I wanted to write a short blog post, as I had an incredible day last week. I’m still thinking about it now, and so I wanted to share my experience with you.
As Chris mentioned in an earlier post, we were in the Neno district of Malawi for a night, and the next morning, we went to visit the local school. There, we learned about an innovative radio project that airs educational programs across most of the country and is played in the classroom using solar powered wind-up radios. The educational topics include English, math, Chichewa (the local language) and life skills, which are featured in the Malawian National Curriculum.
Often the picture painted in the media of Africa, and global poverty more generally, is pretty negative yet that’s a bit misleading as that’s not the whole story …
Mark Suzman, acting president of the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, wrote about this for the Huffington Post earlier this month. I just wanted to draw attention to the article as I think it sums things up nicely on where we’re at. Suzman focuses on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and argues that although there is clearly still a long way to go, there has been incredible progress made across Africa. Malawi has decreased its child mortality rate by 50 percent for example.
Suzman concludes that “as we reflect on the first decade of the Millennium Development Goals, we should celebrate how far we have come. There is a clear route to our final destination with good models for how even the poorest countries can ultimately meet each of the goals.”
There’s an important UN Summit on the MDGs in September where a roadmap will be drawn up on how to accelerate progress and meet the goals set. We’re already working hard on this here at ONE and you’ll hear more and more about this as we get closer to the New York Summit.
The Africa Progress Panel (APP) launched its Africa Progress Report today, which monitors and promotes mutual accountability and shared responsibility for progress in Africa. The report was presented in Johannesburg by the Chair of the APP, Kofi Annan, alongside panel members Peter Eigen (founder and Chair of the Advisory Council, Transparency International and Chairman of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative), Linah Kelebogile Mohohlo (Governor, Bank of Botswana) and Olusegun Obasanjo (Envoy of the Secretary-General on the Great Lakes region and former President of Nigeria).
In particular, the report calls for:
Transparency throughout the entire resource system, from how contracts are awarded and monitored, to how taxes and royalties are collected, to how investment choices are made and executed.
Policies that ensure that the revenues from the continent’s natural wealth reach everyone. This requires major policy shifts and significant investments of resources in institutions, human capacities, women, health, education and infrastructure.
Kofi Annan said, “There is no lack of resources, no deficiency of knowledge and no shortage of plans. Africa’s progress rests above all else on the mobilisation of political will, both on the continent and internationally.”
Kofi Annan has written an opinion piece which you can view here.
The APP’s report was launched in coordination with our DATA Report and what symbolic day would be appropriate to focus on Africa but Africa Day! It’s five years since the Gleneagles G8 Summit, and the establishment of the APP and it’s also 10 years since world leaders signed up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Last week was an unofficial women’s week in the UK with a string of events starting with International Women’s Day on the Monday, the launch of ONE’s Women ONE2ONE campaign, and ending with Mothering Sunday (Mothers Day here in the UK).
On Friday I joined a gathering outside the Houses of Parliament in London to take part in the ‘Minute for Mothers’ event organised by our friends at Save the Children. The idea was to bring people together to remember the women and babies who unnecessarily lose their lives every day.
Everyone was given a tag to write a personalised message of support, which was then attached to a white rose and added to the display.
The singer and campaigner Annie Lennox spoke at the event, which also included a moving minute’s silence in memory of the women who die in childbirth every minute of every day, and for the 2 million babies who die on their first day of life every year.
Afterwards, just as the rain started (it’s Britain after all) we headed into the House of Commons for a mum’s cafe run by the online forum Mumsnet. Following some lovely tea and biscuits served by the Mumsnet folk dressed in brightly coloured dresses and aprons, we listened to moving speeches, which literally brought a tear to my eye.
Annie Lennox spoke passionately about the fact that HIV has become the leading cause of death and disease among women of reproductive age worldwide. Whilst Gareth Thomas MP, Minister of State in the Department for International Development talked about his trip to Sierra Leone and what he saw there, urging people to continue to advocate strongly on this important issue. Jasmine Whitbread, CEO of Save the Children in the UK closed the event, highlighting her recent visit to Niger and northern Nigeria where she saw firsthand the benefits of informal groups and networks of women supporting each other and passing on advice, particularly in the more remote rural areas.
It was a powerful end to a week of events focussing on the situation that many women today find themselves in around the world. But it also showed that when women have access to education, health services, economic opportunities and political process, they, their children, their communities and their countries reap the benefits.
P.S. It’s not too late to take part. Send a virtual flower, which will be delivered to the party leaders in the UK.
On a sunny Monday hundreds of women met on London’s Millennium Bridge to show their solidarity with women around the world on International Women’s Day.
They were joined with thousands of other women in more than 100 Join Me on the Bridge events in 18 different countries around the globe.
From Sudan, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States women came together to show that they build the bridges to peace and development.
They also remembered those women in other countries who were not able to meet on bridges due to the insecurity and for fear for their lives.
Watch a video of what happened in London:
In the last 100 years, since International Women’s Day was first celebrated, a great deal has changed for many women. But for those in developing countries change has not been so swift with an estimated 70% of people living in poverty being female.
In 1910, when International Women’s Day was established, 355 women per 100,000 live births died as a direct result of childbirth or pregnancy-related causes in England and Wales. Today the number of maternal deaths stands at around 14 per 100,000 across the UK.
Meanwhile recent figures show that in developing countries an average of 450 women per 100,000 live births die in childbirth.
By joining other women on the bridge on Monday we showed our commitment to change this.
P.S. If you weren’t able to take part in an event you can still join the Join me on the Bridge campaign and show your government that you want them to invest in women.
Jessica Gomez-Duran from ONE’s UK office got a chance to interview John Githongo. Worth a watch:
John Githongo, anti-corruption activist and chair of the organizations Zinduko and Twaweza in Kenya, popped in to the ONE office in London recently and took some time out to talk to us.
Twaweza (which means “we can make it happen” in Swahili) is a 10 year initiative that was launched last year. It seeks to enable people in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to improve their quality of life by getting them to become more informed and motivated, and thereby holding their governments accountable.
Digital technology and mobile communications will play an important role. In this short clip John talks about mobile phones and their growing presence and significance across the continent. According to a BBC report, Africa has the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world, with 4 in 10 people now having a mobile phone. In Kenya there are over 15 million handsets in use whereas that number used to be more like 15,000 a decade ago. As well as personal communication, mobile phones are fast becoming vital for distributing news, and are a valuable tool to help citizens become powerful agents of sustainable change.
Yesterday I had the honour of speaking to Senegalese singer and guitarist Baaba Maal after he had performed at a special event here in Copenhagen.
Watch the video:
Baaba Maal, one of Africa’s most famous musicians, is attending the Copenhagen summit as the climate change ambassador for Africa Talks Climate, a ground-breaking research and communication initiative that explores the views of African citizens on climate change.
Baaba Maal performing at the event in Copenhagen last night
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.
