Football

Yvonne Chaka Chaka records ‘Hearts on Fire’ in support of malaria

Apr 24th, 2013 11:56 AM UTC
By Nealon DeVore

This World Malaria Day, the incredible Yvonne Chaka Chaka is supporting United Against Malaria and The Princess of Africa Foundation with a special download of the song Hearts on Fire. 

You might have seen her perform it when she closed out the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations here in Johannesburg back in February.  Yvonne has recorded this version with Denis Dowlut, Michael Abdul and Themba Mhinga.

World Malaria Day is an important moment to focus global attention on the scourge of malaria. This completely preventable and treatable disease is transmitted by the bites of a specific species of mosquito. Yet as our partners at United Against Malaria note, it continues to kill a child every 60 seconds and causes 655,000 deaths every year—with the vast majority of these occurring across Africa.

ONE is fighting this disease through our campaign for the full funding of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which finances medical treatment and prevention measures for malaria all over the world.

In addition to funding the fight, it is also essential to educate communities at high risk of exposure to malaria on how they can prevent it and seek treatment immediately if anyone in the family shows symptoms.  UAM is working with some of Africa’s biggest football stars to raise awareness about malaria, as well as celebrated artists like Yvonne Chaka Chaka to carry the message through music.

Show your support by buying Hearts on Fire on iTunes or Amazon.

And take one minute to sign our petition calling for world leaders to scale up their support for the Global Fund.

Benni McCarthy wants you on his team

Feb 11th, 2013 11:21 AM UTC
By Mzwandile Sibanda

ONE member and Bafana Bafana striker Benni McCarthy has an invitation for you: tell world leaders which global issues they should take urgent action on as part of the You Choose campaign.

Right now, world leaders are starting to think about new global goals they will set themselves to tackle poverty.

The Millennium Development Goals which were set in 2000 will run out in 2015, so new targets to fight extreme poverty are needed. We’ve made amazing progress in some areas, but in others there is still a long way to go.

ONE has come together with the United Nations and other organisations to make sure that everyone has a say in what the targets are.

So if you were in charge, what would you prioritise? Better job opportunities, affordable food, equality between men and women, better internet access or something else?

The decisions that world leaders make in the next few months will have a big impact on people across Africa, so make sure your voice is heard.

If you’re in South Africa you can send a free SMS message to 30667. If you are anywhere else, have your say at www.one.org/youchoose.

Africa Kicks Malaria: How football stars are outscoring malaria

Jan 18th, 2013 9:41 AM UTC
By Guest Blogger

Guest blog post from Malaria No More.

Last summer the Confederation of African Football endorsed United Against Malaria partnership – of which Malaria No More is a key member – as a premier social cause of the most-followed events in Africa: the 2013 Cup of Nations (AFCON) football tournament.

The most revered champions of Africa’s best loved sport talking about malaria during Africa’s most watched public events? A captive audience of 6.6 billion people, most of them living in malaria-endemic Africa? What could be more captivating!

The biggest names in African football and the top political leaders in Africa’s malaria fight signed onto the campaign, and lent their time to record public messages about malaria for their African audience.  These include five elite footballers and five African presidents, including football legends Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o, and the first-ever female African head of state, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. TV, radio ads, and billboards were created which feature the players and presidents, targeting policy-makers and decision makers about investments in malaria programs, as well promoting calls-to-action with simple steps to prevent and treat malaria.

Didier Drogba’s Malaria Prevention PSA

To ensure these malaria messages are heard by football fanatics continent-wide, 10 pan-African TV/radio stations, including the biggest radio station in Africa and the official football tournament channel, advertisements in over 10 countries, and 75 billboards in more than 13 countries are helping get the job done.

In addition to the tremendous media support, the campaign launched at the African Union Summit to include more African Heads of State, and a TV spot about the campaign aired during the AFCON Draw and East Africa CECAFA tournament. During the AFCON games, the campaign will be included during AFCON half-times (when football fans are already tuned into watch their favorite footballers), in AFCON sportscasters’ dialogue during televised games, and at the AFCON Final Game’s closing ceremony?

Football stars in malaria prevention billboards around Africa

For Africa’s social media users, a 2-minute quiz is available on the United Against Malaria Facebook page for the chance to win Drogba-autographed swag, like a football or a jersey.

Learn more about the campaign and be sure to follow the AFCON games live at www.supersport.com/live-video.

If development were soccer

Jun 19th, 2012 10:32 AM UTC
By Guest Blogger

Rakesh Rajani is a ONE member and the Head of Twaweza (meaning “we can make it happen” in Swahili), a 10-year initiative to enhance access to information, citizen agency, and public accountability in East Africa. Below is his contribution to USAID’s Frontiers in Development essays.

If there were a prize for global organizations most tainted with corruption, FIFA, the International Federation of Football (Soccer) Associations, would be a strong contender.

For years, its board members are said to have demanded, received, and dished out bribes for purposes such as vote buying and selling rights to host the World Cup. The “crony culture” inside FIFA has reportedly caused huge losses—about $100 million in one instance alone when an exclusive deal with a marketing company went belly-up. These acts have spawned investigations, books, and blogs seeking to expose the organization, but FIFA appears to have warded off serious reform. Its current boss has been in charge for 14 years and part of FIFA for 38. He ran unopposed in the last election, in part because his two rivals were disqualified for foul play. His predecessor had been at the helm for 24 years.

 

Precise numbers are difficult to establish, but soccer has well over a billion supporters worldwide. Many of these tune in every week on radio, TV, and, increasingly, the Internet. More than 700 million are estimated to have watched the final games of the World Cup in 2006 and 2010, across all six continents. It is easily the world’s biggest sport.

While growing up in Mwanza, Tanzania, listening to commentary of English league games on a crackly BBC shortwave transmission was the highlight of my week. Today, walk through East Africa’s bustling neighborhoods or rural communities on weekends, and you will likely see animated men and (increasingly) women listening to a duel between national rivals or watching Chelsea play Arsenal or Barcelona take on Real Madrid. You will see much of the same across large parts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. In many cases, these are communities that have no electricity and low incomes, but some entrepreneur will have rigged up a generator and an improvised satellite dish, and be turning a tidy profit charging entrance fees.

It’s not only about relaxing in front of the TV. Soccer is among the most common topics on social media, radio call-in shows, and street corners. Crotchety pundits, hip pre-teens, and nerdy economists alike pore over team statistics to discern patterns, debate choices, and predict outcomes. It is public engagement interspersed with politics, business, and local drama, but soccer remains at the core. And soccer evokes great emotion. When there is a crucial goal or save, observe the poetry of celebration rituals or the slow motion implosions of defeat among both players and fans. It’s quite an experience.

Why does soccer work? Why, unlike so many badly governed public agencies, NGOs, and projects, is soccer so powerful, lively, and engaging? Could it be that soccer has got something so right, that it doesn’t much matter that its state of supra governance is somewhat shambolic? And if that is indeed the case, might it provide useful insights for how we think about development in countries where the intractable problems of supra governance will not be sorted out soon?

Soccer and development, while very different, have several features in common. I’ll highlight four. Both have purposes or goals to score. Both have rules and conventions of how things are to be done. Both have someone deciding whether conduct is right, imposing sanctions for foul behavior, and judging the final outcome. And both have actors who need to be motivated and focused to deliver. But each handles these features very differently.

In Soccer, Success Is Clear and Simple

Soccer isn’t called the “beautiful game” for nothing. Players display enormous skill when dribbling, passing, and making daring dives and gravity-defying turns. Fans love these moves, and TV screens replay some of the best ones over and over, so that viewers can study the skill and savor the moment. Papers speak of the teams that play the most entertaining football. But all this skill is aligned toward a very simple and very clear purpose: to score more goals than the other team. Sure, a lot of other statistics are collected, such as the number of passes, number of fouls, percentage of possession, ages of the players, and so forth. The artistry is fun and appreciated, but what matters is how it contributes toward the purpose. What counts is the final score.

The incentives are well aligned too, in the short and long term. You win the game, you celebrate, your team gets three points. Everyone involved—the players, the managers, the owners, the spectators—understand this. In the long term, those points and goals add up, and you move up the league table or on to the next round of the competition, until you win the cup. The better you perform, the more likely you are to earn a better salary.

Read the complete essay on page 18 of USAID’s Frontiers in Development publication.

Photo Credit: Kendra Helmer/USAID.

Confederation of African Football Endorses United Against Malaria

Feb 14th, 2012 2:31 PM UTC
By ONE Partners

David Kyne, campaign manager of United Against Malaria, explains how African football is taking a stand against malaria. ONE is a founding partner of United Against Malaria.

During the final week of the 2012 Orange Africa Cup of Nations, the continent’s premier football championship, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) committed its support to the fight against malaria by officially endorsing the United Against Malaria (UAM) campaign.

Although preventable and treatable, malaria continues to claim the life of one child every minute. Recognizing the powerful role football can play in educating and protecting fans from this deadly disease, CAF pledged to partner with UAM and use its reach and influence to save lives. This commitment will include distributing educational materials at future soccer tournaments and encouraging fellow football associations and players to use their voices and images in educational outreach.

During the tournament, several footballers helped raise awareness about malaria, delivering prevention and treatment messages in a new series of UAM television public service announcements that aired throughout Africa during the games.

To learn more, visit www.UnitedAgainstMalaria.org