Simplicity is perhaps best understood as appropriate living, says Jill Segger. It is about owning and using only what is necessary and not being seduced by that which is dangled before us by advertisers and arbiters of style.

The UK wing of the global social investment initiative Oikocredit has teamed up with the Livesimply campaign to promote a shared vision for social justice. Oikocredit provides vital loans to creative but impoverished communities.

CAFOD, the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development, has won a prestigious Clarion award for its DVD-Rom Live Simply: Louder Than Words', encouraging young people to get personally involved in tackling global justice issues.

Labour's John Battle has become the first MP to respond to a challenge by a Catholic aid agency, to live more simply.