In this energy project in Zanzibar, Tanzania, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is helping to stimulate economic growth on the island of Unguja by building a second submarine electric transmission cable from the mainland. The current line, which the country is entirely dependent on for their power, is reaching its limits in both capacity and lifespan. This project will double the power capacity of the island and provide reliable and non-polluting energy.

Traveling to Africa with ONE is always exciting but this trip has a special twist to it. In order to start the year off on the in the right bipartisan spirit, ONE is taking four Republicans and four Democrats, all of whom have very strong ties to key leaders, decision-makers and potential presidential candidates within their parties with us.

Man this trip will be interesting and with this much political talent in the house the sky is the limit.

The participants include Dr. Whit Ayres (Republican pollster), Dave Beattie (Democratic pollster), Rich Galen (Republican strategist), Rob Jesmer (Executive Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee), Anne Lewis (Democratic internet consultant), Jim Margolis (Democratic media consultant), J.B. Poersch (Former Executive Director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee), Alex Vogel (Former Chief Counsel to Sen. Frist and the NRSC).

This is part of a new effort on our part to show key political leaders how much has been accomplished in health and development in Africa – and the challenges that still exist

We will focus much of our trip on US-supported programs, specifically PEPFAR, PMI, GAVI, Global Fund and Feed the Future.

We will also spend time with young African leaders in Tanzania and young bloggers in Kenya. And, working with the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic institute (both DC-based and supported by the US Government), we will meet with a group of Kenyan women who are working to change the way government works in their country.

This is going to be an awesome trip and the post trip work that we need to work on together will be a game changer.

I know that when we return, ONE will have eight powerful new advocates for the continuation of programs critical to African development.

We all will be blogging and tweeting during the trip so be sure to check the ONE blog and follow me on Twitter.

What a way to start the year off. Republicans and Democrats working, learning and looking for solutions together.

Watch out!

See ya.

Mike

We must do better against malaria, says President – Following this week’s African Union summit, Tanzanian President, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, asserts that leaders must do more to eliminate all preventable malaria deaths, starting with the goal of reaching universal mosquito-net coverage by the end of this year. (The Guardian)

New TB test must reach more people, says WHO – A new diagnostic tool that reduces to two hours the time needed to detect drug-resistant tuberculosis must be made available to populations vulnerable to the disease, a World Health Organization expert said. “These tools are very expensive, but the scale up should be carefully planned,” said one WHO adviser. (Reuters)

Millions awarded for TB and HIV/AIDS fight in Uganda – The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation has been awarded $38 million by USAID to provide integrated TB and HIV/AIDS services in the southwest region of Uganda. The new program seeks to support health service delivery at the district level to provide comprehensive services in the region.” (Rosebell Kagumire, The Independent)

African leaders must focus on maternal health – Ex-Irish president Mary Robinson urged African leaders to boost support for maternal health, during a visit to Sierra Leone where mortality rates are among the highest in the world. “If the African Union succeeds in fulfilling its commitment to maternal health, it will benefit the economies of countries to have healthy populations,” she said. (AFP)

Flower power in Kenya – Slate explores the burgeoning flower industry in Kenya’s Rift Valley, where ambitious plans of turning the country into a global powerhouse are blooming into reality. Though environmentalists may disagree with some of the growing methods, one farmer asserts, “We are branding ourselves as a flower-growing country.”  (Alexis Okeowo, Slate)

This ambitious and comprehensive vision for Africa was kicked-off with the “Maputo Declaration,” a commitment by all African countries to increase government spending on agriculture to 10% of their total budgets and reach an annual growth rate of 6% by 2015. As part of the process of reaching the goals of the Maputo Declaration, countries must go through consultation processes that include all stakeholders – civil society, farmers organizations, women’s groups, private sector companies – to come up with a national plan of action on agriculture. Tanzania has just completed its CAADP compact – a milestone on the path to achieving poverty reduction and food security for all Tanzanians.

Four African countries on Friday signed a new treaty on the equitable sharing of the Nile waters despite strong opposition from Egypt and Sudan who have the lion’s share of the river waters.

Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania signed the new framework while Kenya issued a support statement, an AFP correspondent reported.

Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo were not represented at the meeting in the Ugandan town of Entebbe.

“This agreement benefits all of us and harms none of us,” Ethiopia’s Water Resources Minister Asfaw Dingamo said. “I strongly believe all Nile Basin countries will sign the agreement.”

The upstream countries want to be able to implement irrigation and hydropower projects in consultation with Egypt and Sudan, but without Egypt being able to exercise the veto power it was given by a 1929 colonial-era treaty with Britain.

“We regret the intentional and announced absence of our dear brothers from Egypt and Sudan,” said Stanislas Kamanzi, Rwanda’s water and lands minister.

The new agreement, the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework, is to replace a 1959 accord between Egypt and Sudan that gives them control of more than 90 percent of the water flow.

Last week ONE Germany organized our first ever Africa trip. We took actress Minh-Khai Phan-Thi, actress and singer Jana Pallaske and musician Rea Garvey to Tanzania. Despite all the differences between the 48 countries South of the Sahara we think that Tanzania can be considered as a good example for much of Africa: the economy has shown steady growth, which is in part due to good governance; child and maternal mortality have dropped; Tanzania has made enormous progress in primary school enrollment. Only a few days after the German general elections and before the new government has been formed we wanted to show our guests how important targeted and effective development assistance is.

We started out on Tuesday morning in Arusha at two local health centers. In Tanzania medical treatment for pregnant women and children under five is free. So we wanted to find out what this meant for the women. At the first clinic we were astonished by the sheer lack of things: there were almost no supplies and even the lab’s only equipment was an old German microscope. But we also met Agnes, a mother of two, who benefitted from the government’s efforts to eradicate deaths through malaria. The clinic informed her of the disease and handed her a voucher to replace the family’s old net. At the second clinic we saw hundreds of women waiting for pre-natal examinations, birth, vaccinations for their newborns, contraceptives or HIV meds. We came to chat with a couple of the women and Dr. Solomon Ole, the district’s Health Coordinator.

Asked what they’d need most we received different answers – a building to protect the women from the weather, an ambulance, an incinerator. And I somehow understood why it’s called development corporation: it takes a good government to set plans to defeat disease and unnecessary deaths but it also takes donors to fulfill their promises to realize these.

In the afternoon we took a tour of Tanzania Pharmaceutical Industries. The company ventures to break Tanzania’s dependence on foreign pharmaceutics. Together with the NGO action medeor they’re building a new plant to produce ARVs.

Day 2 was rather hectic: we got up early in the morning to go to Moshi, nearby Mount Kilimanjaro, a couple of kilometers outside Arusha. We met with a lot of people who profited from an IFAD initiative. The women of Shiri Group had been introduced to a food processor: mangos, bananas, herbs, hibiscus flowers – all of these can only be stored for a couple of days, maybe weeks before they go bad. The food processor helps to dry the fruits, herbs and flowers in a rather easy process. But the women didn’t stop at producing for their own use. They’re also packing their goods and selling as far as Dar es Salaam. The 200 or so families organized in the mushroom group have even started to grow a crop previously unknown in the country. They’re growing Oyster mushrooms in small huts in their gardens. And while at first the hotels and restaurants that cater to tourists were the only customers Tanzanians have adopted the mushroom as well: they process it to jam, bread, samosas and so on.

The Muungano SACCOS is a micro credit facility financed by the borrowers themselves. Since 80 % of Tanzanians don’t have access to bank credits they rely on the Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies from which they buy shares; and should they need a credit they can borrow up to three times their deposit.

Water was the topic of the afternoon. We saw a project supported by German implementation organization KfW. Once finished the project will give 30 villages (or 100.000 people) access to drinking water. The spin that made it most interesting to us: sustainability – the villagers themselves have been included from the beginning. They decided where the water should come from and where the standpipes should go, they have to volunteer their time for trenching and carrying the pipes and the project team is also banking on Tanzanians to maintain the pipes and tanks.

After a stressful but inspirational day we had to rush to the airport to move on to the country’s unofficial capital Dar es Salaam.

Thursday started with education. We went to meet with parents, teachers, students and education activists at a primary school. First off we were struck by a simple logic: The government has made it its goal to grant every child in the country primary education. And as a matter of fact enrollment has risen to 98 % in just a few years. However, at which cost? At the school we went to the premises had been cut in half so that they now house two schools with each school having as many students as the one school before: more than 2,000. I was most intrigued by a 14 year old boy who was learning with 100 children in his class, 6 or 7 of them sharing a book, 4 of them sharing a desk that was made for 2: he spoke of the challenges getting an education meant for him and his family. But he also spoke of his dream of becoming a layer; which watching him speak I could believe instantly.

The afternoon of the third day we met with German development experts at the embassy to receive an outside / inside overview of development in Tanzania.

On our last day we went to see one of Tanzania’s largest tax payers: Twiga Cement. It was truly inspirational to see a company take corporate social responsibility as serious as the managers at Twiga do. But they were honest about saying that it’s also in their self-interest. Numbers proved them right: while their competitors showed only minor growth or even shrank in the last couple of years Twiga was able to increase sales by a third in a 2008 alone. Manager Pascal sent us on the way saying that there were some things that only development assistance could provide. But that it’s also on private entrepreneurship from locals and foreign investors alike to develop a country.

Then we went to see another water project. This time it was DAWASA who showed us how Dar es Salaam is trying to get a hold of the city’s water and sanitation problems. Since the city has grown and still is growing largely uncontrolled people have to buy from vendors or walk for miles for water. The sewer systems are often aged and don’t have enough capacity for city of 3 million.

We concluded the day with a dinner with Tanzanian personalities: Margaret Chacha, who only a few months ago founded the Tanzanian Women’s Bank, Banana Zorro, a very well known singer (later that night we even had a chance to see him and his father perform live on stage), Mrisho Mpoto, an illustrious poet and artist, and Rakesh Rajani, who has been involved in several NGOs to monitor and improve Tanzanian and African governments. Once again we received the message that it’s about development corporation not aid: everyone has to do their share – Tanzanians and donors alike.

The trip to Tanzania offered a multitude of impressions. We saw lots of progress but also lots of challenges. We saw how the people of Tanzania are proud of their country that beside the projects we saw has some of the world’s most impressive landscapes and wildlife. We saw potential that only wants an opportunity to prove itself.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan greets a mother and her child in the pediatric ward of the Bagamoyo District Clinic, where the Ifakara Health Institute is testing a promising new malaria vaccine.

A one-hour drive from Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo, is home to stunning crystal-clear water and white sand beaches, and also much history. It was an ancient slave-trading center and the port of disembarkation for American journalist Henry Stanley as he set off to search for British explorer David Livingstone.

Today, Bagamayo is home to a cutting-edge facility, the Bagamoyo Research and Training Center of the Ifakara Health Institute. Salim Abdulla, the impressive doctor who founded the center, gave the delegation a tour of the campus, and described how their medical research is fully integrated in to the district health system – meaning local residents can participate in tests of new medications at their village hospital.
We visited the 16-bed pediatric ward, where we were surprised to see three empty beds. Dr. Abdulla told us that 57% of the homes in the area own nets, and they have seen a decrease in the numbers of children coming to the hospital with malaria.

One of the most exciting activities currently underway at Bagamoyo is a trial of a new malaria vaccine for young children through a partnership of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, GlaxoSmithKline and the Ifakara Health Institute. Bagamoyo is one of 11 sites across Africa where the vaccine is being tested. The first child was immunized in May, and the trial will eventually enroll 800 children to test this promising new vaccine. Early data shows that it will protect at least 60% of the vaccinated children from malaria.

Learn more about the RTS,S vaccine here.

Learn more about malaria in Tanzania here.

-Gabrielle Fitzgerald

Our first site visit this trip is to the Amana District Hospital, which provides care to the one million residents of the Ilala municipality. The hospital complex was large and well-maintained, and was filled with orderly rows of mothers and their children waiting to be seen.

Amana sees approximately 1400 people a day, and delivers 100 babies. New mothers are given a bed in the maternity ward for six hours to recover from the delivery of their baby, before being discharged to go back home.

But what has traditionally driven the high volume of patients at the hospital has changed in recent years. In 2006, malaria was the leading cause of admissions for both adults and children. Since then, Amana’s malaria cases have dropped by more than 50%.

The drop in malaria cases is due to increased use of insecticide-treated nets, new anti-malarial medicines and better diagnostic tests.

Tanzanian health officials credit support from the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative for this progress, and are confident that these numbers will continue to decrease as malaria programs reach a greater number of the Tanzanian population.

You can learn more about malaria, what it is, and how it’s prevented and treated, here.

You can learn more about bed nets and how they are distributed, here.

-Gabrielle Fitzgerald, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Although anyone is welcome to open accounts at the new bank, it targets women who have inadequate capital to grow their businesses. While traditional banks require title deeds or other proof of wealth to open account, the Women’s Bank only asks for an ID and $2 in savings, making it much more accessible to women in a country where a third of the population earns less than $1.25 a day. There are also no monthly fees.
Bank officials say that the opening was the result of years of campaigning by women’s groups. From the East African:

“Women’s groups called for the establishment of this type of bank way back in 1999. They wanted a place where they would be listened to and where their needs would be taken into account,” said Ms Chacha [Margareth Mattabi Chacha, the bank’s executive director].

“It took them 10 years to collect the necessary funds. Their biggest challenge was to satisfy all the conditions needed to be recognised as a bank. So far, the initiative is a success,” she said.

Once the bank is firmly entrenched, the founders plan to expand regionally and, eventually, across the continent.

Although the bank is just a few days old, plans are at advanced stages to open branches in other Tanzanian towns.

“Many women live in the countryside,” said Ms Chacha. “Trips to ATM machines are long and costly. We will make banking available through mobile phones, a service provided by a number of banks in Africa,” she said.

Two weeks after it opened, the Women’s Bank now has over 500 customers, 70% of whom are women. In addition to helping women open accounts, bank staff also teach them basic business skills and money management. Officials hope that the availability of staff to walk women through the various steps and procedures will help make the process less intimidating for Tanzanian women, who like most African women are unlikely or unable to take advantage of formal banks. According to a 2006 World Bank survey, only 5% of Tanzanian women use banking services, compared to 11% of men.

Helping women overcome barriers to accessing credit and controlling their own finances is widely accepted as a key step in transforming communities in the world’s poorest countries. For years, microfinance institutions have targeted women as the recipients of small, low-interest loans on the premise that money invested in women is money invested in families and communities. A study in Brazil, for example, found that a child’s survival probability increases by about 20% when income is in the hands of the mother.

When matched with social and political opportunities, economic empowerment for women can have a multiplier effect on families and communities. So watch Tanzania over the next few years. It’s a country that has made significant progress in areas like health and education in the past decade, but this recent development might be the first step towards a new era.

-Nora Coghlan

Lisa Bohmer (Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation), Maurice Middleberg (Global Health Council), Jeff Richardson (Abbott Fund) and Jane Kambalame (Embassy of the Republic of Malawi) held a hearing illustrating the necessity of PEPFAR as vital to the effectiveness of each organization.

Many of these groups are funded and supported by PEPFAR and are examples of what the bill has done and can do in the future – increased support will allow them to reach more men, women and children with HIV/AIDS. The reauthorize PEPFAR bill will double the number of people on retroviral treatment to 3 million, including over 450,000 children.

All the information you need to make your call is here.

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation began its international programs in 1999 with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and have since been aided by PEPFAR and other private-public funds. Their programs have helped over 4.8 million women prevent transmission of HIV to their children in over 2,800 sites around the world. Bohmer states than an essential component of effective Public-Private partnerships is strong leadership and governance on the national level.

The Abbott Fund partnered with the PEPFAR Partnership for Pediatric AIDS Treatment and the Government of Tanzania, and has trained over 7,600 health care workers in Tanzania and provided over 50 million rapid HIV tests throughout Africa. Richardson reminded the audience that “no one can do it alone,” hence the need for effective partnerships. He concluded by listing the 3 C’s essential to fighting the HIV epidemic. “If we can collaborate, coordinate and cooperate with good partners then we will be able to turn the epidemic around”

The Global Health Council has been providing NGOs and local communities with the funding and resources they need to combat preventable diseases for over 35 years. Middleberg stated that there must be clear consensus on goals, articulated strategies, defined roles and responsibilities, and transparency for any partnership to work.

Jane Kambalame from the Republic of Malawi, where 900,000 men, women and children live with HIV/AIDS, noted how global advocacy partnerships have improved medical care via investment in technology, infrastructure and direct treatment. The shortage of facilities and doctors delay the treatment and care of HIV/AIDS. However, Kambalame believes the Public- Private Partnerships in Malawi have helped fill the resource gap and have led to visible improvements. She stressed the importance of the reauthorization of the PEPFAR bill and the expansion of PEPFAR to new countries is essential to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Learn more about PEPFAR here.

-Betsy Avila, with Olutosin Akinyode