Yesterday, I went with some ONE members to Springfield, Illinois, to catch up with Rep. Mark Kirk and remind him about ONE and the world’s poorest people, while he campaigns for the US Senate.

After the event was over, one of Rep. Kirk’s campaign staff recognized us in our ONE shirts from when we caught up with Rudy Giuliani last week, and brought us over to meet with Rep. Kirk. As soon as he saw us he recognized ONE and thanked us for coming!

Many ONE members will remember that Rep. Kirk has worked in the US House of Representatives on ONE’s core issues like Aid Reform and the International Affairs Budget letter, so we thanked him for his past work on behalf of the world’s people, and urged that same leadership if he was to be elected to the US Senate. Rep. Kirk thanked us for our work and put on a ONE band before taking time to speak with all of us and pose for a quick photo!

Here in Illinois, ONE members are hitting the trail and taking great pride in making sure that our next senator continues America’s leading role in fighting AIDS, malaria, and extreme poverty in the poorest parts of the world!

Be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 Illinois members on Facebook and Twitter.

-Christopher Shaffer, ONE Vote 2010 organizer, Illinois

Pictured above from left to right: Hafsa Ahsan, Christopher Shaffer, Rep. Mark Kirk, Mandy Altman, and Chelsea Rehman

ONE members with Rudy Giuliani

Last night in Chicago, I went with a group of ONE members and stood outside of a private event for Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk. Rep. Kirk appeared with Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City and 2008 presidential candidate.

After headlining the event and taking a timeout to strongly endorse Rep. Kirk in an interview, Giuliani got out of his car, saw us standing in our ONE shirts and came right over to talk to us about ONE and our international life-saving mission!

We were able to thank him for his ideas about saving lives, expanding economic opportunities for the poorest people in the world, and for always making time for ONE members along the trail during ONE Vote ’08. Guiliani thanked us for our work and complimented ONE members everywhere.

We look forward to catching up with Rep. Kirk on the trail soon. We want to let him know that through ONE Vote 2010, 60,000 ONE members here in Illinois have made it known that they want their next senator –- whether Republican or Democrat –- to continue America’s life-saving role in the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease.

We also wanted to thank him for his efforts in the U.S. House for Aid Reform and the Berman-Kirk International Affairs Budget Letter. Here’s hoping we can catch him on the campaign trail soon!

Be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 Illinois members on Facebook and Twitter.

- Christopher Shaffer, ONE Vote 2010 state organizer, Illinois

As a key member of the group who launched Publish What You Fund (PWYF), ONE has been actively involved in the debate around increasing aid effectiveness and is very proud of the advisory role PWYF played during the drafting process of a new bipartisan bill designed to increase accountability and improve the effectiveness of U.S. foreign aid.

Section 4 of the bill addresses how US aid will become more transparent, stating that “the American taxpayers and recipients of United States foreign assistance should, to the maximum extent practicable, have full access to information on United States foreign assistance.” Departments and agencies responsible for directing foreign aid will be instructed to post information on the internet about the amount of money disbursed as well as information about contract agreements and monitoring reports for specific programs on a country-by-country basis. Additionally, the bill instructs that information should be posted in a timely way. In addition, the bill states that because of the importance of understanding the role of foreign assistance from the United States relative to funding from other donors, the US should participate in the International Aid Transparency Initiative, established on September 4, 2008, at the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.

Aid effectiveness is critically important, especially in these tough budgetary times. We’re excited to see a bipartisan team of congressional leaders introduce this bill and looks forward to working with the powerful group of unlikely allies, like William Easterly, to increase aid effectiveness, accountability and transparency. Keep an eye on the ONE Blog for updates on how we can help move this bill through Congress.

-Lisa Fleisher

With at least 12 departments, 25 different agencies, and nearly 60 government offices involved in US foreign assistance operations, a key element of the Strategy will be its interagency approach to set out a coherent framework to guide US efforts to reduce global poverty and promote broad-based economic growth in the developing world. Ideally, this will be led by the National Security Council, reaching out across all of government. Importantly, the Strategy will go beyond simply development assistance programs and consider broadly US development policies that affect poverty and economic growth in poor countries, including trade, debt relief, climate change and others. The legislation further requires the creation of a process to improve and strengthen coordination among the various departments and agencies engaged in foreign assistance.

With Development as one of the three pillars of US national security, along with Defense and Diplomacy, a National Strategy on Global Development is long over-due. President Obama has committed to a series of important global development actions, including a doubling of foreign assistance and major agriculture, education, and health initiatives. To avoid the existing fragmentation and conflicting purposes of US foreign aid policies, the implementation of a National Strategy will be a significant first step. But a more comprehensive overhaul of aid programs and apparatus is necessary. Chairman Berman promises that this bill is a “down payment” on a much broader and much more difficult task to re-write the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, an effort he plans for later this year.

-Larry Nowels

District residents were invited to come and hear what their neighbors had done to (among other things) empower Afghan women; build clean water wells and promote education in Africa; and to help health care systems in Mexico.

ONE was also given the opportunity to let the people in the 10th Congressional District in Illinois know how they could join the fight against extreme poverty and global disease. Volunteers Ryan Steel and Dana Salmond were on hand to answer people’s questions about ONE, and Ryan took advantage of the opportunity to invite Rep. Kirk to a ONE event he is planning at Libertyville High School in April!

-Annisa Wanat