This piece is part of a larger blog series on transparency in the extractives industry. Stay tuned for more updates on this topic.
A year and a half ago, ONE and our Publish What You Pay Coalition (PWYP) partners asked ONE members to take action by calling your senators to urge them to pass a provision shining a spotlight on payments made between extractive companies and the countries they work in, many in Africa. The bipartisan Cardin-Lugar Amendment passed through Congress and became law!
This new law was designed to help to end the resource curse — the paradoxical condition of scores of countries blessed with abundant natural resources such as oil, timber, precious stones and metals, with most of their citizens living on less than $1.25 a day. This is because dictators, corrupt government leaders and bureaucrats steal and hide, in private foreign bank accounts, billions of dollars received from multi-national companies for drilling and mining these resources.
Big news. As you know, last week we delivered signatures from ONE’s “Fight the Famine, Feed the Future” petition to all Senate offices here in DC. Senator Durbin just responded, reaffirming his commitment to “work for adequate funding for humanitarian assistance programs as the Senate considers the Fiscal Year 2012 budget, and monitor the crisis in East Africa” (full statement below).
This is proof that our voices are being heard on Capitol Hill. One by one we’re letting our elected officials know that programs like “Feed the Future” really can break the cycle of famine for good and end extreme poverty in the developing world— all for less than 1% of the US budget. Check out Senator Durbin’s full statement below, and please leave him a message in the comments:
Today kicks off our new blog series, Trade = Development. Follow along to learn how African exports to the US are helping to improve the lives of thousands of African producers. In this piece, Tom Hart discusses the importance of AGOA.
Next week, ONE will be in Zambia, along with Secretary Hillary Clinton, talking about the importance of US-Africa trade. Did you know the US imports more than $50 billion in oil from Africa each year…more than five times what we give in aid? Or that current US trade policy has helped create around 300,000 jobs in Africa, mostly for women working in the textile industry? Trade is a crucial tool in Africa’s effort to develop economies and escape the grinding poverty that impacts so many on the continent.
I attended the official “signing ceremony” today canceling Haiti’s debt to the InterAmerican Development Bank– Haiti’s largest creditor. With a few pen strokes, around $450 million was wiped off the books, allowing Haiti to focus its money on rebuilding, not repaying old loans.
One of the US Treasury’s top officials gave ONE a nice shout out from stage for all we did to make this day possible.
It was only 9 months ago when the 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti. Rebuilding continues slowly. But debt cancellation is nearly complete. Nine months is like a nanosecond in debt relief terms. We should all be proud of helping make this happen.
Within hours, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, will offer an amendment to the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill cutting $506 million from U.S. multilateral contributions. Please call your Representative and ask her/him to vote against this amendment, that would cut critical funding for the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), the second largest development donor in Africa.
This amendment must not pass. Our funding for multilateral institutions, including the World Bank’s IDA, is money well spent. IDA supports important programs—including debt cancellation, health, education, agriculture, microfinance, business development and more—under a strong, performance-based criteria to make a real, measurable difference in the fight against global poverty.
Today, President Obama submitted a broad blueprint of his first budget request to Congress. This marks the start of an important process that will ultimately decide how federal dollars are spent and directed in fiscal year 2010, including funding for America’s efforts to fight global poverty and end deaths from preventable diseases like AIDS and malaria.
In the weeks and months ahead, ONE members will have the chance to play an important role during a critical stage of the budget process. And in the end, if we are successful, we can make sure that more people with HIV/AIDS have access to lifesaving medication, that more bed nets are provided to protect families from malaria, and that more kids living in the poorest regions are given the chance to attend school for the first time.
The President’s budget has designated $51.7 billion for the State Department and other International Affairs Programs. This number represents a $4.5 billion increase over the $47.2 billion that was passed for fiscal year 2009. However, because today’s outline only provided top line figures, we do not yet know how much of it will represent an increase for global poverty reduction programs. ONE is seeking a $4 billion increase for poverty reduction accounts as a positive start in setting a spending trajectory that will enable President Obama to fulfill his historic anti-poverty commitments, which ONE members helped secure during the presidential campaign, including his commitment to double foreign assistance. Since those campaign commitments, the President has continued to articulate the importance of addressing global poverty, including in his Inaugural Address and most recently in his speech to Congress. In the next couple weeks, ONE will work to make sure that these commitments and sentiments are fully reflected in the nuts and bolts of the President’s budget request, which we’ll learn more about in April.
President Bush is signing PEPFAR at an event at the White House today. This is a bill that will provide $48 Billion in funding in the global fight against AIDS, TB and Malaria for the next 5 years.
ONE’s Legislative Director Tom Hart sent in this post right after arriving at the signing event:
I’m sitting in the East Room of the White House, with its 3 massive chandaliers and gold trim, as the president signs a nearly $50b reauthorization of PEPFAR. I feel like this room couldn’t be big enough to hold all the support this effort has, especially from ONE members around the country. In DC, we read every day of conflict, partisan bickering and good things stalled. Not today. Republicans, Democrats, Congress, the White House – all found a reason to work together and get this lifesaving initiative done.
As I filed through one of the holding rooms prior to the event, I ran into ONE’s old friend, Agnes from Uganda. What a surprise. The President invited her to this ceremony as one of his “special guests”. Agnes works for this amazing organization in Uganda named TASO, where PEPFAR has supported many many people on ARVs. Agnes is also HIV+, making the signing of this bill all the more meaningful. In fact, the rest of the pomp and glitz don’t really matter…it’s really about Agnes and the millions of others this bill has touched and will over the next 5 years.
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.
