Center for Global Development

As you know, last week the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy magazine awarded ONE the 6th Annual Commitment to Development Award. This was a huge honor for us. Senators John McCain and Tom Daschle, along with Cindy McCain and Steve Radelet were there to discuss the successes of our ONE Vote ’08 Campaign and ONE’s impact on the 2008 US Presidential election. The event also featured an excellent panel discussion with star ONE volunteers Danielle DePas, Michael Castaldo, and Matthew McAllister.

This was a really great celebration of all the hard work from thousands of ONE members across the country. We compiled a short video of some of the highlights from the event (the panel discussion begins at 6:49). Enjoy!

-Chris Scott

I just got back from the National Press Club where the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy Magazine presented ONE with the 6th Annual “Commitment to Development Award.” Senator John McCain, Cindy McCain, Tom Daschle, and others were in attendance to reflect on and celebrate the successes of ONE Vote ’08 this past presidential campaign cycle.

In talking about ONE, Foreign Policy Editor in Chief Moisés Naím noted that “unless one pushes for obvious ideas, they aren’t obvious for many. Now [these issues] are obvious to millions thanks to ONE.”

Mr. Daschle and Mrs. McCain spoke at length about the necessity of bipartisanship in the fight against extreme poverty—a bipartisanship of which they were obvious examples.

But by far the highlight and emphasis of the ceremony were the immeasurable achievements of ONE members and volunteers all across the country—today represented by Danielle DePas, Michael Castaldo, and Matthew McAllister who came to DC to accept the award. All three were invited to sit on a panel discussion with Steve Radelet and ONE’s Liesl Hickey to discuss topics such as grassroots activism, organizing, and how the US can lead in the fight against global poverty and preventable disease.

We’ll have further posts with photos and video from the event for you shortly. You can read more about the award here.

-Chris Scott

Today we are very proud to announce that the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy magazine have selected ONE to be the 2008 winner of the Commitment to Development “Ideas in Action” Award. The award, given annually since 2003, seeks to honor individuals or organizations “from the rich world that has made a significant contribution to changing attitudes and policies toward the developing world.”

We are honored to receive this award which of course would never have been possible without the hard work and dedication of ONE members and activists around the world.

Some excerpts from CGD’s announcement below, and you can listen to the telephone press conference here.

Through its ONE Vote ‘08 initiative , ONE mobilized 2 million supporters to sign petitions, raise awareness in their communities, and encourage the presidential candidates to explain how they would improve U.S. policies that affect poor people in developing countries. After the election, ONE pushed for President-elect Barack Obama and other newly elected officials to keep their commitments to the world’s poor in the face of the global financial crisis.

ONE Campaign advocates-often sporting ONE Campaign t-shirts-were visible at town hall meetings and election events around the country in 2008, catching the attention of candidates and voters.

ONE also hosted high-level panel discussions on global poverty at the Democratic and Republican national conventions. Hundreds of students, activists, and convention delegates attended the convention events.

-Chris Scott

With the 2008 presidential election being held a week from today, it’s a great time to take stock of the progress made during the Bush administration and what challenges we’ll confront during the next administration.

Todd Moss, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, sat down for an interview about progress in US foreign aid under the Bush administration. He also discusses ideas for how the next president could potentially continue these efforts.

Excerpts below, full piece here

Q: What has the Bush administration done to strengthen U.S. engagement in Africa?

A: I don’t think it’s too strong to say that President Bush’s Africa policy is the most distinguished foreign policy legacy of the administration. Although few expected such interest eight years ago, the president has clearly been deeply and personally committed to strengthening U.S.-Africa relations. We have not only seen U.S. assistance levels to Africa skyrocket, but the whole debate about foreign aid and Africa has changed.

Q: How so?

A: A decade ago, Washington was still arguing about whether foreign aid was a waste or not and whether we had any real interests in Africa. Today, the discussion is about how to innovate, build partnerships, and fix our aid system. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) have been game-changers. Africa’s debt problem is essentially fixed. We have seen a huge spike in American trade and increased private investment. The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp. has helped to launch more than a dozen private equity funds targeting the continent. American thinking on Africa has changed completely. It’s no coincidence that views of the U.S. are still overwhelmingly positive across Africa.

-Chris Scott

(UPDATED: I added video.)

Yesterday afternoon, I attended the National Democratic Institute’s global poverty panel at the DNCC. It was moderated by Gayle Smith, who’s a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

The speakers were:

Madeleine K. Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State and NDI chairman
Ben Affleck, actor, director, and advocate
Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development
John J. Danilovich, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Account
Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader and Co-Chair of ONE Vote ‘08
Hernando de Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy
Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, vice president of the Africa Region of the World Bank
Donald Payne, U.S. representative
Tim Wirth, former U.S. senator, and CEO of the United Nations Foundation
James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank.

Josh Lozman of our policy staff is going to be sending in a post about the panel a little later.

I also took a small camera with me and shot some simple video, so I’ll post a couple clips here to give you a sense of what it was like to be in the room. The 1st is of Senator Tom Daschle answering a question about his recent trip with ONE through Rwanda.

This second one is of Ben Affleck talking about his new perspective after having visited Africa- and what he thinks that new perspective means for how we should message effectively. After, President of the Center for Global Development Nancy Birdsall talks about the incredible progress we’ve seen.

I often struggle to explain my work on “modernizing U.S. foreign assistance policy” to my family in California. But this week, I had something new to share with them to help convey the crux of the issue in one minute: a new video we helped produce at the Center for Global Development (CGD) called “Bring U.S. Foreign Assistance into the 21st Century.”

My family has been joined by another 8200+ individuals who have watched the video on YouTube since it was posted earlier this week and they’ve started to send us their comments. I’m delighted to report that the overwhelming response from viewers is: this video is “fun”, “short” and “makes the point” but that they want to know more.

Many of the policymakers I talk to in Washington tell me they care about foreign aid and global development but that the “American people” don’t want to hear about it and aren’’t interested in the policy details. So the enthusiastic call from people wanting to learn more is music to my ears. I recommend the following:

• Modernizing Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century: An Agenda for the Next U.S. President and CGD’s Modernizing U.S. Foreign Assistance Initiative, which includes: foreign aid 101, election ’08 issues, foreign aid budget analysis, details on Congress, and polling data.
• Rich World, Poor World: A Guide to Global Development on why global development matters for the U.S. and a range of topics including foreign aid, trade and labor standards, state building, HIV/AIDS, and education.
• Impact ‘08: Building a Better, Safer World. The Center for U.S. Global Engagement’s policy framework calling on the 2008 presidential candidates to elevate and strengthen support for development assistance and diplomacy.
• The bipartisan HELP Commission Report produced for Congress.
• ONE Campaign’s “More and Better Aid” resources and their ONE Vote ‘08 site

And keep your eyes open for the launch next Tuesday of “New Day, New Way: U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century,” a report endorsed by several of the country’s top foreign assistance and global development experts.

My hope is that the video can help you start a conversation with your own friends and family and demonstrate to your representatives in Congress and the White House that there is support for modernizing U.S. foreign assistance and a growing American constituency interested in improving our global development policies to help build a better, safer world.

-Sarah Jane Staats, Senior Associate for Outreach and Policy, Center for Global Development

At the end of last week, I posted excepts from a BBC News article about the high percentage of African doctors moving to more-developed countries. The piece cited a new study by Michael Clemons of the Center for Global Development (CGD).

A couple days ago, Dr. Clemons wrote a comment on the post, saying that he thinks the mainstream media misinterpreted the results of his study.

Dr. Clemons’ comment on my post :

“I wrote the study in question and I think the BBC piece just got it wrong. I explain why here:
http://blogs.cgdev.org/globaldevelopment/2008/01/media_reports_on_african_brain_1.php

Also- a useful summary of his research from the CGD site:

“Conventional wisdom says that, because low-income countries need skilled professionals to develop, their migration to better-paying countries is unequivocally bad… So the recent surge in the international mass migration of highly skilled workers has many worrying: will the loss of skilled professionals stymie development?

In this new working paper, CGD research fellow Michael Clemens uses new data on African health worker migration to test whether decreases in emigration raise the number of domestic health professionals, increase the mass availability of basic primary care, or improve a range of public health outcomes.

The results suggest that Africa’s generally low staffing levels and poor public health conditions are the result of factors entirely unrelated to international movements of health professionals, and that the option to emigrate has positively affected Africans’ decisions to enter the health field.

Bottom line: impeding the migration of skilled health professionals, by sending and receiving countries, does little to improve health systems or heath outcomes in Africa.”

I whole heartily thank Dr. Clemons for leaving his comment on the 14th, and hope he may accept my invitation to post on the ONE Blog in the future? We’d love to have your insights.

-Virginia Simmons