In 2005, the G8 countries all made robust commitments to sub-Saharan Africa — which they said they’d meet by 2010. ONE’s 2010 DATA Report gives the final verdict on how well they did.
You can tune into the livestream below to watch today’s DC panel discuss the report’s results.
The panel includes ONE President and CEO David Lane, ONE Board Member and former White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, and Senior Professional Staff Member on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Pearl-Alice Marsh — and is co-hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the University of Miami Center for International Media.
ONE’s Lauren Clanin is at the event and will be sending back recap posts soon. You can read a ton more about the DATA Report here.
I’m speaking at the Women Deliver conference in Washington, D.C., today to highlight maternal, child, and reproductive health as a global priority.
Three months ago, I traveled to a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where I met a young mother named Rukmini. Six days before, she’d given birth to a daughter she named Durga, after the Hindu goddess of power.
According to custom, Rukmini and Durga remained in the same room after the birth. Seven days later, Rukmini carried Durga into the light of day for a ceremony that celebrated the special bond between mother and child, called Chhathi. As their neighbors drummed and sang songs, Rukmini held Durga up to thank the sun god for a healthy birth and ask for his blessing.
I kept thinking about the overwhelming joy, hope, and optimism I felt when each of my three children was born. No matter who you are, no matter where you live, it is incredibly moving to hold a healthy baby in your arms.
But tens of millions of women never get to experience that moment of beauty. For these women, childbirth is filled not with joy, but with dread, pain, and sorrow. They know they might die during delivery. If they survive, they are terrified their baby might die.
The world is now coming together to save the 350,000 mothers and 3 million newborns who die every year. At Women Deliver, we are nurturing a vision that is changing the world.
Donors will spend more on women and children, and those donations will be tracked.
Developing countries will pass rigorous policies for women’s and children’s health, and fully fund their implementation, and health workers will have the tools and training they need.
Communities will work together to gather solid evidence about the interventions that work best, and combine them into a comprehensive plan to save lives.
Women everywhere will have the knowledge and power to save their lives and the lives of their babies.
We can make a new world for mothers like Rukmini. When she hugs her daughter Durga, she holds the future in her hands.
In the comments below, please share what you are going to do to bring about this vision of the world.
Last week the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) approved two new threshold programs, one with Liberia and one with Timor-Leste. $15 million was approved for Liberia to support the country’s ongoing reforms, and will focus in particular on land rights, girls’ education, and trade policy. Timor-Leste’s threshold program will provide $10.5 million to bolster the country’s health care system and address corruption issues. Liberia and Timor-Leste were selected as compact-eligible in December 2008.
As you may already know, the MCC threshold program works with countries to undertake target policy reforms to improve a country’s score on a particular MCC indicator. The hope is that the country will perform better on the indicator(s) that determine compact eligibility, and that if they are selected as compact-eligible the country will be prepared to successfully implement their compact. MCC CEO Daniel Yohannes said of the threshold program, “With vital support from Congress for MCC’s budget and critical legislative fixes, we will continue to have the ability to partner with reform-minded countries committed to wisely investing American taxpayer resources in sustainable development that benefits us all in our interconnected global marketplace.”
Liberia’s threshold program will improve land registration capacity, improve land administration, and assist with land rights education. It will also support a scholarship program for girls, provide schools with grants to improve the school environment, and support mentoring programs. With regard to trade policies, the funding will assist with harmonizing tariffs and strengthening regulatory capacity.
In Timor-Leste, the threshold program will focus on strengthening local community health units, improving vaccine-preventable disease monitoring and immunization systems, and training health service providers. The program will also help build effective anti-corruption institutions.
Both threshold programs are currently in their 15-day congressional notification and consultation period. Following this, USAID will assume responsibility for implementing the threshold programs while MCC will remain the primary overseer. It is encouraging to see countries continuing to move through the MCC system and making reforms in the hope of becoming compact-eligible. If you’d like to learn more, you can read the press releases about the Timor-Leste and Liberia threshold program announcements.
Last weekend, I attended a conference where I had the opportunity to help bring more Hawaiians to the fight to end extreme poverty. There I also had the extra privilege to be able to meet with Senator Inouye personally and express my concern with budget committee leaders decision to cut $4 billion from the International Affairs Budget for 2011. Talking to Senator Inouye, I was humbled to realize the gravity our senator’s decision holds for our own country as well as for the developing world.
I was at the conference with fellow Hawaiian ONE members Alicia, Joe, Sue, Kekoa and Falisha and we all talked to and encouraged the attendees to join ONE and add their name to our petition to Senator Inouye. A large number of them listened to what we had to say, signed the petition and thanked us for advocating for the world’s poorest people.
Since Senator Inouye hold so much sway in the U.S. budget process, every signature on this petition from a Hawaiian resident has extra power. I am honored to be able to work with so many great ONE members and help sign up more names.
Exciting news! Kristine Silvestri, one of the inaugural Malaria Griots, is featured on Nick Kristof’s blog today. She talks about her time as a student in Ghana—and her battle with malaria while she was visiting the country. Here’s an excerpt:
Life and good health are gifts; the country of one’s birth or the color of one’s skin should not determine who receives these gifts. Today, I passionately advocate for better care in the developing world, and hope to see an end to deaths and disability from malaria in my lifetime.
Limber up! We want you to try and throw Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi out of the G8 because he’s let us down once again…We’ve even made a cheeky little game to give you some practice!
On a brighter note, some G8 countries have actually made real strides despite the tough times, and these investments have helped to give over 40 million children in Africa an education and halved malaria deaths in a number of countries.
So, enjoy the game (my top score is 8720) and please pass on to let people know that we don’t just believe in promises but delivery too.
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.
