July Partner Update
It is that time of year where I get to announce that the ONE Africa Award is once again open to receive applications from African individuals and organizations, based in Africa, who are leading the fight against extreme poverty. The award of up to $100,000 aims to showcase civil society working on the ground to bring about change amongst the poorest people in Africa. This year, we are looking for organizations involved in new and exciting advocacy strategies that are transforming lives by demanding action on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Since becoming the first ONE Africa award recipient in 2008, Development Communications has continued their boot-camp style training for journalists on maternal and child health issues. They have forged partnerships with other organizations working to ensure that maternal and child health issues remain at the top of the Nigerian development agenda.
Our 2009 ONE award recipient, SIDAREC, was founded by a group of young people from the slums who have worked hard to uplift the standard of living of the youth living in Kenya’s slum communities by tapping into their skills and talents. The ONE Award has allowed SIDAREC to support some of their most underfunded programs including their radio station, Ghetto FM, and their Early Childhood Development (ECD) and HIV/AIDS support programs. ONE Award funds have helped SIDAREC enroll more children at the ECD centers and has been instrumental in helping SIDAREC equip their Kibera Resource Centers.
Since the Award, SIDAREC has received numerous visitors all interested to know about their programs. Many colleges and universities are sending students to SIDAREC for internships. The award has enhanced SIDAREC’s credibility as an important resource in local and international youth projects and SIDAREC is considered an organization worth partnering with to support youth projects and reach the community members with messages of hope.
So spread the word! The ONE Africa award is a great opportunity to spotlight some of the exceptional work happening on the African continent. If you are eligible, or you know an organization that is, I encourage you to apply before the September 24th deadline.
Find out more on the ONE Africa Award web site.
In January, an enormous earthquake hit Haiti—the worst of its kind in more than 200 years. The effects were devastating and took nearly 250,000 lives—but people everywhere jumped in to help. Doctors hopped onto planes; students took breaks from school; and kids donated their allowances.
To help with recovery efforts, more than 200,000 ONE members joined our successful campaign to erase Haiti’s one billion dollars in debt. It was a huge victory for Haiti and a proud moment for ONE. And I’m writing to you today because ONE members can make a big difference in Haiti once again.
Two months after the quake, our president pledged to give more than one billion dollars to Haiti for long-term rebuilding. But Congress still needs to pass the bill that contains this critical funding. Will you join us in asking Congress to follow through on America’s commitment to Haiti?
Ask Congress today to quickly pass the bill with long-term funding for Haiti:
Our petition reads:
Dear Senator,
Six months after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, please support quick passage of US assistance to Haiti for reconstruction and debt relief.
Thanks to the heroic work of the Haitian people, tireless volunteers and NGOs, the small island nation has made it through six hard months. But as the country fades from the headlines, we need to remember that the streets are still filled with rubble; families are still sleeping in tents; and people still need jobs.
The people of Haiti deserve much more than the bare necessities of day-to-day survival. They deserve to thrive—to rebuild better and stronger than before.
We promised that they wouldn’t have to do this alone.
And that’s why this funding from the US is so critical. While the work will be hard and the rebuilding time-consuming, this funding will help the country start to recover—by reconstructing homes to protect people from hurricanes and other natural disasters and building schools and hospitals to educate girls and help mothers deliver babies in a clean, safe space.
Will you let Congress know that we must pass the bill for Haiti now?
Let’s join together again and show the people of Haiti that we haven’t forgotten about them. Let’s show Haiti that we’re ready to help for the long-term.
Here’s a round-up of some of the key coverage of this year’s International AIDS Conference in Vienna, currently ongoing:
Money worries and “broken promises” at AIDS conference – The U.N. and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – the world’s largest backer of programs against HIV/AIDS – said they feared wealthy donor nations may cut funding to fight the disease because of global recession. Speaking at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna this weekend, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised progress made against HIV, but said this could be jeopardized if governments trimmed budgets. (Kate Kelland, Reuters)
The Bills urge more efficient use of funds to fight AIDS – Former President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates called for better use of the money donated to fight AIDS as the world economic crisis makes an increase in funding unlikely. Speaking at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Gates called for a fresh focus on efficiency and initiatives that are known to work, including affordable drugs proven to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. (Sarah Boseley, The Guardian)
5.2 million people on AIDS drugs in 2009, says WHO – The number of people taking crucial AIDS drugs climbed by a record 1.2 million last year to 5.2 million overall, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday – the largest increase in a single year the WHO has ever seen. Speaking at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, former President Clinton praised the increase, but said “We cannot get to the end of this epidemic without both more money and real changes in the way we spend it.” (Veronika Oleksyn, AP)
On a quest for the HIV Vaccine – With the International AIDS Conference under way, two leaders in the fight against AIDS, Seth Berkley and Alan Bernstein, highlight the importance of developing an HIV vaccine to battle the epidemic most effectively. Despite the complexities of HIV, the two activists pinpoint inadequate research support as another barrier in development. Ending HIV/AIDS urgently requires a vaccine, argue Berkley and Bernstein, and the evidence that a safe and effective vaccine can be developed is stronger than ever. (The New York Times)
S Africa to take anti-AIDS campaign message to int’l conference – The South African Deputy President and Health Minister will present their country’s new anti-AIDS campaign at the international AIDS conference in Vienna this weekend. The South African government aims to have at least 15 million people tested for HIV by June 2011 and wants to scale up medicine distribution throughout the country. Under the theme, “Rights here, right now,” the conference will focus on measures to protect populations most vulnerable to HIV, including women and girls. (Xinhua News)
Guidelines Issued to Shield Babies from AIDS – The World Health Organization issued new guidelines for earlier HIV testing for women after they become pregnant, earlier treatment with antiretroviral drugs, and earlier testing for infants born to HIV-positive mothers. More than a decade of research shows that the risk of transmission can be almost entirely eliminated if women take AIDS drugs during pregnancy. (Ron Winslow, Wall Street Journal)
Studies show promise in curbing AIDS in Africa – Researchers have identified two new approaches that could blunt the effects of HIV on African women: a vaginal gel to block infection, and cash payments to delay sexual activity. The gel would place prevention squarely in the hands of women, and a clinical trial showed that it could block more than half of new infections if used regularly. In the other study, researchers found that by providing women with modest amounts of money, they could reduce the spread of HIV by 60 percent. (Thomas H. Maugh, Los Angeles Times)
It was just announced today at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna that an estimated 5.2 million people globally were on life-saving antiretroviral treatment for HIV at the end of 2009. This latest estimate from the WHO represents an additional 1.2 million people on treatment compared to the number in 2008. Increased leadership and resources in the fight against HIV/AIDS have helped to increase the number of people on treatment 12-fold since 2003.
Dr Hiroki Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for HIV, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases said, “This is the largest increase in people accessing treatment in a single year. It is an extremely encouraging development.”
Check back for further analysis at the conclusion of the XVIII International AIDS Conference.
Today is Nelson Mandela’s 92nd birthday. We wanted to send him a special gift this year, so we recently asked ONE members to submit their picture and help us build a birthday card just for him.
And what a response we got! Thanks to all of you, this week we were able to personally deliver a card to Mr. Mandela’s staff in South Africa that was signed by over 27,000 ONE members from all across the world.
To take a closer look at the card, click on the image below. And don’t forget to zoom in and get an up-close look at the thousands of ONE members who joined together to honor Nelson Mandela for an inspiring 92 years.
Happy birthday, Mr. Mandela!
More details have emerged in the past couple weeks on the G8’s commitment to improve maternal, newborn and child health through the “Muskoka Initiative,” but not enough to deliver on the G8’s other critical commitment at the 2010 summit – to enhance their own accountability.
The initiative (which includes a $5 billion in funding from G8 countries, $2.3 billion from non-G8 donors and a handful of qualitative principles and targets) was unveiled by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the first day of the summit and outlined in an annex of the final G8 communiqué. Harper specified that the $5 billion commitment from the G8 would be “additional” funding and that Canada would be contributing $1.1 billion in new resources over the next five years. Advocates and experts alike were disappointed by the G8’s lack of ambition (with $5 billion representing just a fraction of the estimated $30 billion needed from donors to meet maternal and child health targets), and without details on individual country commitments, it was also impossible to applaud the clarity of the announcement.
Last week, an official “methodology document” shed some light on the numbers behind the initiative, with details on how the G8 had calculated their current spending on maternal, newborn and child health (i.e. their collective baseline). To anyone familiar with the tedious business of tracking DAC purpose codes and calculating imputed percentages of multilateral organizations like the Global Fund and the World Bank, this analysis is both incredibly thorough and extremely valuable for advocates and recipient countries.
Yet some of the most critical details on the $5 billion G8 commitment are missing. It’s still unclear what each country is contributing towards the initiative and whether their commitments are truly additional to current spending. The United States, Germany and France have announced their contributions (though not necessarily their baselines) and some additional details have been unofficially reported.
For those of us accustomed to following international summit processes, this story is all too familiar: a vague commitment is made, advocates respond with tepid applause (and a reminder that more is needed), and the following year is spent haranguing governments to clarify what they promised to ensure that it is eventually delivered (if you haven’t seen my colleague Erin Thornton’s recent post on tracking G8 commitments, check it out here).
This year felt different though. Prime Minister Harper put accountability squarely on the summit agenda back in January, and one week before the summit the G8 released a self-evaluation of their progress towards meeting development commitments with the Muskoka Accountability Report. Although the G8 promised to “ensure follow-up” on the conclusions and recommendations of the report, they shunned the first opportunity to actually implement them through the development of a robust, transparent and accountable Muskoka Initiative.
The G8 would argue that advocates can now calculate each individual donor’s baseline using the agreed methodology- a somewhat painful exercise, but certainly not impossible. But by failing to offer up these details themselves, the G8 are not only allowing some countries to hide flimsy, potentially dishonest commitments behind a collective promise, they are missing the bigger picture on accountability.
And everyone loses in this scenario. Advocates are still ill-equipped to hold their governments accountable, recipient countries face another hurdle to planning their budgets for next year, and, in a critical year when the changing global architecture and emergence of the G20 is grabbing the lion’s share of media headlines, the G8 has missed another opportunity to flex their muscle and demonstrate their relevance.
Big, big news: The Cardin-Lugar Transparency amendment just passed in the Senate!
Late in May, ONE put out an urgent call to all our members to call their Senators and urge them to vote in favor of including the Cardin-Lugar Transparency amendment to the Senate Financial Regulation bill. Our members generated more than 1,000 calls to the Senate and helped secure enough support for its sponsors, Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), to be confident of winning the vote. However, due to a procedural motion in the Senate, we were denied the opportunity to have the vote. Since then, we’ve been working furiously toward the inclusion of the Cardin/Lugar amendment after the House and Senate met in June to iron out differences between their two bills and settle on a final version. Championed by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the amendment was accepted in conference and was part of the final bill, which has since passed the House.
The transparency amendment is ONE’s biggest effort to fight corruption in poor countries to date. Through this amendment, ONE members are working to fight corruption and ensure that payments received by their governments and natural resources, go toward meeting Millennium Development Goals like health care, schools and clean water, not into the pockets of corrupt public officials. It makes it mandatory for all companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange to disclose what they pay to foreign governments for extracting oil and gas or mining gold and diamonds. In essence, we are helping to shed light on the finances of some of the most corrupt and closed regimes in the world–including Burma, Zimbabwe and Sudan– through the multinational corporations that do business with them.
ONE members’ calls to their senators made an enormous difference in our efforts to get the amendment included in the final bill. Today is a big victory not just for the people who will be positively affected by this important legislation, but for everyone who believes in transparency and accountability. Go ahead and give yourselves a pat on the back!
