The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has just issued a statement regarding Dr. Rajiv Shah, President Obama’s selection to be the next USAID Administrator. You can read ONE’s take on the pick here.

Gates Foundation statement:

The selection of Dr. Rajiv Shah as the next administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) demonstrates a commitment to providing strong, evidence-based, effective U.S. foreign assistance. We have worked closely with Raj for several years and know he will bring the same commitment, intelligence and visionary management style to USAID.

Raj was an important part of the foundation’s leadership and played a key role in our efforts on global health and agricultural development. In global health, he worked to promote the development and distribution of vaccines, which are the most cost-effective public health investments we can make. He also helped develop and implement a strategy aimed at breaking the cycle of hunger and poverty by providing small farmers in the developing world with the tools and opportunities to boost productivity, and build better lives for themselves and their families. We are confident that he will bring the same rigor, innovation and belief in the transformative power of foreign assistance and sustainable development to USAID, and we look forward to working with him.

As you might know, December 1st is World AIDS Day. To commemorate this annual event, the World Bank will be hosting a forum in Washington, DC on “Linking HIV/AIDS, Food Security and Maternal and Child Health.”

Speakers and panelists will include US Global AIDS Coordinator Eric Goosby, Executive Director of the Global Fund for AIDS, TB, and Malaria Michel Kazatchkine, and many others.

Today is the last day to RSVP, so if you’d like to attend please do so here. It promises to be a really great panel.

This week The University of Miami’s Department of International Studies teamed up with ONE’s partner organization, CARE to present a panel discussion on climate change as a human security concern. Many ONE members came out for the event to learn more about the challenges that drastic changes in climate present for people living in extreme poverty.

Dr. Sherri Porcelain, senior lecturer with the Global Public Health Department at UM kicked of the event and moderated the panel discussion which covered topics such as resource scarcity, increased spread of diseases like malaria from more active mosquito populations, to the mass migration of people from coastlands and other areas affected by climate change.

As policy makers prepare to meet next month at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, we will continue to work on the ground here in Florida and around the country to educate our members of Congress and raise awareness about the deadly costs of climate change to those living in extreme poverty.

AllAfrica.com recently posted an interview with Aaron S. Williams, the new US Peace Corps director. During the interview, Williams discusses the current state of the Peace Corps as it approaches its rather remarkable 50th anniversary. He notes an 18% increase in applications this year alone.

Williams also touches on a subject ONE Blog readers are no doubt familiar with: food security. Excerpts below, full interview here.

And now a new departure has been the new food security initiative. Secretary [of State Hillary Rodham] Clinton is very interested in food security; it’s going to be one of her primary initiatives and has the full support of course of the Obama administration. It is a priority at Peace Corps, and we’re going to do more to expand our work in agriculture. Agriculture has always been an important part of Peace Corps’ involvement in working at the community level.

Q: What would you like the Peace Corps in Africa to be doing in three or four years?

I would like to see us continue our program in education; we’re very much involved in teacher training … hands-on involvement with teachers in the schools. I want to see us continue to expand our work in health, not just in HIV/Aids, but also in malaria and tuberculosis. We have trained skilled volunteers who work at the community level, really strengthening the capacity of NGOs at the grassroots to work in these areas.

I want to see us having a broad, expanded role in food security, especially because in Africa women play an instrumental role in the agricultural sector. I want to see us reach out to women who are involved in agriculture. I want to see us reach out to young people and introduce them to the importance of agriculture and food security. So those are the areas [where] I’d like to see us really establish a broader presence and deeper involvement at the community level.

Check out this post from Desmond Serrette from the US Chapter of the Global Campaign for Education, of which ONE is a major partner:

I’m happy to announce the December 10th National Day of Action when we are calling on those who understand the important role that education plays in the health, safety and economic security of the world’s children to take action and let President Obama know we support his call for a fully endowed Global Fund for Education.

There are nearly 75 million children across the globe unable to attend primary school this year. Children are blocked out of classroom doors by high schooling fees, long distances to travel to the nearest school, and an insufficient number of teachers, to name a few.

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” This statement is especially powerful when one explores the impact that education plays in helping solve so many of the world’s problems. Simply put: Education Saves Lives, Reduces Poverty and Makes a Safer World.

You don’t have to wait until December 10th:

You can sign a petition right now urging President Obama to support a Global Fund for Education to ensure a quality education for all the world’s children.

Did you know:

• In Africa, 5 million children each year die before their 5th birthday, yet children of mothers with just a few years of primary education are 40% more likely to survive into adulthood
• Providing mothers with basic education is more effective than food aid in ending childhood malnutrition
• An estimated 700,000 cases of HIV/AIDS could be prevented each year in Africa alone, if all children received a primary education
• Education is by far the best predictor of democratic attitudes in a country; more education corresponds directly to more democratic attitudes

There is an answer: In September 2008, then candidate Barack Obama pledged to lead the world in creating and endowing a Global Fund for Education. A Global Fund could ensure that the global education deficit is tackled with sufficient resources and political resolve to put in every child in school. Just as the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria has worked together to raise billions of dollars and saved over 3.5 million lives, a Global Fund for Education would provide enough resources so the lives of the poor can be better lived – in health, security, hope and prosperity.

Let President Obama know right now that you support a fully endowed Global Fund for Education. Together, we can lead the way in providing a healthier global society, a safer planet, and a world in which living on less than a dollar a day is no longer a reality for anyone. Thank you!

You may recall that last year, right around this time, we commemorated World Toilet Day. Time has flown, and November 19th (Thursday) marks the next annual World Toilet Day. This is a chance to “give voice to the 2.5 billion people who lack access to a toilet and the 1.8 million people who die annually as a result.”

If you live in Washington, DC, you’re invited to meet on Capitol Hill for the “Sanitation is Dignity” exhibit with speeches on the crisis & solutions by invited guests. It’s a great opportunity to spotlight a major– and solvable– health crisis. Details below:

WHAT: World Toilet Day event: “Sanitation is Dignity” exhibit and speeches on the crisis & solutions by invited guests

WHEN: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 12:30pm-1:00pm

WHERE: United States Capitol, West Front Grassy Area (north panel); West side of Capitol Building (facing Washington Monument). Near corner of 1st Street NW & Constitution Ave. NW. Take the metro to Union Station

WHO: Senator Durbin (Invited), Representative Blumenauer (Invited), Representative Payne (Invited), Water Advocates, WaterAid, CSIS, Water For People, National Resources Defense Council, Earth Day Network and others

Contact John Sauer at jsauer@wateradvocates.org if you would like to volunteer.

Rotary International is teaming up with violin virtuoso and polio survivor Itzhak Perlman and the world-renowned New York Philharmonic to present the Concert to End Polio, a benefit performance supporting the global effort to eradicate this disabling and sometimes fatal childhood disease.

Polio eradication resonates strongly with Mr. Perlman, who contracted the disease at age four and overcame serious physical challenges to become one of the world’s most celebrated musicians. Mr. Perlman is a winner of 15 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. In this historic, one-night-only performance Perlman will help Rotary in its effort to raise $200 million to match a $355 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All of the money raised will fund critical eradication activities in countries where polio still threatens children.

Rotary International, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched an initiative to make polio only the second disease to be eradicated. At the time (1988), there were 350,000 polio cases a year. Last year, there were less than 2,000. Worldwide, the number of polio cases has been slashed by 99 percent, preventing five million cases of childhood paralysis and 250,000 deaths. However, the final one percent of cases is the most difficult and expensive to prevent.

The one-night-only performance will be held on 2 December at 7:30 p.m. in New York City.
Learn how you can help at rotary.org/endpolio or purchase tickets for this historic event at nyphil.org/perlman.

-Petina Dixon, Rotary International

Today marks the opening of the World Food Summit on Global Food Security which is being held in Rome through Wednesday. The meeting, which brings together officials from the UN food security-related institutions (like the UN Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] and the World Food Program [WFP]) and an estimated 60 heads of state, is designed to garner political will to address global food insecurity. The UN FAO has asked those in attendance at the Summit to commit $44 billion per year in official development assistance (ODA) for agricultural development, and to adopt 2025 as a deadline for eradicating global hunger.

Over 1 billion people worldwide suffer from food insecurity, and the challenge ahead will only be exacerbated by climate change, population growth, and rural-urban migration. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon cautioned today that food security cannot be tackled without addressing climate change. “Food security and climate change are deeply interconnected,” he said. “Today’s event is critical, so is Copenhagen.” The FAO predicts that we will need to grow 70 percent more food by 2050. At the same time, however, farmers, particularly in places like Africa where crops are rain-fed and rainfall is becoming increasingly erratic, could see drastic declines in harvests.

In the lead-up to the Summit last week there were concerns about attendance and outcomes. News reports indicated that the Summit might not set measurable targets for addressing food insecurity, and a draft communiqué released last week by the FAO contained promising language, but also lacked specific and measurable goals. Thus far at the Summit leaders have only reaffirmed the first Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger and poverty by 2015; it seems unlikely that the UN’s more ambitious targets will be ratified.

In the next few days we’ll update you about happenings at the Summit. The coverage of this event will wrap up our Food Security in Focus series. We hope you’ve enjoyed the content here on the website as much as we’ve enjoyed tracking and writing it! And we will, of course, continue to keep you posted about news in the agriculture and food security sector.

Check out this post from Children’s HeartLink, an organization now in its 40th year that sends volunteer medical teams and individual consultants to train, teach and perform life-saving heart procedures for children. They partner with hospitals in South Africa, Kenya, India, China, Ukraine, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brazil.

Greetings from Children’s HeartLink, an international medical NGO working to build sustainable programs to prevent, treat and cure heart disease among needy children in underserved regions of the world. We have a team in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam right now, working alongside a pediatric cardiac team from Singapore and a local team at Nhi Dong 1 (Children’s Hospital 1) to provide training, mentoring and patient treatment.

I wanted to share one small story about our work by introducing you to Le, one of several children receiving lifesaving treatment this week. Le, an only child, had a heart operation Monday, November 9 (his first birthday). When Le was only two weeks old, he developed pneumonia, and his parents took him to the provincial hospital near their home in Angiang Province. A doctor there discovered Le had a congenital heart defect—a ventricular septal defect, or “hole in the heart.” Since then, his family has been making the long trip to Ho Chi Minh City once every month so cardiologists can track his condition. While Le’s treatment expense is covered by the government, his family has had to borrow money to pay for the trips to Ho Chi Minh City, which is five hours by bus from their home. The family’s income is very limited, so this has been a struggle for them.

Now that Le has had his operation, his parents are hopeful he will recover rapidly and that their financial burdens will be lighter. Treating Le’s heart defect has given the family great hope of a better life for both their son and themselves.

Having worked as a volunteer with Children’s HeartLink for years now, I’ve seen this hope firsthand. Nothing brings more joy than a child’s beating heart, and this week in Vietnam is no exception. With 40 years of experience and partners in nine countries, Children’s HeartLink has extended access to high-quality pediatric cardiac care in places where it’s needed most.

-Dr. Joseph A. Dearani, Medical Director, Children’s HeartLink, Mayo Clinic, Division of Cardiac Surgery

An interesting blog post from Global Health Magazine published by the Global Health Council discusses a disease often overlooked in the developing world: cervical cancer. The disease kills one woman every two minutes. While it affects women worldwide, the mortality rate in Africa is particularly high at 80% due to multiple factors including low screening rates, lack of awareness, and the twin issue of HIV infection.

Especially with the availability of the HPV vaccine, there is incredible potential for improving prevention. Global Health Council members PATH and GSK have partnered to create a pilot project in Uganda, distributing the vaccine to rural populations. A high rate of acceptability of the vaccine in rural areas is a promising start to better prevention against cervical cancer.

Read the whole post and check out the Global Health Magazine blog here.