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Most Rev. Bishop Bonaventure Koffie, Catholic Bishop of the Sekondi-Takoradi Diocese, has observed that fighting corruption and poverty is a communal responsibility, and that it requires the involvement of individuals, communities, groups, organisations, churches and professional groups to attain the end in mind.

He explained that managing poverty emphasises some pertinent points, explaining further that management is an action that focuses on the little each of us can do to fight corruption and poverty in the country.

The Bishop, who was delivering the keynote address at the first International Conference of Poverty Management, organised under the auspices of the Spiritan University at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, said management requires a process of planning, organising, influencing and controlling.

Bishop Koffie said the first requirement of managing poverty is the process of planning, and that “we, as a nation, cannot achieve anything if we do not plan,” hence the need to plan to break the vicious cycle of poverty, and not act haphazardly.

He stated that another requirement in the process is organising, for everyone matters in the fight against corruption and poverty, while the question to ask is, ”Who does what?” because the contribution of each person or sector or group is as critical to attaining our goals as a nation.

The Bishop also underscored the need to ensure leadership through charisma to influence and direct others more by what they do. He stated that when leaders want to influence productivity in their organisations, they can achieve that only when their own practices in the organisation are consistent with what they say or teach.

He indicated that corruption is one concrete expression of social injustice, for which reason, Christians have always shown great concern at the spate of corruption and situation of poverty. Rev. Fr. Anthony Anomah, Rector of the University, explained that the Spiritan University College was established by the congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans).

He revealed that the constitutive parts of their mission of evangelisation includes the integral liberation of people, action for justice and peace, participation in development, and also make themselves advocates, the supporters and defenders of the weak.

The Rector also disclosed that the Spiritan University analyses situations to lay bare the relationship of individual cases to structural cause, which informed the first International Conference of Poverty Management.