Christian Aid, Tearfund UK, Micah Network, the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa, World Evangelical Alliance and Paz y Esperanza (Peru). In the past, the Board (then known as the Council) was predominantly comprised of WEA and Micah Network members. In

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2003, for example, it was chaired by Gary Edmonds, Secretary of the WEA, and Stephen Bradbury, Chair of the Micah Network and National Director of Tear Australia.

Campaign teams around the world Micah Challenge has a small core team working to resource a plethora of national campaigns around the world of varying strengths and sizes. The latter are the medium through which Micah Challenge operates and carries out its educational and political work.

The national campaign structure was designed to facilitate campaigns of national and regional specificity and relevance. National campaigns are encouraged to develop a similar governance structure to that of Micah Challenge International, representing churches and Christian organisations and agencies. This takes the form of a steering group for each national campaign. Each national campaign has a different host agency and engages with different organisations and denominations.

Micah Challenge International, based in London, is mainly responsible for equipping national campaigns with support and resources. It does, however, fundraise or find funds for national campaigns, though not financially supporting national campaigns directly from their own financial resources. The national campaigns are thus funded by many different organisations. In many cases, however, they mirror the funders of Micah Challenge International. The following table indicates the national campaigns that receive, or have received, funding from several major organisations, including Micah Challenges parent bodies, which national campaigns have been more fortunate in getting funding from.

Organisation National campaigns funded

Compassion Australia, Germany, the Netherlands

Micah Network France

Evangelical Alliance The Netherlands

Salvation Army Australia, Portugal, Switzerland

Tearfund Australia, Burkina Faso, Germany, Haiti, India, Nepal, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Zambia,

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World Vision Australia, Germany, Haiti, the Netherlands, Switzerland

Micah Challenge can also be represented (as in Figure B below) as a hub consisting of the international team in London and the Board of Trustees, and spokes of varying sizes, representing the national campaigns and their varying levels of strength and activity. This also depicts links between some of the national campaigns, and the way in which each national campaign has different links with Micah Challenge International, some campaigns lines of communication and interaction being rather stronger than others.

Figure B- A hub and spoke model

WEA

MN

Host

Intl

Sec

Nat

Facilitators

Nat

Campaigns

Micah Challenge

Intl Council

Board

Micah Challenge International

Figure A- One of Micah Challenges provisional depictions of its organisational structure (2006)

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4.5- Relationships with other organisations Micah Challenge retains strong relationships with its founding agencies, the Micah Network and WEA. Situated within the WEAs International Service Centre, Micah Challenge is seen as the WEAs main international response to poverty. The November 2005 report of the WEA International Council and International Leadership Team stated that Micah Challenge is very much on our shared agenda: as national EAs, as EEA and with the wider WEA family. In 2008, WEA reasserted this commitment, calling on our national alliances, associations, fellowships, denominations and commissions to plan specific, supportive, and collaborative action in nations where Micah Challenge campaigns already exist, and to help develop Micah Challenge campaigns where none yet exist. The relationship with Micah Network is more complex, given commonplace confusion between Micah Network and Micah Challenge. Not simply a result of their similar names, this is partly due to the fact that Micah Network also includes integral mission in its vision, leading to it embodying a split personality between advocacy and development work. This has resulted in a muddy relationship between the two bodies and a lack of clarity regarding the distinctions between them.

Micah Challenge also has strong links with other organisations, such as Tearfund. An early Memorandum of Understanding suggested that Tearfund act as the Lead Agency for the campaign, hosting the International Secretariat and the International Campaign Coordinator. Although physically hosted by Tearfunds public policy team until 2007, Micah Challenge is now based on Salvation Army premises, having become a separate legal entity in 2009. Tearfund has been particularly supportive of Micah Challenge campaigns in Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the UK. Other important partners include Compassion and Christian Aid who developed The Jesus Agenda resource with Micah Challenge, a resource that was used by Christian Aid as their major advocacy training tool. There are also significant links with the host and cooperating organisations of national campaigns in the Global South. These include the Warehouse in South Africa, Malaysian Care, Paz y Esperanza in Peru and the Jubilee Centre in Zambia.

Micahs organisational profile

Organisationally, Micah Challenge consists of a small core team (Micah Challenge International) based in London, and led by the Revd Joel Edwards. This hub exists to resource many different national campaign teams, based in countries around the world. There is a close and sometimes unclear relationship with the parent bodies of the WEA and Micah Network. A small number of funders, mainly evangelical, support much of this whole structure.

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5. Micahs global moments Although Micah Challenge operates chiefly through the activities of the national campaigns, it has also launched international campaigns. It refers to these as global moments. Most are one-off campaigns, the exception being Micah Sunday, which takes place annually, usually on the Sunday closest to the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty declared by the UN. The aim is to engage churches and unite them across the world in praying about poverty issues. In response to a survey issued by Micah Challenge International about the efficacy of Micah Sunday in 2007, Micah Challenge Nigeria commented that the initiative served as a useful opportunity for the ordinary church member to understand and see the need to advocate on behalf of the poor and to see the links between churches and Micah Challenge. The other global moments have been one-off international campaigns, focused more on political action.

5.1- Global Call to Action against Poverty Micah Challenge was one of the groups that birthed the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), the umbrella movement for such national campaigns as Make Poverty History that occurred in the UK in 2005. Micah Challenges International Coordinator at the time, Michael Smitheram, was a member of the International Facilitation Group of GCAP, as was the Micah Challenge coordinator for the Andean region, Erika Izquierdo. Micah Challenge was also involved in the leadership of several national GCAP manifestations, especially in Australia, Canada, Peru, Switzerland and Zambia. Through such involvement, Micah Challenge called for its national campaigns to fully engage and work cooperatively with GCAP at every level. It was hoped that this would strengthen pressure to achieve the MDGs, by harnessing the voice of the church, and build the capacity of Micah Challenge, by drawing on GCAPs experiences, resources and contacts. Micah Challenge therefore encouraged all national campaigns to engage with their national GCAP platform, as well as advocating involvement with relevant regional-level GCAP activity. In Africa, this involvement was manifest in Stand Up and Speak Out events. Across Botswana, Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania, Micah Challenge mobilised over 60,000 people for this initiative.

5. 2- Blow the Halftime Whistle! Blow the Halftime Whistle was the international campaign for 2007, marking the halfway point between the announcement of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 and their completion date in 2015. The campaign had the following international objectives: to ensure that the 2007 G8 focused on poverty and made commitments on trade, aid and debt; to make global poverty a key issue in the 2008 US Presidential elections; and to contribute to efforts to transform political leadership by holding leaders to account. In the UK, it was hoped that 100,000 people would sign the Micah Call, 5,000 people would attend

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the G8 event, and 500 churches would host Blow the Halftime Whistle services. Various events took place around the world to mark this campaign, with 25 national campaigns participating.

5. 3- The 10.10.10 campaign 10.10.10 was an international campaign aimed at the churches, centred around putting justice at the heart of worship. The aim was that 100 million people would pray and that ten million people would promise to remember the poor through handprints to be given to national leaders. This campaign was successful in engaging many in advocacy for the first time, and succeeded in galvanising 60 million people in over seventy countries (estimation provided in post-10.10.10 campaign appraisal and based upon number of churches involved). The simplicity of the remember the poor message was seen as a key strength of the campaign, allowing national campaigns enough room to specify their own policy demands. In actuality, however, these demands were often rather fuzzy, due to a lack of policy expertise, research and knowledge. It was hoped that there would be 1000 visits to politicians as part of the campaign; 430 visits occurred.

5.4- EXPOSED Micah Challenges current campaign is EXPOSED, which aims to raise awareness across the Christian world and beyond of the depth and breadth of corruption, focusing on the effect it has on development and the poorest citizens and highlighting that corruption is a global issue, and that Church, business and governments are all culpable. The campaigns origins lie in consultations led by Micah Challenge with Micah Challenge national coordinators, Christian leaders and anti-poverty activists from around the world, all of whom listed corruption as a key barrier to the achievement of the MDGs. The campaign brings together several churches and organisations including Transparency International UK; 24-7 Prayer; American Bible Society; British and Foreign Bible Society; Christian Advocacy Network on

Blow the Halftime Whistle successes:

Australia- Micah Challenges Voices for Justice event resulted in 7000 signed postcards being sent to the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, which helped in securing an increase in the Australian governments international aid commitment

DR Congo- Micah Challenge organised an event entitled Millennium Development Goals: Blow the Halftime Whistle as part of the Congolese Social Forum

France- Micah Challenge achieved 3000 signed postcards at a festival for young people organised by the Evangelical Alliance

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Poverty Issues; Evangelical Alliance; The Salvation Army; and Unashamedly Ethical. The campaign has also been endorsed by the World Evangelical Alliance and World Council of Churches. Micah Challenge acts as the Secretariat for this campaign, as well as its major funding partner, currently giving approximately 80% of its staff time and resources to the campaign. Since March 2013, Joel Edwards has acted as coordinator of the campaign. Between December 2011 and March 2013, the campaign was administered by Dion Forster of Unashamedly Ethical in South Africa. Dion Forster now chairs the campaign.

The campaign will culminate with an event at the G20 in November 2014 and has encouraged action on three levels. Light in my heart promotes personal action through a commitment to refuse to engage in corrupt activities. Light in my community encourages a public event, such as a vigil, addressing the church and local community and carrying a positive message of hope, as well as raising awareness of corruption issues. Light in the world encourages participants to sign the Global Call for Integrity. The campaign also offers a toolkit for Christian businessmen and women. Through such activities, EXPOSED aims to engage 100 million people Christians and non-Christians to consider practical and positive ways to resist corruption. It also hopes that, by the time of the G20 meeting, the Global Call for Integrity will have amassed over one million signatures.

EXPOSED has been an important campaign for several reasons. Firstly, it has helped Micah Challenge to develop a theological critique of corruption, an under-explored theological area. Secondly, it has attempted to shift the discourse around corruption from an exclusive focus on corruption in the governments of developing countries and an associated Africa bad, Europe good mentality. European countries have subsequently highlighted problems in their own societies. Germany, for example, has targeted their government for not signing the OECD guidelines, while France has been campaigning on tax evasion and the extractive industries. Thirdly, the campaign has encouraged the involvement of churches and individuals outside a national campaign context, involving sign-ups from people in over 110 countries. Finally, EXPOSED has the potential to reach a broad constituency politically it cuts across left-wing and right-wing divisions, while religiously it reaches to Christian networks like Anglican Alliance which lie outside Micahs traditional evangelical circles.

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6. Evaluation

6. Evaluation

6.1- Mixed fortunes of national campaigns This section provides an overview of the varying success rates of the national campaigns. The table has been compiled using all available information regarding the strength and activities of national campaigns. It helps demonstrate the relative success of the national campaigns, and their differing life spans.

Key:

Green= in formation/exploration stages

Orange= operational campaign

Red= strong/active campaign

Purple= steady campaign with some action

Blue= weak/under-performing campaign

Black= dormant

Stars (*) indicate where Micah Challenge was present by way of significant support from another agency. These agencies included Micah Network (Bangladesh and Nepal); the Evangelical Alliance (Mongolia); Cedarfund (Hong Kong); and Tear (Belgium).

EXPOSED successes:

Peru- Micah Challenges partner Paz y Esperanza is focusing on the corruption of the legal system in the context of child abuse and working to obtain legal and policy reform. A campaign success includes the removal of three judges who had defended perpetrators of child abuse.

Haiti- a new programme has involved the setting up of local Watch Groups, in which people are trained to make sense of anti-corruption laws and to develop a local plan.

India- Micah Challenge in India, as part of EXPOSED, has been campaigning for the poorest children to receive education and fighting corruption in the education sector. This has involved the provision of legal training, so as to enable advocacy on the legal rights of all Indian children to receive an education

Benin- 200 Christian leaders met to consider the churchs response to corruption and produced a statement outlining the ten steps the church would take, ranging from education to informed advocacy and mobilisation

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Notes:

The green and orange coding was used up until 2008.

An operational campaign was defined as having a steering group that met regularly, developed national objectives and strategies, and a differentiation of roles and responsibilities. A campaign in the formation/exploration stages was identifying key contacts or holding initial meetings.

From 2010, the red, purple and blue categories were the main ones to be utilised.

***

Owing to lack of communication from some national campaigns, information about yearly activities is incomplete in some cases. In addition, there is no data available for 2009, the year in which leadership change, and re-branding, took place. After 2009 the information about national campaigns changes and becomes more evaluative.

***

Micah Challenge identifies the following as keys to the success of a national campaign: a strong full-time coordinator with both temporal and financial resources; a strong steering group with diverse membership; clear focus on two MDGs; setting realistic goals and measuring outcomes; a combination of global and local discourse; being both spiritual and practice; good communications; willingness to take on new partnerships; and an ability to think outside the box. In reality few campaigns attain all these standards.

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2005 2006 2007 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013

Albania

Argentina

Australia

Bangladesh * * *

Belgium *

Benin

Bolivia

Botswana

Brazil

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cambodia

Canada

Chad

Chile

Columbia

Dominican Republic

DR Congo

Ecuador

El Salvador

Ethiopia

France

Germany

Guatemala

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Haiti

Honduras

Hong Kong * * *

Hungary

India

Indonesia

Italy

Ivory Coast

Jamaica

Japan

Kenya

Malawi

Malaysia

Mexico

Mongolia * *

Mozambique

Namibia

Nepal * * *

Netherlands

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Nigeria

Peru

Philippines

Portugal

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This table reveals the different fates of the national campaigns, exhibiting false starts and faltering successes alongside more consistent performances. It also shows that a number of regions and countries did not host national campaigns at all. Notable absences include Cambodia, China, Eastern Europe, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Japan, Singapore, Scandinavia, Sri Lanka and South Korea.

In 2013, forty national campaigns (six of which were assumed to be dormant) were assessed under various criteria a mark for communications out of three; the existence of an effective coordinator; a focus on advocacy; specific MDGs focus; and engagement with the UN, EU or other civil society organisations. Only ten campaigns achieved all these things and were given two or three marks for their communication by Micah Challenge International: Australia, France, Germany, Haiti, India, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, the US and Zambia. Just ten campaigns were awarded the highest mark for their communication, seven of these being in the Global North.

Republic of Ireland

Rwanda

Sierra Leone

South Africa

South Korea

Spain

Switzerland

Tanzania

Uganda

Uruguay

UK

USA

Zambia

Zimbabwe

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The 2013 assessment found that only half of the active national campaigns had an effective coordinator and had taken the advice to focus their attention on just two or three MDGs. Eighteen national campaigns were seen to have a strong focus upon advocacy, and fourteen to have engaged decision bodies such as the UN or EU.

These figures indicate how many national campaigns are not meeting the required criteria to be effective and successful. There have, however, also been many success stories, as demonstrated by the case studies of Australia and Zambia, often recognised as two of Micah Challenges most successful national campaigns in their combination of effective church engagement around integral mission with tangible policy gains.

Case study 1: Zambia- a success story

Zambia has been recognised as one of Micah Challenges most successful campaigns, focusing on both advocacy and mobilisation. The campaign has paid staff and is funded by Tear Australia and Tearfund UK, being hosted by the Jubilee Centre. A District Steering Committee has helped to enable a more grassroots approach. Micah Challenge Zambia has held regular workshops on why Christians should engage with Micah Challenge and the MDGs, helping to increase a Christian consciousness around social justice issues.

The campaign has also been particularly strong in terms of policy gains. In 2006, Micah Challenge Zambia ran a workshop for parliamentarians and local leaders on HIV/AIDS. Within three weeks, the availability of anti-retrovirals had risen by 43% in the district of Mwinulunga. In 2008, Micah Challenge Zambia was asked by the office of the Acting President to bring to his attention things they wanted to be covered in his speech to the UN Summit. Micah Challenge Zambia has also become a member of the national MDGs taskforce. In recent years, Micah Challenge Zambia has focused its attention on MDGs 1, 6 and 8 (eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; global partnership for development), strategically prioritising goals that had a high profile in government and that other Christian groups were working on.

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6.2- Internal evaluation Micahs own international team identifies the following as key successes of Micah Challenge:

the movements global nature and capacity to bring rich and poor nations together

its focus upon advocacy

its contribution to taking the issue of justice to the churches in a way that appealed to a broad constituency, not just theological liberals or political left-wingers

Other strengths identified in Micahs own literature include: a clear Biblical mandate, which gives evangelical church leaders the confidence to support a campaign that could otherwise be seen as risky or irrelevant; the campaigns public face, which is not simply confined to the Christian arena; the campaigns connection to a universally recognised set of targets (the MDGs); and a sense of community and shared mission. More specific

Case study 2: Australia- a success story

Micah Challenge Australia is acknowledged as the most successful national campaign in the Global North. It has paid stuff, much policy expertise and considerable support from such organisations as Compassion, World Vision, Tear Australia and the Baptist Church of Australia. Micah Challenge Australia has successfully combined awareness-raising with political impact.

The campaign has amassed considerable support among Australian Christians. In 2007, for example, 27,000 supporters sent a postcard to the Prime Minister encouraging further action on aid, trade, debt, governance and climate change. A survey by the Australian Christian Lobby in 2007 found that global poverty was one of the top five issues of concern to Christians and Micah Challenge Australia believe that they have played a key part in fostering this growing desire for action on global poverty and injustice. There have also, however, been policy successes, including pressuring the Prime Minister to attend the UN Leaders Summit in 2005 and a government commitment to raise overseas aid to 0.35% of GNP by 2010, and then again to 0.5% by 2013.

An example of an event which encourages both Christian engagement and political response is Voices for Justice, which in 2007 brought almost two hundred people together to receive input and teaching before visiting Parliament House and meeting with MPs. Such events help to: equip participants involvement in political processes; increase their understanding of integral mission; strengthen relationships with MPs; increase MPs political commitment to the MDGs; and enhance Micah Challenges voice. Voices for Justice is thus a good example of the effective working out of Micah Challenges twofold aim.

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successes mentioned include the 10.10.10 campaign and the growth of particular national campaigns such as South Africa, Benin, Malaysia, France and Germany.

The international team identify the following failures and disappointments:

failure to secure adequate funds

patchy and inadequate development of grassroots infrastructure and capacity

failure to gain the full extent of the WEAs support for Micah Challenges main campaigns

slow policy impact

campaigns with early promise running out of energy and/or resources and encountering many difficulties

6.3- General Evaluation

Limited resources and national constraints Micah Challenge has operated with very limited resources, both financial and human. In a survey of national campaigns in the Global South carried out by Micah Challenge International in 2008, the most common response regarding the largest barrier to their development was a lack of funding and/or staffing. Another common concern was a lack of educational resources. Ian Causebrooks review of Micah Challenge (conducted at the same time as this report and involving interviews with national campaign coordinators) confirmed this in the finding that a lack of resources was the most common problem encountered by national campaigns.

It is also important to recognise the constraints placed upon national campaigns by their specific religious, socio-economic and political contexts. Such limiting factors might include: disunity within the evangelical movement; weak government and a nascent democratic process (DR Congo); corruption (Nigeria); or a small evangelical presence (Portugal). In some cases, the national context has played a hugely inhibiting role, Zimbabwe being the most significant example of this.

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Current leadership and team One of Micahs great successes has been achieving so much with sparse resources and a small team. Joel Edwards leadership has been important, albeit in close relation with the whole London team. Having someone of his stature and spiritual credibility has been important in inspiring people around the world to support Micah. It may be that such charismatic, rather than bureaucratic, leadership, as well as theological credibility is an important factor in successful faith-based advocacy work, and in gaining support within networks which share a theological and spiritual approach.

The small and very effective team at Micah Challenge International has worked with great efficiency. The small number involved and their close proximity has made the organisation very streamlined, and allowed for collaborative working and swift decision making. It also means that the loss of a core team member would have presented a high risk to the organisation, but fortunately this did not occur.

The importance of the past team should also not be ignored. Michael Smitheram and Regine Nagel did significant work in setting up many of the national campaigns and establishing a strong foundation of values and vision upon which Joel and the current team have built. The Board has also played a very substantial role, particularly in the interim period between Michael and Joels leadership, during which time the Board helped considerably in sustaining the organisation. Social action amongst evangelicals Evangelical Christianity is a huge global constituency, and its untapped potential for social action is still vast. Over the course of Micah Challenges existence, a focus on inner conversion and personal holiness has been increasingly complemented by a growing concern with social issues (and, in some quarters, environmental ones). This is manifest, for example, in the establishment of the WEAs Social Justice Commission. The Micah Challenge team believes that they have played some role in such developments and that they have extended their influence over other evangelical organisations. It is impossible to quantify precisely Micahs role in this shift, but there is no doubt that it has been at the cutting-edge of change. It has achieved this by way of: its literature, DVDs and addresses by Micah leaders, especially Joel Edwards; national country teams and their work; and Micahs global moments (including Micah Sunday) and international campaigns. EXPOSED represents a key catalyst of influence. Since becoming involved in the EXPOSED campaign, the Salvation Army, for example, has produced an International Provisional Statement on corruption with practical action points. Keswick Ministries, New Wine, Urban Saints and Youth for Christ are

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all also considering ways to partner with EXPOSED for advocacy on corruption issues. This demonstrates, in a more tangible way, Micah Challenges influence on groups that have not historically been strongly involved in social justice, and points to the importance of Micah Challenges theologically-framed poverty discourse.

Advocacy and distinctiveness Micah Challenges positioning as an advocacy agency has had both pros and cons. There is an advantage in moving away from the politically loaded and divisive issue of aid. In addition, because Micah Challenge does not operate in relief and development, it does not have to provide money to national campaigns, thus enabling changed, and potentially more equal, relationships. However, advocacy work struggles to get funding, partly due to the limitations that come from not being granted charity status, but also because it is not a particularly photogenic or easy to sell form of political engagement.

Nevertheless, Micah has been a pioneer at a time when advocacy has been growing to become an increasingly legitimate and well-organised political tool. The shift can be seen, for example, in the growth of large, predominantly online advocacy organisations like Avaaz and 38 Degrees. Ironically, this means that funding for advocacy is stretched and that Micah Challenges unique selling point and distinct positioning is diminishing. This threat to distinctiveness is exacerbated by the fact that many national campaigns have a conflated identity with another agency. In Botswana, for example, Micah Challenge is very strongly linked to the Evangelical Fellowship, while in Italy, Micah Challenge has strong links to the Evangelical Alliance. While this can provide credibility and sustainability, there are also concerns regarding undermined autonomy and a diminished distinctive voice.

Balancing the North/South relationship Micah Challenge has also been visionary in its aim to rebalance north/south relations. It seeks to ensure that it remains truly global in its worldview, strategy and deliverables through representative Board membership and regular input from its global team of national campaign coordinators. It also hopes that Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe will all have nuanced strategies, shaped from within the regions, which allow for cultural relevance and sensitivity, ensuring effective and locally owned campaigns". However, both this global approach and local ownership of campaigns have in practice been difficult to achieve. Several voices have been under-represented on the global stage, for example, due to communication difficulties, language barriers and funding. This is especially the case for French-speaking Africa and Latin America, and the international team has suffered from a lack of capacity to communicate with non-English speakers. This has been detrimental for

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some national campaigns operations and there is concern that Micah Challenge may feel Anglo-centric as a result. Ian Causebrooks interviews with national campaign coordinators similarly found that there was some frustration from national campaigns regarding their limited involvement in the preparation of global campaign resources.

There has also been an ongoing tension between the issue of developing and maintaining a common Micah identity through, for example, an accreditation scheme for national campaigns and allowing for culturally specific and relevant campaigns. The relationship between national autonomy and international unity has thus been a delicate balancing act. National campaigns are encouraged to operate within the policy parameters established by Micahs Board, and to campaign on issues related to the international policy objectives, but are also granted the freedom to develop appropriate and unique national resources. They are consequently encouraged to focus on particular poverty issues and develop locally-appropriate campaign struggles and alliances.

This tension between autonomy and local relevance has led to complaints from the hub about a lack of accountability and clarity on the part of national work. Thus, Micah Challenge Peru is celebrated for being a strong campaign, but there are also concerns about its independence and lack of communication. Conversely, Micah Challenges aim to encourage the autonomy of national campaigns in the Global South has provoked national campaigns to criticise the centre for not providing enough information, training and support.

The tension reflects differences of capacity between campaigns in the Global North and the South. Just four national campaigns in the Global South (Haiti, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia) have their own website,1 whereas nine campaigns in the Global North have a website. In his 2011 report for Micah Challenge, Peter Scott estimated that only eight out of the twenty-eight campaigns in the global South are adequately funded, with only seven of these having dedicated staff ... By contrast, only three campaigns in the Global North are lacking dedicated staff. These material and economic inequalities demonstrate some of the difficulties encountered by attempts to move away from a paternalistic donor relationship.

1 Micah Challenge Philippines has a Facebook page

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Organisational dynamics The tension between autonomy and unity is part of a larger conflict between being an organisation and being a movement. Micah Challenge expresses the desire to become a grassroots movement, but retains a structure that more closely resembles an organisation. It has encountered social and cultural constraints which inhibit the establishment of a truly grassroots movement and a model of post-paternalistic leadership and campaigning. In some countries, such as Malawi for example, there is also a clash between Micah Challenges grassroots mobilisation and its high-profile political campaigning and links with government. In addition, where Micah Challenge campaigns do attract the involvement of a broader range of constituencies than traditional older male leadership, they can face difficulties. In DR Congo, for example, the campaign coordinator struggled to gain respect and authority due to not being a senior pastor. National campaign coordinators in Nigeria, Germany and Kenya have also faced difficulties resulting from either age or gender.

Confusion of aims There has been a conflict throughout Micah Challenges lifetime regarding the twofold nature of its aims and vision: deepening the engagement of Christians with the problem of poverty, and holding political leaders to account over the MDGs. There has been continual debate and dialogue over which of these is primary. Although the first might be seen as a precursor to the latter, if the main goal is holding governments to account, this could be achieved through strategic lobbying rather than mass mobilisation. The relationship between the two aims is thus not as clear and intertwined as it might seem. Many national campaigns have also focused on awareness- and consciousness-raising at the expense of advocacy activities. In Latin America, for example, where there has been a strong Micah Challenge presence, there has been more focus on church education than on advocacy and the MDGs. Sierra Leone has also concentrated solely on church education, whilst India has struggled with advocacy due to Christianitys minority status. Several countries, including Germany and the USA, have at times been nervous of political advocacy. In practice, advocacy has often had the more marginal role in Micah Challenges national expressions.

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6.4- Summary evaluation

Aims Positive evidence Negative evidence Level of success

1-5 = Low to high

1.Encourage a shift in evangelical consciousness towards social action across the world

Adoption of Micah Challenge national campaigns in over forty countries; growing endorsement of integral mission

Continuing resistance to integral mission in some countries

3

2.Encourage evangelical advocacy work around the world

Large-scale evangelical involvement in global campaigns

Highly varied strength of evangelical advocacy work according to country; policy asks not always clear

2

Grows over life of Micah. EXPOSED is the most successful campaign

3.Assist in delivering policy goals, esp. the MDGs relating to poverty

Some policy gains, such as donor government commitment to increasing aid

Lack of overall progress towards meeting the MDGs

1 (it is hard to assess the contribution of Micah Challenge in isolation from other organisations, etc.)

4.Model a new mode of post-paternalist development work

Move away from aid towards advocacy; national campaign structure; attempts to include Southern voice

Difficulties in balancing the North/South relationship, partly due to structural constraints

4

At the cutting edge of rethinking, even if not fully achieved in practice

5.Influence other evangelical agencies, including partners

Increased endorsement of integral mission by some national Evangelical Alliances and other organisations

2-3 (it is hard to assess the extent to which Micah Challenge is an influencing body, or reflects wider trends)

6.Secure adequate Support from, and Constant concern 2

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resources and support from partners

close working relationships with, many similar organisations

about lack of funding and resources

7.Organisational effectiveness and efficiency

Considerable achievements given the very small size of the paid international team

5

7. Conclusions and where next?

Micah Challenge has been pioneering in recognising a huge opportunity the potential offered by mobilising global evangelicalism in the cause of development and trying to do something about it. This is hugely ambitious, as is its related aim of shifting the development initiative from North to South, and abandoning paternalistic and colonial modes of operation.

Impact on evangelical consciousness (integral mission) With its limited resources, Micah was a David trying to shoot a stone at a Goliath. Given its scale, its achievements are significant. Some of the most important achievements are also the hardest to quantify because they are related to cultural and theological change the changing of mindsets about the nature of the Gospel, and the shape of Christian social action in the 21st century. Micah may have sown seeds both in other faith-based NGOs, and in national teams and campaigns around the world, which will bear fruit in the future. One of its main achievements is this educational and inspirational dimension, and it was appropriate that Micah Challenge had a charismatic leader. Micah has not really broken out of evangelical circles, but they are so large that that is not necessarily a problem. Moreover, this reflects the increasing level of the global fragmentation of Christianity, which currently has limited means of speaking or acting in a co-ordinated way.

Changing the mode of faith-based development (post-paternalism) Micahs development of a post-paternalist way of working has had patchy success when judged in terms of its ability to devolve power to many different national teams and evolve into a messy movement rather than a London-based organisation (thus reversing the

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usual move from movement to organisation). Some in-country initiatives have been very successful; many have failed, or proved disappointing. Co-ordination and resourcing remain huge problems. Micah has failed to secure adequate backing from other agencies and funders, even within the evangelical world.

In many ways Micah Challenge has made itself redundant, and its own team are content with this outcome. In some ways this is a success, as the impetus can shift to evangelicals all around the world. Yet the redundancy seems premature. Although some national teams are so well established they may continue, many are not. Moreover, the stronger ones often ask for more assistance, even whilst accepting that the purpose is to work towards greater autonomy. Perhaps a midwife is still needed. Micah has achieved its desire to become increasingly messy, but has not evolved, as it would have liked, from being an organisation located in the Global North to a truly global movement.

Difficulties of advocacy and delivering policy goals Micah Challenges early focus upon working towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals diminished somewhat as its strategy evolved. Its success in contributing to this policy goal is impossible to evaluate, and is probably negligible in terms of poverty alleviation. With or without Micah, it is now clear that the achievement of the MDGs is highly unlikely. Progress to date has been uneven within and across countries (United Nations Economic and Social Council 2014).

Micah has also encountered challenges in championing advocacy work. Training national teams in advocacy work has proved difficult and costly. Advocacy is harder to represent in ways which win it support and funding, compared with more traditional forms of charity, aid and development work. Moreover, advocacy has become a more crowded field since Micah began, which has made it harder to sustain its distinctiveness.

The future Micah always had a limited shelf-life, and Joel Edwards and the international team, believe it has reached a natural endpoint. Its achievements have justified its resources it has made good use of its talents. In Joels view, the seeds have been sown, and post-paternalist development work needs to evolve now into new forms.

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On the other hand, Micahs seeds have grown into young plants in several parts of the world, and without nurture their potential for growth may be diminished or killed off. Most of the national campaign coordinators interviewed by Ian Causebrook wanted to continue beyond 2015 and were also keen to see Micah Challenge International continue. Several have already selected locally-significant campaigns that go beyond the MDGs (such as the death penalty and land rights of indigenous people in Malaysia, for example). In addition, Micahs modus operandi still has much to teach other organisations.

The results of this evaluation are not decisive in terms of whether Micah should or should not continue they show that the case is rather evenly weighted. The answer will depend on how Micah Challenge as it exists in 2015 and its potential relate to the strategies of its main funders and parent bodies.

The development conversation has already turned towards post-2015 and beyond-2015 development. Where Micah Challenge fits within this new framework is unclear. If there is a next phase for Micah Challenge, it will have to be a different Micah, utilising new skills, more resources, and with a refreshed organisational framework. Regardless of whether or not it continues, the life of Micah Challenge has contributed significantly to an ongoing rethinking of the role of churches in advocacy, the prospects of post-paternalistic development, and changing organisational frameworks for social action and political engagement.

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Methodology, sources and limitations This report was initiated by two face-to-face meetings held at the Micah Challenge International HQ between Linda Woodhead, Emily Winter, Joel Edwards, Vikki McLachlan, Amanda Jackson and Felicity Cowling. These meetings provided not only discussion of the scope of this evaluation project, but valuable insight into the workings of Micah Challenge, including the staffs different roles, Micah Challenges history and origins, its international and national campaigns, the relationship with Micah Network and other organisations, and perceived successes and failures. Ian Causebrook was simultaneously carrying out another review exercise for the slightly different purpose of assessing the possibilities of a post-2015 Micah Challenge. Linda liaised with Ian about this review, leading to an exchange of ideas and information. Ians empirical research, including interviews with several national campaign coordinators, was also important in confirming ideas and impressions developed from documentary analysis (see below).

This report was predominantly compiled with access to over eight thousand electronic documents supplied from Micah Challenge International. These ranged from publicity materials to annual budgets to Micah Challenge Board meeting minutes. Emily conducted a full search of almost all of the documents provided. This was informed by the project proposal, which had identified the following key areas of interest: the wider context of faith and development work; Micah Challenges origins and history; its staffing and organisation; aims and objectives; performance indicators; and successes and failures. Through the document search process, other themes also emerged as significant, including Christian identity, positioning and theology; relationships with other organisations; and the Global North/Global South relationship. From over eight thousand documents, several hundred, those that shed most light on the key areas and themes, were selected for use in the report.

The following documents were particularly useful:

Strategic plans Briefings compiled for the Micah Challenge Board National campaign reports (brief regular updates on the progress of all national

campaigns)

All of these documents were produced by Micah Challenge international or by Micah Challenge national campaigns. There were also, however, some important documents that had been compiled for Micah Challenge. These included:

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Tim Chester (2004) Framework Paper 1: Barriers to the embrace of integral mission Peter Scott (2009) Micah Challenge Southern Capacity Building 2009-11: Research

report and proposal Ian Causebrook (2013) Micah Challenge post-2015 Review (draft)

The selected documents were catalogued under thematic categories and then analysed within their themes. This process involved summarising, identifying important sub-themes, and selecting key case studies.

Within the scope of this study, it was not possible to carry out more extensive fieldwork, such as, for example, with national campaigns abroad. This report thus paves the way for future research.

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