Members of the House are urging the US government to take quick, decisive action on the Horn of Africa food crisis, where more than 12 million people are at risk of starvation. Last week, Reps. Jim McGovern, Rosa DeLauro and Jan Schakowsky spoke about the crisis on the House floor, where they described the urgent need for food and medical supplies.
They also challenged the wisdom of the devastating cuts being made to the international affairs budget, particularly to critical food aid and agriculture programs. These cuts will make a negative impact America’s ability to respond to this crisis, mitigate future ones and make progress towards global food security.
This week on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” Bono, U2 lead singer and ONE’s co-founder, praised President George W. Bush, ONE and Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle for their HIV/AIDS efforts in Africa. Watch Politico’s clip of the interview here:
ViewChange.org, an independent television broadcaster, brings together powerful, evidence-based videos that demonstrate progress in global development. In this blog post, they highlight a special video playlist for World Population Day.
Later this year, the world will witness an important population milestone as we reach 7 billion people on the planet. From the global food supply to clean drinking water to reproductive health to vaccines, the population milestone impacts virtually every arena of global development. How can the planet support 7 billion people? What can and should be done to ensure enough food, water, access to health care, and resources for all?
Action 3. Time: 20 minutes. Level of difficulty: Easy.
I can’t believe we’re already on the third week of ONE Act a Week. I know it’s kind of early to ask, but what do you think of it so far? (You don’t have to answer that, but if you want to, you can leave a note to me in the comments below).
Last week, we asked our ONE members to write a statement to the International Monetary Fund’s new chief, Christine Lagarde, telling her to keep her promises in the fight against global poverty. If you participated in that action, read a roundup of our favorite messages in this blog post.
Otherwise, let’s get down to business. Your assignment for this week is to watch this TED talk with world-renowned economist Esther Duflo. Duflo says that it’s possible to eliminate the guesswork from poverty-fighting efforts by testing solutions with randomized trials. It’s an incredible concept — imagine how much good we could do in the world if we knew what actions worked best?
Senator Marco Rubio took some time this week to answer a few letters from his constituents in Florida. One of the questions was about foreign aid — and surprisingly, it came from a 14-year-old boy named Will from Palm Bay. “I think it’s crazy that we’re spending all this money to help others when we are the ones who need help,” his letter said. “I’d like to see that money go toward us, the United States of America.”
Sen. Rubio told Will that we have to be more careful where we spend our foreign aid, but our perception of how much we actually spend is exaggerated, and is not the reason why we have growing debt in America. “If it’s done right, it can spread America’s influence around the world,” he said. I won’t tell you his whole answer, so listen to his response in the video below:
Right now, Human Rights Watch (HRW) — a leading organization that defends the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — is hosting their annual International Film Festival in New York City. Although their films span across all genres, they have one thing in common: they all tell the story of the global struggle for human, political and social rights.
Bill Gates with ONE members at the GAVI conference in London
Ever since the big news last week, our ONE members have been thank yous from some pretty great people: GAVI’s CEO Helen Evans (listen to her message here), USAID Administrator Raj Shah (see his video here) and ONE’s Executive Director Jamie Drummond. Even the White House gave you guys a little nod in a blog post last week.
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.
