Catholic Sisters at Recent G20 Interfaith Forum in South Africa Thankful for Opportunity to Contribute to Global Issues

She emphasized that when efforts to address poverty and hunger are entrusted to religious leaders, those interventions are more likely to reach the people directly and have a meaningful impact.

“When you want to measure food security or insecurity in a community, you go directly to households. Then you will know what food insecurity looks like. That's where dignity is restored,” said Sr. Mwangani.

She told ACI Africa that she expects the G20 leadership to explore “practical solutions” that would contribute to transforming agriculture in Africa to a “more productive engagement and food security more meaningful.”

“We propose that provision of water is prioritized because productivity in agriculture can't happen where there's no water,” she said, advocating for a sustainable irrigation system that can support food production throughout the year.

On her part, the Director of Talithakum Zambia (TAKUZA), a network of Catholic Sisters seeking to address the issue of human trafficking, told ACI Africa that she found the convergence of the different faiths and their common focus on the dignity of the human person striking.

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“What struck me was that whenever I listened to people of different faiths speaking about the human person, the focus was always on dignity. To me, this shows that across our diverse traditions, we share a common recognition of the value and significance of every individual,” said Sr. Kayula Lesa on her experience at the IF20 summit.

She added that the “link between these values and policy” as different stakeholders discussed issues of climate change, human trafficking, migration, refugees and internally displaced persons, and food security was also “quite striking” for her.

“It was also important to just be in that environment with people from different faith backgrounds ... I haven't had such an interaction with them at that level. That just gave me that sense of being on holy ground,” said the member of the Religious Sisters of Charity.

In the August 16 interview, Sr. Lesa also weighed in on the contribution of the Vatican’s Secretary of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development (PIHD) at the IF20 forum.

She recalled that Sr. Alessandra Smerilli began by sharing the late Pope Francis’ first apostolic journey to Lampedusa, emphasizing that the late Holy Father chose the island for his first apostolic visit “because of his commitment to migration.”

“This is a place where over 20,000 people from Africa and other parts of the world lost their lives in an attempt to reach Europe. That struck me so strongly because it was the Pope putting in practice what he believed that is the care for the migrants.

“This is a place where over 20,000 people from Africa and other parts of the world have lost their lives in an attempt to reach Europe. That struck me so strongly because it showed the Pope putting into practice what he believed, namely, the care for migrants,” said Sr. Lesa

To address the challenge of migration, she urged the leadership of the G20 nations as they prepare for their summit to lead the way and encourage other developed nations to forgive debts owed to them, especially by the least developed nations.

“At this point, we're talking about debt forgiveness and that would be significant,” said the Talithakum Zambian-born official urging them to consider embracing fair trade and lifting unnecessary migration restrictions.

She added, “Fair trade contributes to making life better for countries so that people can put their resources into education, employment, and social services. Beyond that, for me, really, it is also just making migration easier.”

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“These restrictions put people into situations where they resort to migrating irregularly. Why don't we just make it easier for people to move regularly, so that they are less vulnerable to issues of smuggling, and issues of human trafficking?” she asked, posing a challenge to the G20 leaders, who will be participating in their 2025 Summit scheduled for November in South Africa.

Nicholas Waigwa is a Kenyan multimedia journalist and broadcast technician with a professional background in creating engaging news stories and broadcasting content across multiple media platforms. He is passionate about the media apostolate and Catholic Church communication.