In today’s Business Daily, Jeffrey Sachs asks us to resist letting the “bad news can crowd out good news” and instead to take the time to recognize the many creative feats achieved by governments around the globe to fight poverty, disease and hunger this past year.

As he puts it:

“The point is not merely to make ourselves feel a little better, but rather to confront one of the world’s gravest threats: the widespread pessimism that today’s problems are too big to be solved. Studying the successes gives us the knowledge and confidence to step up our shared efforts to solve today’s great global challenges.”

He goes on to list creative new programs around the globe. Among them:

“Hats off, first, to Mexico for pioneering the idea of “conditional cash transfers” to poor households. These transfers enable and encourage those households to invest in their children’s health, nutrition, and schooling. Mexico’s “Opportunities Program,” led by President Felipe Calderón is now being widely emulated around Latin America.

Recently, at the behest of the singers Shakira and Alejandro Sanz, and a social movement that they lead, all of Latin America’s leaders committed to step up the region’s programs for early childhood development, based on the successes that have been proven to date…”

You can read his full op-ed here.

-Virginia Simmons and Chris Scott

[Photo: children in Mozambique, May 2008]

A recent Reuters piece examines the critical role African women play in agriculture, and how increasing gender equality in terms of land rights and micro-financing loans would increase Africa’s food production and family income.

The article highlights key leaders, like former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Rwanda’s Minister of State for Agriculture Agnes Kalibata, pushing for these changes in laws, global grants, and cultural practices.

Some excepts are below, the full article here.

“In Ghana, for example, if women and men had equal land rights and security of tenure, women’s use of fertilizer and profits per hectare would nearly double. In Burkina Faso, Kenya and Tanzania, giving women entrepreneurs the same inputs and education as men would boost business revenue by up to 20 percent. And in Ivory Coast, raising women’s income by $10 brings improvements in children’s health and nutrition that would require a $110 increase in men’s income.

…One powerful woman trying to change that is Agnes Kalibata, Rwanda’s minister of state for agriculture. She said government land reform and credit programmes specifically target struggling women farmers – many of whom are bringing up children alone after their husbands were killed in the 1994 genocide.

This has helped raise their incomes, leading to better nutrition, health and education for their children, Kalibata said. Women are also getting micro-credit loans, which they use to access markets and cooperatives or set up small businesses, such as producing specialty coffee for export.

“They are not like rocket scientists, they are women from the general population who finally feel empowered that they can come out and do some of these things,” explained Kalibata.

-Virginia Simmons

[Photo: Regina and her daughters posing at their stand in Mozambique, May 2008. Regina received a microfinance loan and now has a profitable small business that allows her to send her daughters to school and build a new home.]

Chris and I will be taking time off until January 5th, but you may see occasionally postings here on the ONE Blog before then. Please feel free to use the comments section below to talk about the past year and what you hope and plan to do for the fight against global poverty in 2009.

-Virginia Simmons

Due to the EU’s reaffirmation earlier this month to reduce CO2-emissions by 20% by 2020, on January 1, 2013, 10,000 E.U. power plants and energy-intensive factories will have to buy certificates for emissions of carbon dioxide.

It’s relevant to African countries in several ways, but particularly because it is likely that implementing this policy will generate extra resources for Africa to adapt to a changed climate and make progress towards the MDGs.

The policy creates a whole new stream of revenues for EU-governments and the tug-of war over how to use these revenues has already started. Usually, Africa is not on the top of the agenda for European politicians when they talk about spending. However in this case, several particularly good arguments support the idea that a significant part of these resources should be spent in Africa.

Most compelling is that African countries have contributed the least to the current climate change, yet they will be hardest hit and are the least prepared. (more…)

Today the New York Times ran an op-ed advocating for the incoming administration to adopt the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) as a central tool for development. The article explains that “The long-term engagement with the United States that is required for any country to earn a Millennium Challenge Corporation compact provides a platform for the kind of robust diplomacy that President-elect Obama has embraced. As he seeks to adapt American foreign assistance to a transformed world, one decisive step he can take is to signal his strong support of the corporation’s approach to global development.”

The piece, authored by the four non-government board members of the MCC (Lorne Craner, Bill Frist, Kenneth Hackett, and Alan Patricof), posits that the kind of aid MCC delivers – long-term aid given based on a clear set of indicators for projects defined by the recipient country, in which the recipient country takes responsibility for their development – works best. It also cites examples of the ‘MCC effect’; the idea that countries who are not yet compact-eligible will work independently to better their indicators due to the incentive of becoming eligible for large-scale support and funding.

We’ll continue to keep you updated about the position of the MCC within the new administration.

-Beth Adler, ONE Policy Analyst

Today we are very proud to announce that the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy magazine have selected ONE to be the 2008 winner of the Commitment to Development “Ideas in Action” Award. The award, given annually since 2003, seeks to honor individuals or organizations “from the rich world that has made a significant contribution to changing attitudes and policies toward the developing world.”

We are honored to receive this award which of course would never have been possible without the hard work and dedication of ONE members and activists around the world.

Some excerpts from CGD’s announcement below, and you can listen to the telephone press conference here.

Through its ONE Vote ‘08 initiative , ONE mobilized 2 million supporters to sign petitions, raise awareness in their communities, and encourage the presidential candidates to explain how they would improve U.S. policies that affect poor people in developing countries. After the election, ONE pushed for President-elect Barack Obama and other newly elected officials to keep their commitments to the world’s poor in the face of the global financial crisis.

ONE Campaign advocates-often sporting ONE Campaign t-shirts-were visible at town hall meetings and election events around the country in 2008, catching the attention of candidates and voters.

ONE also hosted high-level panel discussions on global poverty at the Democratic and Republican national conventions. Hundreds of students, activists, and convention delegates attended the convention events.

-Chris Scott

Washington Post—U.S. Won’t Support Zimbabwe if Mugabe Stays On, Envoy Says
The U.S. can no longer support a proposed Zimbabwean power-sharing deal that would leave Robert Mugabe — “a man who’s lost it” — as president, the top U.S. envoy for Africa said Sunday. A power-sharing agreement between Zimbabwe’s opposition parties and Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe with increasing severity for 28 years, is “not credible with Mugabe as president” because he appears unwilling to share control, said Jendayi Frazer, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs. The comments, which came days after Frazer echoed calls by President Bush and other world leaders that Mugabe step down, indicated a shift in U.S. policy toward a power-sharing deal signed in September.

LA Times—Zimbabwe can’t paper over its money woes
The LA Times looks at the truly astounding hyper-inflation affecting the Zimbabwe economy and its people. For instance, a pale blue bank note of Zimbabwean currency that says 1,000,000 Zimbabwean dollars really means 10,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s 10 quintillion, taking into account the 13 zeros Zimbabwe’s central bank has lopped off in the last couple of years to make the country’s currency somewhat more manageable. Every time the inflation gets out of hand, Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank scythes away 00000s. Inflation is soaring so fast in Zimbabwe that it’s hard to figure out what a Z$1-million note is actually worth on a given day, all with disastrous consequences for the economy.

-Steve Wilson

On December 17th, we delivered our petition with more than 86,000 signatures to President-elect Barack Obama’s foreign policy transition team.

The petition asked Obama to make a clear statement, through his upcoming inaugural address and budget priorities, that he intends to fulfill his campaign commitments to fighting poverty and preventable disease worldwide. View the petition here.

Senior members of the Obama-Biden Transition’s foreign policy team gladly accepted this petition, and were impressed by the 86,113 members –- at the time of delivery –- whom we mobilized on behalf of the world’s poorest people.

Although the initial delivery is complete, you can still sign the petition here. As the number of signers grows — hopefully hitting our new goal of 100,000 before the inauguration on January 20th — your signature will keep on working in our fight to alleviate global poverty and prevent diseases, including HIV/AIDS and malaria. We will continue using this petition in our advocacy efforts, taking every opportunity to encourage the President-elect to get us on track to meeting his pledges.

After the inaugural address on January 20th, we’ll be looking at Obama’s first Presidential budget request, for Fiscal Year 2010, and working hard to make sure it provides sufficient support for the proven, effective and affordable programs that give hope and opportunities to millions of people now living in desperate need.

Learn more about our transition strategy here.

Sign the inauguration petition here.

-Emily Stivers

In the last week, Bloomberg has featured a series of articles detailing the food crisis facing the developing world. The seven-part compilation delves into some of the challenges surrounding this crisis, and the importance of agricultural development that we have been highlighting on the blog. Last week the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that 963 million people are now hungry, which means another 40 million people have been pushed into hunger between last year and this one – an increased estimate from just two months ago. The Bloomberg article series provides a glimpse into some of the causes behind the food crisis, with several dominant themes.

Policies in the developed world can have serious impacts on the livelihood and wellbeing of developing communities. Among other policy topics, the series highlights the U.S. mandate that most of U.S. food aid be supplied and shipped from the United States. The result is that food aid can be delayed in reaching already-malnourished people in countries like Ethiopia. Similar food aid programs in Canada and the European Union allow the purchase of food near where it is to be distributed, where possible. Not only does this practice ensure that food is delivered in a more in a timely manner, but it supports local and regional economies in the developing world.

The series also examines the potential role of speculation in commodities markets, and of the possibility of fertilizer companies colluding to raise prices, in exacerbating the food crisis. From August to November, the price for potash, a particular kind of fertilizer, rose by 20 percent. This meant that farmers could not afford to apply fertilizer to their fields, leaving some unfarmed, and others producing smaller yields. When grain prices dropped earlier in the year, fertilizer prices remained high, further squeezing farmers in the developing world. The series also examines the topic of biofuels and how biofuel production can drive up commodity prices.

A lack of investment in agriculture is a central theme of the articles, which note that (more…)

Reuters: IFC launches private-sector aid funds
The International Financial Corp, the World Bank’s private-sector lender, launched funding facilities to ease the effects of the global financial crisis on companies in emerging markets. The IFC said it will work with sovereign wealth funds to invest in Africa. The package includes a doubling of the IFC trade finance program to $3 billion, a new $3 billion bank recapitalization fund and an infrastructure crisis facility, which is expected to mobilize at least $1.5 billion. Over the next three years IFC is expected to deploy about $30 billion through the funds and has invited other donors to contribute financing, including China.

London Times: Global aid in crisis as cash supply dries up
Jeffrey Sachs comments on the current economic conditions, “We have a terrible situation because the overall aid system is on its knees and that was true even before this global economic crisis.” International aid programs are in crisis, governments are not honoring funding promises, individual donors are skeptical about aid policies and wealthy philanthropists are losing money in the economic turmoil, the Times reports.

Associated Press: UN: Zimbabwe cholera death toll at 1,123
Update on the Zimbabwe situation: the cholera death toll has reached 1,123.

Guardian: Morgan Tsvangirai threatens to quit talks over Zimbabwe abductions
Secondly, the Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has threatened to quit power-sharing negotiations with the government unless authorities produce dozens of opponents who have been abducted and disappeared in recent weeks. Tsvangirai also called for fresh elections if a coalition government is not put in place soon. Mugabe remains defiant. The state-run Herald newspaper reported him as taunting other African leaders, saying they lacked the courage to use force to remove him from power.

-Chandler Smith