During the next two days, I’ll be reporting live from the 2010 Global Corporate Citizenship Conference, an annual gathering hosted by the Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Over the past few years, many leaders in the private sector have realized that there’s a driving need to partner with the international development community and increase corporate social responsibility and accountability.
Why? Because not only do people demand it (think about how you felt after the Enron and WorldCom scandals) it just makes good business sense – especially if we can implement the notion of corporate responsibility all across the globe.
Today, our U.S. Policy Director Larry Nowels and Policy Manager Nora Coghlan are attending the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s (USGLC) annual conference here in Washington, D.C. The coalition, a network of more than 400 organizations from the private, public and nonprofit sector, comes together each year to discuss ways to elevate diplomacy and development alongside defense in order to build a better and safer world.
This year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah and MCC CEO Daniel Yohannes will be participating in a panel discussion on President Obama’s new global development policy, while a group of prominent military leaders will discuss the importance of diplomacy in national security.
Listen in on the conference in the player below, and if you have a question, send it to USGLC’s Twitter. It starts at about 9:30 AM EDT and goes on all day — so feel free to drop in anytime.
Please welcome Brooke Riley to the ONE Blog. She is our policy team’s most recent addition and will be assisting with global health research.
Today is the final day of the groundbreaking Global Maternal Health Conference, the first international technical conference focused exclusively on maternal health. This exciting conference, organized by EngenderHealth’s Maternal Health Task Force, brings together more than 600 maternal health experts in New Delhi, India to discuss one of the most challenging fields in global health.
Although progress has been made, maternal mortality rates remain unacceptably high, especially in the developing world. Approximately 343,000 mothers die each year during childbirth and 80% of those deaths could be prevented if women had access to basic maternal health services.
This conference aims to build consensus and catalyze action around evidence, programs and policy to achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Five and improve the lives of mothers around the world.
To bring attention to pressing maternal health needs globally, the first two days of the conference have featured numerous exciting events and presentations, including a film screening of ONE supporter Christy Turlington’s film “No Woman, No Cry.”
This will be my first year attending CARE’s National Conference in Washington on June 18 and 19, where CARE supporters from around the country travel each year at their own expense for an amazing and energizing few days. We’ll hear inspiring speakers like Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, David Gregory of NBC News, and Senator Richard Durbin. And we’ll be joined by CARE Ambassadors Christy Turlington Burns and Sheila Johnson, who are lending their famous faces to help get our message across to influential policymakers.
Participants will have a chance to hone their organizing skills, meet legislators face to face, and learn about crucial issues that CARE is working on – such as equal access to education for girls; access to small business loans that enable women to create economic opportunity in their communities; and global efforts to ensure healthy pregnancies and childbirth.
It’s been my great privilege to work for CARE for the past five years. In my job as a press officer I have traveled to almost 20 of the 70 countries where CARE works, meeting the dedicated field staff and community members who make possible daily progress toward our vision of a world without extreme poverty.
The Conference will be my first chance to meet firsthand our volunteer advocates — the activists who work tirelessly to mobilize Americans to influence U.S. policy. It’s their enthusiasm and dedication that help CARE tap into this country’s power to bring about positive change in the world.
The excitement and energy are already building, and I have no doubt this will be the most successful Conference ever. Along with ONE and our partner organizations, we are eager for a few days of big strides toward a better world. Won’t you join us? For more information go to: https://my.care.org/care/events/2008conference/
I’m thrilled to let everybody know about an exciting opportunity for activists who want to learn more about how to talk to their elected leaders and local press about ending poverty. From July 12-15, RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund will be hosting our annual International Conference, featuring RESULTS activists from across the U.S. and around the world. Participants will learn how to fine tune their lobbying and communication skills in workshops that are designed both for those just starting out, and those who are on a first-name basis with their elected official’s staff! Split plenary sessions will address global and domestic issues separately, and confirmed speakers include Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; and David Lane, executive director of the ONE Campaign.
Activities won’t be limited to the conference site. The last day of the conference will be devoted to meetings with our activists and their members of Congress, and meetings at the World Bank and IMF for our international partners. At the end of the day, my colleagues and I will host optional walking tours of DC, under-30 socials, and karaoke dance parties to make sure that participants can have some fun during their time in DC. Not that lobbying Congress on poverty alleviation isn’t fun, of course. But it ain’t karaoke either…
RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund provides our partners in the U.S. and around the world with the tools they need to get informed about fighting poverty both in the U.S. and abroad, and how to engage their policymakers and editorial boards. We focus on campaigns pertaining to global health, education, health care for all, microcredit, and ending hunger through nutrition programs. To learn more about us, or to register for our conference, please visit our website. I hope to see you there!
I’m excited to be involved for the first time in Save the Children’s annual Advocacy Day program in Washington (June 11-12). Particularly at a time when the world food crisis threatens to push more people – especially vulnerable children in the developing world – back into poverty, this event gives us all an opportunity to do something for those children and their families.
Did you know that over 10 million children die yearly from preventable or treatable diseases and low cost solutions can do something about it? That’s 26,000 children a day! AIDS and malaria are killing only a small proportion. Most die of diarrhea, pneumonia, and measles. Four million of these deaths occur to newborns – less than one month old – in villages in Africa and Asia. That’s not right, especially since there are low cost solutions that can prevent these deaths from happening.
Save the Children is going to focus its June program on building support for the U.S. Commitment to Global Child Survival Act (H.R. 2266, S.1418). This legislation will strengthen American’s role in saving the lives of children and mothers in the world’s poorest countries by investing in low-cost, highly effective, lifesaving interventions such as vitamins, antibiotics and vaccines.
Already over 100 Senators and Representatives from both parties support this bill, but more must be done to get this legislation passed. We need to come together and tell Congress to provide more help for these children and families in countries like Nigeria, Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Afghanistan.
Advocacy Days is a terrific opportunity for us to make a difference by letting our elected officials know there is a voice calling for lasting change in the lives of children in need.
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.
Participants will have a chance to hone their organizing skills, meet legislators face to face, and learn about crucial issues that CARE is working on – such as equal access to education for girls; access to small business loans that enable women to create economic opportunity in their communities; and global efforts to ensure healthy pregnancies and childbirth.
3. Uplifting worship service, preceded by free wine at the reception! 
Activities won’t be limited to the conference site. The last day of the conference will be devoted to meetings with our activists and their members of Congress, and meetings at the World Bank and IMF for our international partners. At the end of the day, my colleagues and I will host optional walking tours of DC, under-30 socials, and karaoke dance parties to make sure that participants can have some fun during their time in DC. Not that lobbying Congress on poverty alleviation isn’t fun, of course. But it ain’t karaoke either…
I’m excited to be involved for the first time in Save the Children’s annual Advocacy Day program in Washington (June 11-12). Particularly at a time when the world food crisis threatens to push more people – especially vulnerable children in the developing world – back into poverty, this event gives us all an opportunity to do something for those children and their families.
Did you know that over 10 million children die yearly from preventable or treatable diseases and low cost solutions can do something about it? That’s 26,000 children a day! AIDS and malaria are killing only a small proportion. Most die of diarrhea, pneumonia, and measles. Four million of these deaths occur to newborns – less than one month old – in villages in Africa and Asia. That’s not right, especially since there are low cost solutions that can prevent these deaths from happening. 
Already over 100 Senators and Representatives from both parties support this bill, but more must be done to get this legislation passed. We need to come together and tell Congress to provide more help for these children and families in countries like Nigeria, Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Afghanistan.
