It’s a bittersweet day for me. Today is my last day at ONE, as I’ve accepted a position at the White House. Working with all of you to fight extreme poverty has been the best job I’ve ever had. It has been exciting, humbling and rewarding. We’ve worked hard to make sure that the case for our shared fight against extreme poverty—which is so clear and compelling to us—becomes obvious to others.

In the coming months, ONE will be actively searching for a new CEO to help guide and grow our organization. In the interim, one of our board members—Joshua Bolten – has agreed to fill this role. As many of you know, Josh is currently a visiting professor at Princeton and has spent years in the US government at the highest levels. I am extremely grateful to Josh for stepping in to this role and I know he is excited to work closely with all of you.

As I reflect on my time at ONE, one of the things I am most proud of is that we have become a truly global movement. We now have members in over 100 countries on 7 continents. ONE’s membership and staff are a committed, passionate, and diverse group from across the political and social spectrum. You represent different political parties, nationalities, faiths, and walks of life. It is our deep commitment to the fight against extreme poverty that allows us, and propels us, to transcend differences and harness our strengths in a powerful way.

And, I’ve seen with my own eyes the awesome power of millions of people from all corners of the globe, from all walks of life, working together to end poverty. I am as proud as I’ve ever been to stand beside all of you, and I will remain a loyal ONE member today and always.

Thank you for everything.

David Lane

Increased political leadership and funding from Russia is important for its own needs and to address these major health challenges globally.

Among other things, Bono and the president also discussed the critically important need to fight corruption and promote transparency, particularly in the extractives industry.

ONE and Bono recently fought hard to help pass legislation in the US that will increase transparency in the extractives industry by ensuring corporations have to report payments to governments for oil, gas and minerals. It is important that similar rules are passed in other world capitals as well.

Bono shared a quote from the day of the meeting, which I wanted to share:

“I was honoured to meet with the Russian President today. We talked about the effectiveness of the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, which saves 4,000 lives a day and for which Product (RED) raises cash.

If this lifesaver is fully financed the world could stop any children getting HIV in childbirth by 2015, a visionary goal and a great opportunity for Russian leadership.

We also discussed the importance of fighting corruption as part of the effort to end extreme poverty, and I asked for the President’s advice on how to ensure the new energy sector transparency legislation our organisation ONE lobbied for in America, which covers all companies registered on the New York Stock exchange, could now spread to London, Moscow and other global stock exchanges.

He raised Russian leadership in agriculture and we discussed what more can be done to increase world food production, keep down prices and feed the hungry.

There are great opportunities for Russian leadership on all these fronts at the forthcoming UN and G20 meetings.”

I don’t want to oversimplify this; vaccines are not a cure-all, and they don’t guarantee good health. But they do help make sure that millions of children and adults don’t die from preventable diseases. Take the vaccines for rotavirus and pneumococcal disease-the two biggest disease killers of children under five. Distribution of these two vaccines could save the lives of 7.6 million children under the age of five during the next 10 years.

Recently, Bill and Melinda Gates called for a Decade of Vaccines to help research, develop and deliver vaccines to the world’s poor. During the next month, the ONE blog will feature guest posts that we hope will build on this conversation. Many of our partners will share what they think are the necessary steps to make the next ten years of vaccines as successful as possible. They’ll also share what role their organization will play in making it a reality. And we hope you’ll comment on their posts and share your thoughts, too.

This blog series is just the first step in a larger campaign to educate ONE’s members, the public, and key decision makers about the critical benefits of vaccines. I hope you enjoy, learn from and comment on this series over the coming weeks. I know you’ll become as excited about this opportunity as I am.

To help set the stage for our journey, a couple of us attended a lecture today in New York by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, ONE’s International Patron and one of the most important voices in the world today. As usual, we were inspired by his compassion and provoked by his wisdom (we are also very grateful for the blessing he bestowed as we begin this journey). Archbishop Tutu reminded us of the great African concept of “Ubuntu”, which speaks to oneness of all humanity. As he described this concept not long ago:

“One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.”

This powerful African idea will guide us on our journey and will continue to shape our everyday work.

We embark on this trip at a critical moment in Africa’s development, a time of dramatic changes in thinking and citizen action across the diverse countries on the continent. It is also a vibrant time of new and innovative thinking about development assistance and economic development more broadly. ONE is in the middle of these intellectual currents.

When ONE began its work, there was a critical need to prove that investments in development could deliver results. Fortunately, global efforts to respond to the AIDS crisis and the scourge of malaria, as well as efforts to put children in school, have resulted in remarkable successes. During this period, knowledge and evidence related to the programs we’ve worked to support have grown, as has ONE as an organization. We always strive to know better what works and what doesn’t, and we want to hear ideas for how to continue to improve our work and further our mission to effectively combat extreme poverty and preventable disease.

The backdrop for our visit is dynamic; 2010 is a pivotal year that will put Africa – as the host of the World Cup – on the global stage, with an opportunity to reintroduce the continent to viewers around the world. At the same time, after a decade of robust economic growth, Africa has been hit hard by the global economic downturn. As the global economy continues to shift, a still heavier emphasis will be placed on emerging economies and their role in Africa’s development.

Throughout the trip, we will be guided by African leaders and leading thinkers including Dr. Mo Ibrahim, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, KY Amoako, Youssou N’Dour, John Githongo and Donald Kaberuka. With their help, we will explore key questions on the trip, including:

• After a decade of rapidly increasing investment in social sector programs, what lessons have been learned about the most effective way to use these programs to advance development?
• Are there things ONE can do to support improved governance in Africa and promote a vibrant civil society and citizen-led accountability efforts?
• What can development programs do to promote private sector progress and increased investment in Africa? What, if anything, can ONE do to help?

We will seek especially to hear the perspectives of those outside the government: civil society, the private sector, students, and cultural and artistic communities. We approach this trip with genuinely open minds, eager to hear from Africans about what they seek and what they think our role should be.

We look forward to sharing observations, insights, and lessons learned along the way as we listen during these next ten days. We will use this blog to share observations, insights, and lessons learned along the way – both directly from the those we meet along the way and from those of us on the trip. Stay tuned.

We’ve put together a short video featuring some of the highlights from 2009. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did. Afterward, take a moment to share it with your friends and ask them to make a New Year’s resolution to join ONE and become part of this global movement to end poverty.

Thank you for making a difference,

David Lane
President, ONE.org

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has offered up some tough talk on her seven-nation, 11 day trip to Africa. While it’s caused some discomfort among African statesman, it’s precisely what citizens throughout the continent, particularly young Africans, have been demanding from their leaders.

Building on President Obama’s recent speech in Ghana, Secretary Clinton has made it clear that America has no tolerance for the corruption and impunity that has sadly plagued the independence generation in many African states. “Leaders have to lead. They have to demonstrate to their people that democracy does deliver,” Clinton stated in Kenya on the first leg of her tour. It’s a message that puts wind in the sails of a rising generation of Africans who are unwilling to accept the status quo. They’re demanding jobs, accountability and tangible results from their leaders. They’re similarly frustrated with donors that reward bad behavior with unaccountable and ineffective aid.

As President Obama said in Egypt and Ghana, democratic and economic development go hand-in-hand. Good governance, transparent leadership and control of corruption are critical components for a prosperous nation; it is equally true that democracy is difficult when a country can’t develop because it’s stuck in extreme poverty, when citizens aren’t empowered through education, and when families, communities and businesses are torn apart by deaths from preventable diseases like malaria and AIDS.

Poor countries that are committed to stable, accountable governance are typically committed to improving the lives of their citizens. Take Ghana for example, a country I recently visited. Ghana has seen five consecutive, peaceful transitions of power, the latest decided by fewer than 40,000 votes. As Ghana’s commitment to transparent governance and rule of law has deepened, development and growth have taken hold. Ghana has posted close to 5% annual growth for the last two decades, increased primary school enrollment rates for boys and girls over 20% from 2004 to 2008 and has nearly halved its poverty rate since 1992.

But tough talk goes both ways–and many African leaders are similarly tired of business as usual. As the leaders of Senegal, Liberia, Rwanda and Botswana recently articulated in a Forbes op-ed, “Africa seeks not patrons but collaborators who will work ‘with’ rather than ‘for’ the continent.” They want equal partnership, not North-South patronage. What does that mean? It means we must improve our development assistance so that it’s transparent and accountable to the Africans it’s designed to serve. Equally important, it means complementing this aid with our full array of non-aid tools–strengthening trade through the removal of barriers, working with Africa to increase trade capacity and to encourage trade between African countries, providing loan guarantees to attract more foreign direct investment and financing for low-cost energy infrastructure, and taking meaningful action to hunt down Africa’s looted assets. The Millennium Challenge Corporation, started during the Bush Administration, and the Obama Administration’s new long-term agriculture initiative unveiled at the G8 in July, are strong examples of a comprehensive approach that puts developing countries in the driver’s seat.

When equal partnership works, we’ve seen what it can do. Smart development investments and strong African leadership have led to remarkable breakthroughs in the fight against extreme poverty and infectious disease: 34 million additional African children have now seen the inside of a classroom, malaria rates have been halved in Rwanda and Ethiopia, and approximately 3.2 million Africans now have access to life-saving AIDS medicine, up from only 50,000 in 2002. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the U.S.’s duty-free trade program with Africa, has also created 200,000 jobs and increased imports from sub-Saharan Africa to the U.S. more than three-fold from 2001 to 2007.

Africa’s been hit hard by the global economic crisis, rising food prices and climate change. So to make sure the continent’s progress isn’t completely overturned, it’s time for Africa and the U.S. to step up. It’s time for African leaders to listen to their citizens’ calls for more jobs, greater transparency and better standards of living. It’s also time for the U.S. to treat Africa like a true partner, focusing on better trade, effective aid and a stronger emphasis on investments. In order for this relationship to work, it must be a two-way street.

Please visit our Invest in Agriculture campaign to send a message below to your senators now and help us hit our goal of 50,000 ONE members calling on the Senate to do everything in its power to tackle the root causes of global hunger.

This action couldn’t be more urgent. Tomorrow—at the same time the Senate Appropriations Committee makes its final decisions on anti-poverty funding—President Obama and other top world leaders will be meeting in Rome for the G8 Summit. If we can convince the Senate to step-up the fight against hunger now, it will put tremendous pressure on other countries to invest in a global effort to end hunger.

The possibility of a new global commitment to ending hunger starts with our senators. They need to hear from us about how important it is to invest in global agriculture and give the world’s poorest people – the vast majority of whom are employed in agriculture—the chance to grow their way out of poverty.

Here in Washington, we’re doing everything we can to back up your campaign by meeting with key staff on the Hill to deliver your message. If you take action to speak on behalf of those who don’t have a voice, we’ll make sure you are heard in these final, critical hours.

-David Lane

In a few days, ONE and our partner organization, (RED), will be headed to Ethiopia and Ghana with a diverse delegation of policy and business leaders to see how strong African leadership and smart donor policies and investments are helping everyday Africans fight their way out of poverty.

You may recall we took a similar trip to Rwanda last summer with an impressive bipartisan group led by former US Senators Tom Daschle and Bill Frist. This trip will have a similar focus. The delegation will explore a wide spectrum of issues and hear from a variety of Africans in an effort to learn which policies and investments are achieving results, what programs and approaches are not working and what more is needed.

The delegation will visit health, agriculture, education and trade projects and meet with government leaders, program implementers, entrepreneurs, intellectuals and everyday Africans. In Ghana, we will spotlight how (RED) proceeds and the power of (RED) consumer action are helping to provide lifesaving treatment to thousands of people who are HIV positive.

We’re very fortunate to be joined on this trip by Josh Bolten, former Chief of Staff to President Bush and ONE Board member; Tony Lake, former National Security Advisor to President Clinton, professor at Georgetown and Board member of US Fund for UNICEF; former Senator John Sununu who was a key supporter of U.S. anti-poverty initiatives; Sandy Berger, former National Security Advisor to President Clinton and a major actor in the debt relief efforts of 2000; Maggie Williams, former Hillary Clinton campaign manager and advisor, Tony Fratto, former Deputy Press Secretary to President Bush; Bo Cutter, a former budget and economic advisor to Presidents Carter and Clinton and currently the Chairman of the Board of CARE; Hunter Biden, a Partner at Seneca Global Advisors, as well as business and creative leaders like Juliet Flint from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Tom Freston, ONE’s Board Chairman and former CEO of Viacom, MTV executive Bill Flanagan, (RED) executives Susan Smith Ellis and Seb Bishop and Google executive Megan Smith.

We’ll all be sharing our experiences throughout the trip and when we return, so watch this space and follow along.

-David Lane, ONE President & CEO

At that landmark moment, Barack Obama will set the stage for his next four years in office, and potentially dramatic changes in U.S. foreign policy. Please add your name to our petition to President-elect Obama asking him to make a clear statement in his inaugural address affirming his vision for helping the world’s poorest people:

President-elect Obama,

In your inaugural address, please make a clear affirmation of your pledge to fight poverty and preventable diseases worldwide, and support that statement with an FY2010 budget request that puts the U.S. on track to meet your historic commitments.

This January, the eyes of the nation and the world will be on Barack Obama. Let’s ask him to share the spotlight with those who are most in need.

Thank you for making a difference,

David Lane, ONE.org

I think our delegation returned from Rwanda inspired by what can be achieved and encouraged by America’s role in supporting that country’s groundbreaking efforts. We were fortunate to have such a diverse and distinguished group together for such a concentrated period of time – a rare thing these days. The group chemistry was great and we generated a number of valuable discussions.

Here are a few of the important ideas I think our delegation took away from their experience in Rwanda:

First and foremost, we were able to witness firsthand the remarkable resilience of the African spirit and the unwavering commitment to creating a better future. Here in the U.S., we are accustomed to reading about African failures-famine, conflict and, yes, genocide. But Rwanda is a clear example of how African countries are rebuilding and moving forward aggressively and progressively. We saw how central women have been to this rebuilding process, from governing and reviving the economy to reconciling and healing the nation. This leadership and commitment is translating into dramatic progress in the fight against poverty and disease.

Second, we saw that partnership with the United States and other donors is critical to realizing Rwanda’s vision for a healthy, well-educated and prosperous country. This is true across Africa, where American partnership and support has helped catalyze and consolidate gains in poverty reduction.

Third, we came away mindful that the sustainability of our investments in the region depends on the strength of Africa’s underlying delivery systems. These systems include a need for reliable, low cost energy and infrastructure, as well as human resource capacity, faster growth of exportable goods and increased regional trade. I believe this underscored the importance of long-term U.S. investments in areas like infrastructure and education.

Fourth, and in a similar vein, we heard repeatedly about the importance of achieving more efficiency in the delivery of U.S. assistance. U.S. programs are often implemented in a way that works around host governments rather than through them. But in the case of well-governed countries like Rwanda, we were told the U.S. should consider providing more flexible financing, including experimenting with direct budget support. Providing such support, in conjunction with stringent transparency and accountability measures, would ensure that more aid is used for its intended purpose. It would also have the benefit of strengthening the government’s ability to manage and coordinate donor investments.

And lastly, while Rwanda is truly an exceptional country, it’s important to remember that Rwanda is certainly not the only success story in the region. Africa is a continent on the move and what we saw in Rwanda is being replicated elsewhere in places like Ghana, Liberia and Tanzania. Our challenge is to help replicate these successes everywhere.

These are just some of the impressions I want to leave you with. Thanks for following along.

-David Lane