Today the New York Times ran an op-ed advocating for the incoming administration to adopt the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) as a central tool for development. The article explains that “The long-term engagement with the United States that is required for any country to earn a Millennium Challenge Corporation compact provides a platform for the kind of robust diplomacy that President-elect Obama has embraced. As he seeks to adapt American foreign assistance to a transformed world, one decisive step he can take is to signal his strong support of the corporation’s approach to global development.”
The piece, authored by the four non-government board members of the MCC (Lorne Craner, Bill Frist, Kenneth Hackett, and Alan Patricof), posits that the kind of aid MCC delivers – long-term aid given based on a clear set of indicators for projects defined by the recipient country, in which the recipient country takes responsibility for their development – works best. It also cites examples of the ‘MCC effect’; the idea that countries who are not yet compact-eligible will work independently to better their indicators due to the incentive of becoming eligible for large-scale support and funding.
We’ll continue to keep you updated about the position of the MCC within the new administration.
At September’s special United Nation’s Summit, we had a chance to show a short video to a group of world leaders at the Secretary General’s reception. The film – “Celebrate, Accelerate” – marks the progress on the Millennium Development Goals to date and encourages further, faster commitments going forward.
I’m watching the RNC tonight where Senator Frist, Co-Chair of ONE Vote ’08, just gave a speech that spoke directly to many of ONE’s issues. Some highlights below, the full script after the jump.
“Health builds trust ,and health bridges divides. That’s why America’s investment in medical diplomacy is a long-term investment in national security. Health is a currency for peace.
I’m proud to tell you that it was a Republican president and a Republican-led Congress that launched our nation’s historic initiative to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in the world’s poorest countries — the greatest global health commitment in history.
Has it made a difference? Oh yes! In just six years, the number of Africans on life-saving treatment jumped from 50,000 to over 2 million! The incidence of malaria has been slashed by two-thirds in some countries. Today, 20 million more children are in school.
But much work remains to be done.
HIV/AIDS continues to hollow out entire generations of people at the prime of their lives. It’s easy for people to lose hope.
And when they do, the vacuum is filled with desperation, instability, and – yes, the seeds of terrorism.”
“we can be the generation to make extreme poverty… history.”
Video of our service project at the RNCC on Tuesday is now up in its full form! (Short highlight clips were posted here earlier.)
Check out the full remarks from ONE CEO David Lane, Zambian AIDS activist Princess Zulu, Senator Bill Frist, M.D., Cindy McCain and First Lady Laura Bush.
Some posts from our service project at the DNCC here and here
In between today’s 2 ONE panels at the RNCC, Gov. Huckabee spoke about his experience with ONE on the campaign trail and his time traveling on a bipartisan delegation to Rwanda with ONE earlier this summer.
(As I said previously, I didn’t have a tripod of any kind, so if shaky camera movement gives you a headache, you may just want to listen to the footage for now until we have the professional video done and up in the next few days.)
First, Gov. Huckabee talks about ONE:
Next, Gov. Huckabee introduces this clip, a video made especially for the RNCC about Senator Frist, Michael Gerson and Gov. Huckabee in Rwanda:
I grabbed some video with a tiny handheld camera at this morning’s ONE panels at the RNCC. Better quality footage will show up later, but I want to share some highlights with you now.
The first clip below is of Senator Frist introducing the panel and speakers. The second clip is of Michael Gerson talking about his experience crafting PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief).
I didn’t have a tripod of any kind sadly, so if shaky camera movements remind you too much of the Blair Witch Project- you can hold off a couple days until we have the full footage available.
I just returned from another phenomenal ONE/World Vision service project. As at the DNCC last week – David Lane and Zambian AIDS activist Princess Zulu introduced the event, but this time we also heard moving remarks from special guests Senator Frist, Cindy McCain and First Lady Laura Bush.
I captured video of Cindy McCain and First Lady Laura Bush’s speeches and quickly uploaded them to YouTube. You can check them out below. We got higher quality video of the speeches as well, but it may take a couple days to get that up – and I want to share this experience with ONE Blog readers ASAP.
First, Cindy McCain:
Next, First Lady Laura Bush. (You can also read her full remarks here.)
Here’s a photo of (from left to right) Cindy McCain, David Lane, First Lady Laura Bush, Princess Zulu and Senator Frist assembling care kits.
In the course of a couple hours we packed 2,500 kits, all with simple but essentials supplies like flashlights, wash clothes and basic drugstore medications, to be given out to AIDS caregivers around the world. Below is a very short video clip to give you a sense of the what it was like to be in room at the height of kit-assembly commotion.
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.
