Poverty Is Not Just About Money Says Christian Aid Chief

The lawyer who oversaw the payment of over £21bn in compensation to victims of bank failures, is set to deliver a lecture asking why a billion people still live on less than $1 per day.

In the Christian Aid 2012 Community Chaplaincy Lecture, Loretta Mingella OBE who became Chief Executive of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in 2004, will reflect upon the faith and values of the Christian church, and how they relate to finance.

And she will explore how as a society, whether we can move to a sustainable economic model for the 21st century, and achieve a greater measure of equality for everyone.

Poverty, she maintains is not simply about money and it can’t be fixed just by giving money to people who don’t have enough.

Today, 75% of the world’s extreme poor live in so-called middle income countries, and the problem according to Minghella is not so much economic poverty, but drastic inequality.

The lecture takes place on Wednesday 18 January at 7.30pm in the Michael Croft Theatre, Dulwich. The lecture is free but seats must be booked via the online Box Office.

As chief executive officer of Christian Aid , Loretta Minghella is responsible for its strategic direction, plans and programmes. A lawyer by training, after practising as a criminal litigator, Loretta Minghella began a career in financial regulation in 1990.

The first Head of Enforcement Law, Policy and International Co-operation for the Financial Services Authority, she also chaired the International Organisation of Securities Commissions' Standing Committee on Enforcement and Information-Sharing.

Now she leads Christian Aid's involvement in Aprodev (a group of 17 European church-related development agencies) and as a member of the British Overseas Aid Group (BOAG) and the Disasters Emergency Committee.