During this C-Span interview, Rev. David Beckmann talks about the need to reform U.S. foreign aid. A more efficient foreign assistance system-with better coordination, better accountability, better clarity-will ensure that people get help faster and more effectively.
The process started with the submission of a new bill in Congress, HR 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009. Beckmann is president of Bread for the World and co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network.
-Adlai Amor, Director of Communications, Bread for the World
It’s conference season in our nation’s capital! Several of ONE’s partners are hosting national conferences, trainings and advocacy workshops for poverty-fighting activists like you! Check out the list below and sign up to attend!
This weekend I joined others in the area concerned about hunger at the Bread for the World workshop held at the Saint Louis Catholic Church in Miami, Florida. The Bread organizer, Greg Sims gave me the opportunity to talk about ONE and our local efforts to advocate for increased foreign assistance and effective programs that will help those who need it the most.
With new faces and energy in Washington, D.C. we know that now is the time for Congress to take action. This year, Bread for the World’s offering of letters is urging Congress to rework U.S. foreign assistance to make it more effective in reducing poverty. At the end of the workshop we all took a few minutes to write personal letters to Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL-18)to ask for her help to make poverty reduction a primary goal of foreign assistance. ONE member Alix Gordon will be hand-delivering the letters to the Congresswoman’s district office later this week.
I am so glad we had the chance to participate in the workshop and am encouraged by the number of organizations and individuals on the ground here in Florida that are working together to advocate for policies that will help people lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.
Check out this great post from our friends at Bread for the World!
-Rosie
Foreign aid works. Watch this video from Bread for the World to see how well it works.
It’s changed the lives of Ronald Kegoli, an HIV-positive passion fruit farmer in Kenya, and Nubia Baca, a widowed rancher in Nicaragua.
It doesn’t work as well as it could, though. The U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, passed in 1961, now encompasses 33 different goals, 75 priority areas, and 247 directives. And that’s not all: Foreign aid is executed by at least 12 departments, 25 different agencies, and almost 60 government offices. Take a look; it’ll make your head spin.
But guess what else works? Advocacy. Speaking out to your elected leaders in Congress. If you contact them, they listen.
Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters 2009 is urging Congress to rework U.S. foreign assistance to make it more effective in reducing poverty. We have the tools to help you educate yourself on this topic and be a strong advocate as you speak out for hungry and poor people. Visit www.bread.org/OL2009 to learn more.
This is our chance to make something our nation has been doing well even better. Help us flood congressional offices with letters. Make yourself heard. Change lives.
On Monday, one of ONE’s partners – Bread for the World – released their annual Hunger Report. The report, entitled Hunger 2009: Global Development: Charting a New Course, focuses on how particular changes and investment in approaches to development can combat the global hunger crisis.
In addition to the global financial crisis, the world is in the midst of a food and a fuel crisis. In less than two years, the number of people who are hungry globally has increased by 75 million, and 100 million people are at risk of being pushed into poverty. Paying more for food – especially for poor families who already spend half or more of their income on food – means shifting to fewer, less nutritious meals per day, and reducing expenditures on other necessities like education and health care.
As the Hunger Report explains, there are several causes for the increase in food prices including an increased demand from people who have moved out of poverty, drought in major grain-producing regions like Australia, fuel price hikes, and years of poor policy choices by the developed world – like subsidies and tariffs – that have ravaged agricultural sectors in the developing world.
The Hunger Report proposes two primary solutions for ensuring long-term global food security. The first is to invest in agriculture in the developing world. Historically, the U.S. and other Official Development Assistance (ODA) providers have addressed hunger by investing in food aid. While in certain emergent situations food aid is vital, the long cycle of hunger and poverty that has left millions vulnerable to the smallest increase in food costs can only be addressed by developing local agricultural sectors.
On Saturday, October 11, ONE and Bread for the World co-sponsored a “Hunger Banquet” at Media City Church in Burbank, CA. Participants drew pieces of paper indicating their symbolic income level for the event – and then were given their meals accordingly. The 60% who drew slips of paper with “low-income” written on them received rice, the 30% who pulled “middle-income” received rice and beans, and the remaining few- 10%- who pulled “high-income” straws received lasagna, salad, bread and dessert.
During the meal, one member of our high-income group showed his compassion my handing out bread from his table to some of the people in the low-income group while claiming he was “Robin Hood”. I couldn’t help thinking that I wish it were just that simple. David Gist from Bread For the World gave an awesome speech about his personal experiences and encouraged us all to commit to making a difference.
Congressman Adam Schiff closed out the Banquet by speaking about his work on issues of poverty and preventable disease. During the Q&A portion, Congressman Schiff was asked if America was doing a sufficient job in fighting extreme poverty to which he responded “no, in fact we are falling far short… especially in terms of universal education.” He also confirmed the importance of contacting our leaders on issues that we care about. One of the most interesting things he pointed out about letter writing was that while the form letters that we all add our signatures to are great, personal letters and face to face meetings seem to make more of an impact. I was really impressed with Congressman Schiff’s knowledge and dedication to eradicating global poverty.
On Wednesday, at the height of the Republican National Convention, I joined former USAID Administrator Brian Atwood and former Chairman of the House State, Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee Jim Kolbe on the Kojo Nnamdi radio show to discuss “Global Poverty and the Next President.”
The conversation focused on the role of grassroots organizations like ONE and Bread for the World in promoting a bold agenda for development, as well as the possibility of totally restructuring the systems that the U.S. government uses to implement and administer development assistance overseas.
Right now, some of the world's biggest oil companies are fighting to keep some of their deals with foreign governments secret. Let's tell big oil we won't be bullied.
Cuts to poverty-fighting programs won't balance the budget, but they will set back progress on Canada's development priorities and risk jeopardizing existing investments.
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.
