Archive for December, 2008
ONE recently prepared a set of transition documents for President-elect Obama’s transition team. These documents essentially represented ONE’s best effort to put in writing a set of recommendations for how the Obama team could put its vision for development into action after taking office. The booklet included issue specific recommendations that could be implemented both in the short and longer term.
All of these recommendations are meant to fit into Obama’s broader vision for fighting poverty and making the Millennium Development Goals America’s own goals for development. In order to do so, President-elect Obama also committed to double U.S. spending on development assistance by $25 billion. In an effort to tie the two together, ONE’s transition document includes a section outlining the annual expenditures necessary to reach this goal over five years. It lists each of Obama’s existing commitments to development and added those priorities that ONE recommended to fulfill the overall vision. All of these things can be accomplished with an increase of $23.96 billion by fiscal year 2013.
While this increase sounds large, it still only represents less than 1% of the U.S. federal budget and can provide significant assistance to countries struggling to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Some of the priorities and commitments we include are:
- Fully funding PEPFAR, tuberculosis and malaria as authorized in the Lantos-Hyde act passed this year
- Create an initiative to build long-term agricultural capacity
- Work toward universal primary education by signing and funding the Education for All Bill
- Create and small and medium enterprise fund to support economic growth in Africa
These are just a few of the ideas mentioned in the briefing.
The scale up acknowledges that the United States is currently facing a difficult economic crisis and that therefore the new Administration will have to strategically choose which priorities to invest in immediately and which will have to be initiated a year or two down the line. Ultimately however, despite the difficult budget environment facing the U.S. in this upcoming year, ONE hopes that the Obama administration will begin the scale up with a total increase of $4 billion over the spending level in fiscal year 2008 so that those most critical initiatives can begin their scale up. Delaying the effort will only make annual increases required in future years more difficult to achieve. You can view the chart showing scale-up here.
-Erin Thornton, Policy Director, ONE
Guardian—Don’t neglect Aids crisis in Zimbabwe, warn health workers
Health workers in Zimbabwe are warning that international alarm over the spreading cholera emergency is overshadowing the AIDS crisis, which is killing as many people every three days. The rising death toll from cholera, more than 1,000, has become the most visible sign of Zimbabwe’s implosion. But cholera and the failure of the sewerage system are symptoms of the wider collapse of the country. Aid workers speak of a silent catastrophe in which people are dying of AIDS by the hundreds every day for want of medicines and sufficient food because the government has blocked foreign aid workers from reaching many of the most vulnerable. The UN says AIDS kills more than 400 Zimbabweans each day.
Reuters—WTO members consider early cotton deal
Developing countries yesterday called at the World Trade Organization for an early deal on cotton, now that chances of an overall agreement in the Doha round have been put back well into 2009 at the earliest. A deal on cotton is a litmus test of the WTO’s ability to create a fairer trading system for developing countries, experts say. West African cotton producers, backed by other developing nations, are leading the charge against trade-distorting U.S. subsidies which they say squeeze their own poor farmers out of the market.
Financial Times—Africa offers intriguing prospects
As global financial markets continue their downhill slide, investors are increasingly looking to Africa as a place to put their money. The IMF’s most recent outlook for the sub-Saharan African region says growth is likely to slow from 6.5 percent in 2007 to 6 percent in 2008—a slight slowdown that compares favorably with western markets in deep recession. However, while the IMF report highlights the region’s relative insulation from financial volatility in global markets, it also urges caution surrounding Africa’s immediate economic future, noting that aid and overall private capital flowing into the continent will likely slow.
Washington Times—LARSON: Madness in Zimbabwe
In a Washington Times op-ed, professor Charles Larson adds to the chorus of outrage at the situation in Zimbabwe, writing that the cholera outbreak is simply the latest example of President Robert Mugabe’s inability to face reality. Larson says it’s time for the West to take more dramatic action. He proposes measures to shut down Mugabe’s government through cutting off government bank accounts and limiting Mugabe’s ability to travel freely.
-Steve Wilson
Last week over 10,000 people from more than 160 countries gathered in the old industrial town of Poznan, Poland to try to advance talks for a global treaty on climate change. But at the UN climate change conference, which ended in the wee hours of the morning Saturday, negotiators didn’t shown the urgency and political will needed to fight climate change and keep millions of people safe.
Global warming threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions – if not billions – of people. The poorest, most vulnerable communities are being affected directly – first and worst – despite being least responsible for the crisis.
Already, the impacts of climate change are making their mark. In Bangladesh, increased floods are washing away homes and crops, while changing weather patterns in Uganda mean farmers are gambling with to sow seeds, risking having them wash away in torrential rains or dry up in drought. And it’s only going to get worse. Across Africa, 75 million to 250 million people could face severe water shortages by 2020. Action is needed now.
Developed countries, those most responsible for climate change, arrived in Poland empty-handed and unwilling to engage in constructive discussions to move further towards a global deal in Copenhagen next December. Poor countries put forward important proposals, including Mexico’s bold announcement of plans to halve its emissions by 2050. But the EU, Australia and others seemed asleep at the wheel.
Some important progress on the Adaptation Fund, which was created to help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, was achieved, but this is only a small part of the overall solution that poor people require.
A deal in Copenhagen next December is still possible, and more urgent and necessary than ever. In the coming year, developed countries must stop floundering and demonstrate commitment and leadership at the highest levels. Let’s tell them to get busy soon!
-Laura Rusu, Oxfam America
Associated Press: UN agency: $5.2 billion needed to provide food aid
The U.N.’s World Food Program says it needs $5.2 billion for urgent food aid and is calling on countries to contribute a fraction of what they are proposing for financial rescue packages.
Global Media: Agricultural investment needed to quell the mounting food crisis
This week the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) projected a rise in malnutrition in developing countries over the next decade, which could result in 16 million more undernourished youth by 2020. IFPRI’s report recommended three policy actions: (1) promote pro-poor agricultural growth, (2) reduce market volatility, and (3) expand social protection and child nutrition action.
Wall Street Journal: Defeat Malaria? Yes We Can. (opinion)
Jean Stéphenne, president and general manager of GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, discusses the success of his companies’ most recently vetted vaccine. He says that supplying this vaccine is the right thing to do, and that creative thinking and effective partnerships are key to its successful implementation.
-Chandler Smith
Greetings from snowy Oslo, Norway, where government ministers, campaigners and education experts are currently gathered for the High Level Group meeting on Education for All. The conference is the eighth annual since the historic World Education Forum in 2000, which set forth the Dakar Framework for Action, a roadmap to achieve quality education for all by 2015.
Participants here in Oslo are acutely aware that halfway towards the target date set for achieving the goals set out in Dakar and the MDG targets on education, the world remains seriously off track: according to new statistics published a couple weeks ago in UNESCO’s annual Global Monitoring Report (GMR), there are still 75 million primary-school aged children out-of-school around the world, 35 million of whom are living in sub-Saharan Africa. 55% of these children are girls, and over one-third live in fragile states. If current trends continue, 29 million children will still be out of primary school in 2015.
Another common thread in many of the discussions here is (more…)
This year, ONE worked with the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign (USGLC) in their efforts to garner Congressional support for bipartisan letters asking President-elect Obama to make greater investments in diplomacy and development. Today the USGLC announced that a record 217 members of Congress signed on to the letters pledging their support for a robust U.S. International Affairs Budget. This includes 51 Senators and 166 Representatives (you can see the full list here).
As we keep you updated on day-to-day developments in the Obama team’s transition process, strong grassroots support will be needed to ensure Congress and the president-elect provide greater foreign aid. With the help of ONE members and activists across the United States, the USGLC has mounted a very successful campaign to seek broad bipartisan support from our elected officials in the fight against extreme poverty.
You can read more about today’s news here.
-Chris Scott
Last week the Board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) determined which countries will be invited to submit compact or threshold proposals for FY 2009. The MCC is a U.S. government corporation that aims to reduce global poverty in the world’s poorest countries through the promotion of sustainable economic growth. Each year the MCC selects countries to submit proposals for either a compact or a threshold agreement with the MCC. Through the compact agreement, the MCC provides funding and technical assistance for poverty-reduction projects designated by the developing country. Threshold agreements assist countries in strengthening certain indicators to help them become compact-eligible. The board’s decision is based on a set of indicators countries need to meet in order to be compact-eligible that determine the country’s investment in people, economic freedom and commitment to democracy as well as their efforts to fighting corruption. The MCC released a press statement detailing the results of the meeting.
Three countries – Colombia, Indonesia, and Zambia – were invited to submit a compact proposal for large-scale funding for development projects. In addition, Liberia is eligible to submit a proposal for threshold program funding and support. Paraguay was invited to submit a Stage II Threshold proposal to continue to assist the country in achieving the indicators that will make it compact eligible. This is the first time the MCC has proposed a Stage II Threshold Program for countries who do not meet the compact-eligible indicators, but have made excellent progress through the threshold program towards achieving those indicators.
Jordan, Malawi, Moldova, Senegal, and the Philippines, who were invited last year to submit a compact proposal to the MCC, will be able to continue the process of developing compacts for FY 2009. However, the MCC has specifically stated that it will not sign a compact with the Philippines until it passes the indicator criteria on corruption.
The board voted to suspend assistance for new activities in Nicaragua, which has a $175 million MCC compact, due to actions taken by the Nicaraguan government that are inconsistent with the MCC’s eligibility criteria. Nicaragua passed all indicators except for Control of Corruption, for which they met the median score. However, the political conditions leading up to, during, and after the recent elections were not in line with the MCC’s commitment to policies that promote political freedom and civil liberties. The Board will determine subsequent actions regarding Nicaragua at their next meeting, based on the response of the Nicaraguan government.
The MCC announced that several countries are no longer eligible to submit a proposal for a compact program. These countries – Bolivia, Ukraine, and Timor-Leste – were in the process of preparing their compacts, but had not yet signed commitments with the MCC. Ukraine and Timor-Leste fail several indicators including the hard hurdle on Control of Corruption. Bolivia passed all indicators, but have essentially severed ties with the U.S. Timor-Leste was made eligible as a threshold country instead. The MCC will continue to work with Ukraine on implementation of their threshold program. Yemen, who was in the process of submitting a threshold program proposal, is no longer eligible for threshold assistance due to deterioration of policies in the country.
This was the last meeting of the current MCC board. The new board will convene in March of 2009.
-Beth Adler
