The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)[1] is an international development charity and the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It aims to tackle poverty globally. Through local Catholic Church and secular partners, it helps people directly in their own communities and campaigns for global justice.
CAFOD is part of Caritas Internationalis, the worldwide federation of Catholic aid organisations with a presence in 165 countries and is a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and the British Overseas Aid Group.
CAFOD's Director Christine Allen was appointed in March 2019. In 2019/20 CAFOD's income was £45million and it employed approximately 410 staff along with more than 6,000 volunteers carrying out a range of roles such as campaigning, fundraising, media, office support and youth work.
CAFOD's origins can be traced back to the launch of a Family Fast Day organised by a group of Catholic women in 1960, who used the money saved through fasting to support a project in Dominica. The Bishops' Conference of England and Wales registered the charity in 1962.[2] Its current governing document dates from 2015.[4]
In 2020, CAFOD launched a new strategy, Our Common Home, based on Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si', which calls for a new definition of progress rooted in integral ecology, recognising that everything is connected and hearing both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, calling on all people to dialogue in society about how best to tackle the global issue.[citation needed]
CAFOD's magazine, Side by Side, is published quarterly.[2]
Campaigns
CAFOD has had many campaigns over the years and participated in joint campaigns with other charities such as:
As of 2023[update], CAFOD's current campaigns are:
Fix the Food System, which is concerned with "the way the world produces food and how powerful agribusiness companies affect small-scale farmers who try to make a living from what they can grow".[7]
CAFOD supports and administers the process whereby Catholic communities (churches, schools, religious orders and chaplaincies) can apply for the Livesimply award, through which communities can record, celebrate and develop their approach to living simply, in solidarity with people in poverty and sustainably with creation.[9][10] Participation in CAFOD's LiveSimply programme has been commended by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales.[11]
CAFOD currently has programmes in 32 countries and has offices in Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Goma and Kinshasa), Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nicaragua, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
