Charity must not become a casualty of the recession
In the grip of the downturn, we need to move from donor and receiver to true partnerships, writes Richard Branson. He emphasizes that we need to revolutionize the way businesses and the social sector work together.
Foreign Aid and Bad Government
America should stop pouring billions into bureaucracies to buy short-term alliances and focus its efforts on bottom-up entrepreneurship, according to this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. The author, Iqbal Z. Quadir, founder and director of MIT’s Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, sets forth an approach that President Obama should adopt. In this plan, America should: a) remove trade barriers on exports from the poorest countries; b) bolster small entrepreneurs with seed money in the range of $25,000; c) give $1 million to match any grass-roots group capable of raising $1 million to establish a health clinic.
New York Times: Poverty, Climate Change … and Recession (Blog)
A look at the links between policies aimed at curbing climate change and those designed to alleviate the suffering of the world’s poorest. As poverty campaigners make climate change as a priority issue and as international institutions propose solutions, it is important to remember that many nations are too poor to invest in cleaner energy systems, or to curb deforestation, which releases greenhouse gases.
AFP: AIDS fund chief appeals for US leadership
The head of the global fund against AIDS and other diseases in poor countries on Thursday urged the Obama administration to take the lead in overcoming a multi-billion dollar funding gap despite the economic crisis.
Reuters: U.N. urges African economies to diversify
Africa must boost food production and diversify its economies into manufacturing and services to cut the impact of future shocks like the current financial crisis, the United Nations said Thursday.
The New York Times is reporting that Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has decided to join a power-sharing government as prime minister with President Robert Mugabe. This decision was reached unanimously at a meeting of the opposition party’s leadership in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. The Times reports that it will “usher in a new phase in the opposition’s decade-long struggle against Mr. Mugabe, 84, and his almost 30-year grip on power.” We’ll bring you any further developments as they occur.
Mr. Tsvangirai now faces the daunting job of reviving Zimbabwe’s moribund economy and rescuing an increasingly famished, sick and impoverished population with a partner, Mr. Mugabe, whose security forces have viciously beaten Mr. Tsvangirai and thousands of his supporters over the past two years and abducted and allegedly tortured dozens more in just the last few months.
But after more than four months of deadlock and uncertainty following Mr. Tsvangirai’s signing of the power-sharing deal with Mr. Mugabe, his followers reacted with hope that he might be able to stop the country’s accelerating downward spiral.
The challenges are monumental, and the distrust of Mr. Mugabe is so deep that it is uncertain whether the United States and European nations will lift sanctions and infuse substantial new aid for the reconstruction of Zimbabwe until they have solid evidence that he will agree to sweeping changes in the country’s disastrous economic policies, the restoration of the rule of law and democracy.
On Thursday evening Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-20) held a town hall meeting at the Nautilus Middle School in Miami Beach to discuss the stimulus bill that recently passed the House of Representatives as well as other issues that are important to her constituents.
During the question and answer portion of the evening, Miami ONE Member, Danielle DePas spoke about how the economic crisis is not only impacting those within the United States but also many people around the world, especially those living in extreme poverty. She asked the Congresswoman if she would support continued foreign assistance and if she would work to empower women in poverty.
The Congresswoman expressed strong support for continued and increased foreign aid and assistance and stated that she thought poverty issues would be a priority under the new administration and especially for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
After the town hall ended we had a chance to speak directly with Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz and thank her for her support. She enthusiastically took a wrist band and asked us to stay in touch with her and her staff as we work to take on the challenges of extreme poverty and preventable diseases.
President Obama spoke by phone yesterday with South African President Kgalema Motlanthe and said Pretoria had an important role to play in helping resolve Zimbabwe’s political crisis. “President Obama emphasized the importance of South Africa’s leadership role as a strong and vibrant democracy in Africa. The two leaders discussed their shared concerns about the situation in Zimbabwe,” the White House said in a statement.
Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate has spiked to 94 percent, meaning that fewer than half a million people in the country are formally employed, the UN’s humanitarian arm said today. “At close of 2008, only six percent of the population was formally employed, down from 30 percent in 2003,” said a report from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
And the dire news continues from Zimbabwe as more than half of the country’s population will need food aid in February and March, the World Food Program (WFP) said on Thursday. The WFP said in a statement that it aims to assist 5.1 million people in February while a group of U.S.-sponsored aid organizations plans to assist 1.8 million more people in the southern African country.
Reuters—Africa must focus on infrastructure despite crisis
Africa risks a “lost decade” of under-development if it neglects projects to boost energy and transport infrastructure because of the global financial crisis, the World Bank said on Wednesday. Inger Andersen, a senior World Bank infrastructure official, said initial hopes that Africa might be spared the worst of the global credit crunch were premature. Governments will be hit by falling demand for commodities, reduced revenues from remittances, tourism and domestic taxes, he said.
AP—EU proposes tens of billions in aid to help poor nations meet climate change targets
The European Union promised billions of dollars in aid to the world’s poorest nations on Wednesday to entice them to sign a new global climate change pact. The plan is part of the EU’s negotiating position for the U.N.-sponsored climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year. Dimas said financing would be vital for getting global agreement in Copenhagen, adding that developing countries can ill afford to pay an estimated $71.1 billion per year by 2030 to meet climate change commitments.
Christian Science Monitor—How to feed the hungry billion
The Christian Science Monitor argues that relatively quick and substantial progress can be made in the fight against hunger and malnutrition if nations rededicate themselves to international aid for agriculture, which has dropped from 13 percent of all development aid in the early 1980s to only 3 percent now. For example, simply improving food storage could increase production by 30 to 40 percent in many poor countries, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. In addition, building roads could get more goods to market. In sub-Saharan Africa, just 4 percent of arable land is irrigated, compared with 38 percent in Asia.
International Herald Tribune: Bill Gates’ Next Big Thing: Helping the Developing World
In this article, Kristof anticipates Bill Gates’ open letter which was published on Monday. He praises much of the work that the Foundation is doing, but also notes that more work lies ahead (particularly in leveraging the revolution in social entrepreneurship and more effective advocacy). “But if Gates manages to accomplish as much in the world of vaccines, health and food production as he thinks he can,” Kristof says, “then the consequences will be staggering.”
Reuters: UN chief warns more could go hungry in crisis year
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday said rich nations had to do more to prevent the economic crisis from adding to an already intolerable 1 billion people going hungry in the world.
The Guardian: Liberia Declares State of Emergency as Caterpillar Plague Wrecks Crops
Liberia has declared a state of emergency over a plague of caterpillars that has destroyed plants and crops and contaminated water supplies, threatening an already fragile food situation. Tens of millions of marching caterpillars have invaded at least 80 towns and villages in central and northern Liberia, preventing some farmers from reaching their fields and causing others to flee their homes.
Uncertainty remains over the future of power-sharing negotiations after the opposition said it would not accept the outcome of last weekend’s regional summit.
Zimbabwe will present its annual budget this week, which analysts expect to contain desperate measures in the wake of economic collapse amid political crisis.
Anti-apartheid activist Kumi is going on a hunger strike to pressure the South African government to demand faster political change in Zimbabwe and urge African leaders to isolate the country’s president, Robert Mugabe.
The European Union has tightened its sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, EU officials have said. More than 60 individuals and firms with links to Mr Mugabe have been added to a list of those banned from travelling to the EU or doing business there.
The Center for Global Development authors a memo to President Obama outlining what the new administration can do to restore democracy in Zimbabwe.
Most schools in Zimbabwe stayed closed yesterday on the first day of term, presaging a second year in a row of almost no education for the country’s children.
President Obama wants a fresh approach to toppling Robert Mugabe and is discussing with aides an unprecedented, US-led diplomatic push to get tough new UN sanctions imposed against the Zimbabwe regime, The Times has learned. During talks Mr Obama has had with his top Africa advisers in recent weeks, the central idea they focused on was taking the issue of Zimbabwe before the UN Security Council, but for the first time to combine such a move with an intense diplomatic effort to persuade Russia and China not to block the initiative.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
