CSDC 447

The Church's social doctrine encourages forms of cooperation that are capable of facilitating access to the international market on the part of countries suffering from poverty and underdevelopment. “Even in recent years it was thought that the poorest countries would develop by isolating themselves from the world market and by depending only on their own resources. Recent experience has shown that countries which did this have suffered stagnation and recession, while the countries which experienced development were those which succeeded in taking part in the general interrelated economic activities at the international level. It seems therefore that the chief problem is that of gaining fair access to the international market, based not on the unilateral principle of the exploitation of the natural resources of these countries but on the proper use of human resources”.⁹³⁰ John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 33: AAS 83AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 835. Among the causes that greatly contribute to underdevelopment and poverty, in addition to the impossibility of acceding to the international market,⁹³¹ Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 56-61: AAS 59AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 59 (1967) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1967), 285-287. mention must be made of illiteracy, lack of food security, the absence of structures and services, inadequate measures for guaranteeing basic health care, the lack of safe drinking water and sanitation, corruption, instability of institutions and of political life itself. There is a connection between poverty and, in many countries, the lack of liberty, possibilities for economic initiative and a national administration capable of setting up an adequate system of education and information.