Blog Contributor:
David Lane
David Lane is President and Chief Executive Officer of ONE, an advocacy and campaigning organization focused on combating global poverty and preventable disease, with more than 2 million members from around the world. Prior to joining the team at ONE, Lane was the Director of Public Policy and External Affairs and Director of the East Coast Office (located in Washington, DC) for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. From 1993 through 2000, Lane served in a number of senior positions in the federal government, including Executive Director of the National Economic Council at the White House and Chief of Staff of the US Department of Commerce. Before joining the Clinton Administration, he worked as a management consultant and as a foreign policy legislative assistant in the U.S. Senate.
He has his Master of Public Affairs degree from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia. Lane is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Vice-Chair of the Board of Transparency International USA.
Jun 12th, 2009 1:00 PM UTC
By David Lane
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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
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Nov 20th, 2008 6:00 PM UTC
By David Lane
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On a historic Tuesday in January, as many as four million people from around the country will converge on the national mall, with tens of millions more watching from home, all with one purpose: to hear what the newly-inaugurated President has to say.
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
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Aug 1st, 2008 12:50 PM UTC
By David Lane
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 All of us here at ONE are about to escape DC’s infamous August heat and take a much-needed week of vacation. But before we go, I wanted to share a few concluding thoughts about our visit to Rwanda.
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, (more…)
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Jul 8th, 2008 5:14 PM UTC
By David Lane
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Later this month, the ONE Campaign is set to reach out to senior advisors and key political voices from the Democratic and Republican parties as we continue to make the case that aid works, that American leadership can help a generation of people break the brutal cycle of extreme poverty. To drive that point home, we’re headed to Rwanda with an impressive roster of folks. We’re fortunate to have people who understand what’s at stake, both in terms of the lives which are on the line from poverty and preventable disease, and in terms of the benefit for America’s renewed leadership role in the world through expanded investment and assistance in these terribly poor countries.
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The trip will be led by former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist – the two men who, for the past year, have co-chaired our ONE Vote ’08 effort. They’ll be joined by people like John Podesta (who was Chief of Staff to President Clinton and heads the Center for American Progress), Mike Huckabee (former Governor of Arkansas who expressed support for the ONE platform when he was running for the GOP nomination), and John Kasich (former member of the House of Representatives who worked as House Budget Committee Chairman). Cindy McCain will join the bipartisan trip as well. Mrs. McCain has a solid history of work in the fight against extreme poverty and preventable global disease. She’s served on the Board of Directors to ONE-partner CARE International since 2005. She founded the American Voluntary Medical Team in 1988, organizing trips for medical personnel to provide emergency care to disaster-struck or war-torn regions. She also serves on the boards for the non-profits Operation Smile and the HALO Trust.
The American people have made an incredible difference in the lives of millions of people struggling to survive extreme, brutal poverty. Our next president has the opportunity to finish the job – to finally erase preventable diseases from the planet and eliminate the kind of suffocating poverty which claims thousands of lives a day. We know the way, but we need our next president to show the will. That’s why we’re bringing this group of people to Rwanda. Each of them is in a unique position to help shape the policies and priorities of the man who could be our next president, and we want the fight against extreme poverty and preventable diseases to be front and center.
In Rwanda, we’ll visit places where PEPFAR is providing funds to save lives at risk from HIV/AIDS. We’ll stop at a school to hear from the students about the importance of their education to break free from extreme poverty. We’ll hear from farmers about their efforts to grow more crops and address the food crisis by growing their way out of it. All told, it will be an eye-opening trip, and one that we hope pays off with stronger policy commitments to the issues we care so much about – ending poverty and disease — from the two leading presidential candidates.
We’ll send updates from the trip and let you know how things are going.
-David Lane
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Jul 1st, 2008 10:34 AM UTC
By David Lane
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 One week from today, world leaders will gather in the lakeside town of Toyako, Hokkaido in northern Japan for the 2008 G8 Summit. We like to talk about “big moments” in the advocacy world and this is certainly one of them. The 2008 G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit will bring the world’s wealthiest nations together during a year that marks the halfway point to both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the G8 Gleneagles promises to Africa. Earlier this month, we launched the 2008 edition of the DATA Report, which shows quite plainly that the G8 are dangerously behind on these landmark commitments.
 But the cold hard facts of the DATA Report also tell another, more positive story – that even the modest increases in aid from the G8 are turning into inspiring successes. 29 million more African kids are in primary school and 2 million Africans are receiving lifesaving AIDS treatment, to name just two.
That’s why ONE and other partners are so determined to keep G8 leaders accountable to their commitments: we know our aid dollars are working.
In 2008, we’ve been hard at work in the US, Japan and other G8 countries to lay the groundwork for a summit that gets the G8 back on track. Our job as advocates is admittedly not an easy one this year. Soaring energy costs and a weak global economy have put the squeeze on national budgets.
But 2008 is also a year that’s seen millions of poor people priced out of the market for food, threatening to erase many of the recent gains in poverty reduction. Given all the global attention on the food crisis, we think there’s a real chance the G8 will announce a plan to reverse decades of underinvestment in the agriculture sector and maybe even do something visionary, such as investing in an agricultural revolution in Africa.
We’ll also be watching closely to see if the G8 provide an accountable timetable for delivering on their $60b health financing commitment from 2007 and announce new support for health workers.
We’ll be tracking all the important issues and events here on the ONE Blog. And our small team in Hokkaido, led by our friend Bob Geldof, will be sharing their thoughts as events unfold. Stay with us.
David Lane, President and CEO of the ONE Campaign
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Jun 11th, 2008 12:10 PM UTC
By David Lane
Feb 15th, 2008 12:21 PM UTC
By David Lane
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 Later today, President Bush heads to Africa to visit five countries — Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. Here at ONE, we are going to watch this trip closely and try to provide you with unique insight and analysis. We’ll have voices from Africa, from Capitol Hill, and from people on the ground providing aid to the African people. We will provide policy briefings for each day of the trip. And ONE will be part of the trip, with our team on the ground in Rwanda and Ghana providing their first-hand views of what’s happening.
This is an exciting moment. In large part because of the advocacy work done by ONE members and other organizations involved in the fight to save lives, President Bush and the Congress have made major strides.
The number of Africans surviving HIV/AIDS thanks to life-saving medical treatment has increased ten-fold.
There are 4.7 million bed nets protecting African children from malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
There are more jobs and greater opportunities, especially for women and families to break away from the cycle of brutal, extreme poverty.
And there are new governments who are working hard to increase democracy and opportunity for their people in countries like Liberia, where President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has made transparency and accountability a driving force in her government reform plan. ONE members played a big part in winning the cancellation of Liberia’s debt by the IMF just a few months ago.
These are major improvements of which we can all be proud. But none of us should be satisfied.
President Bush’s trip to Africa is an opportunity to take a hard look at what still remains to accomplish. Yes, we have achieved a great deal, but 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africans continue to live on less than $2 a day. Experts report that, last year alone, 35 percent of all people living globally with HIV lived in Southern Africa, where 32 percent of all global new HIV infections and AIDS deaths occurred. Tens of millions of people still go hungry each day. In this region alone,13,150 children under age 5 died from preventable childhood diseases and malnutrition.
While in 2000 the U.S. joined 188 other countries to sign onto the Millennium Development Goals, we are falling behind in reaching their 2015 targets.
A few days ago, we asked you to lend your voice to a new challenge for the candidates, calling on them to visit Africa and see first-hand the opportunities and the challenges that people in those countries face. Already, more than 52,000 people have signed that petition, and we are not finished yet. In the next few days, we will take these petitions and deliver them to the presidential candidates, and see if they are willing to step up and make fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease a real priority. If you haven’t signed the petition, add your voice today.
Check back each day as we chronicle President Bush’s trip to Africa. And let us know your thoughts. Join the discussion here on the ONE Blog.
-David Lane, CEO and President of ONE
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