Check out the latest partner post for our Food Security in Focus series, this time from Oxfam America. The post below describes an innovative way that Ethiopian farmers are dealing with the effects of climate change. Also be sure to check out an amazing video/slideshow by clicking on either of the images below.

-Kara Arsenault

Medhin Reda’s is an all-girl house—Medhin and three of her daughters. I knew the moment she brushed aside her daughter’s warning to dress up for her western visitors that I would like her enormously. She had just rushed in from weeding the corn patch, and she came to greet us outside her stone-walled hut high on a hill in Adi Ha—and as soon as she could, she would be back in that corn patch finishing the job.
All work. All day.

That’s the life of single mothers like Medhin here in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where climate change is taking its toll. The rainfall is becoming increasingly erratic and making a living from the rocky soil is backbreaking and never certain. Drought can easily wipe out a season’s efforts. And hunger often follows.
But this year, Medhin, 45, has a plan. Though she doesn’t have a penny to pay for it, she has bought herself a small package of weather insurance. It’s for her teff, the tiny grain grown across Ethiopia that’s the base for a pancake-like bread called injera. If enough rain fails to fall at a certain time, the insurance will provide Medhin with a payout to cover some of her losses.

It’s a new initiative launched by Oxfam America and a host of local partners, including the Relief Society of Tigray. And its genius is in its accessibility to the poorest of the poor. Those who don’t have cash—and many don’t—can pay for their premiums with the single most important asset they do have: their sweat. Two hundred small farmers in Adi Ha signed up for the insurance; 65 percent of them are swapping work for premiums. They’ll be tackling projects that make them less vulnerable to drought.

Medhin is trading 24 days of labor for the comfort of knowing that if her teff crop fails for lack of rain, her family will get critical assistance in its time of need. The insurance will make sure of that.

“It’s good for me to have the insurance as long as I can work and pay with labor,” she said before heading back to her corn patch. “That is the only asset I have.”

-Coco McCabe, Oxfam America

Photos courtesy of Eva-Lotta Jansson/Oxfam America

Oxfam released a report this week on fixing US foreign aid. You might be wondering, why is Oxfam pushing this aid reform business so hard? One billion people have been left behind by global development. Sixty years of foreign aid have shown that donors alone cannot fix their problems. Solutions imposed by a foreign donor can be wrong for a particular context. Or when they’re right, they may not make a long-term difference without local buy-in.

So what’s the good news? Aid can be delivered in ways that make a lasting difference, through ownership. That means supporting citizens and governments to lead in their own development. For citizens, our aid can help them hold their governments accountable, and for governments, it can help them deliver on their responsibilities to their citizens.

Oxfam is calling for three key ways that US foreign aid can strengthen ownership:

• Information: let countries know what we’re giving, and where
• Capacity: help countries acquire tools they need to lead
• Control: let countries lead

  But don’t take our word for it. The Obama Administration has given early indications that it is committed to increasing ownership. During her first trip to Africa as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said “We will focus on country-driven solutions that give responsible governments more information, capacity, and control as they tailor strategies to meet their needs.”

  As our report is careful to point out, every country is different. Where governments are corrupt or not responsive, the US can provide full information about our aid, and work mostly with civil society groups. However, where governments have a record of providing for their citizens, the US should let countries control their own development. Check out the report, and let us know what you think!

  -Porter McConnell, Aid Reform Campaign, Oxfam America

There’s been a lot of great momentum lately about providing clean water for the nearly one billion people in the world without it. In 2005, Congress passed the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act, and from 2007 to 2008, US funding for water, sanitation, and hygiene programs went up 45%.

So what’s missing from this picture, you ask? The system to implement it. If we want to make a difference in helping poor families around the world access clean water, we need a modern and efficient aid agency to deliver on our promises. USAID needs an overall plan for fighting poverty in order to get the most out of this amazing infusion of resources for providing clean water. The best way to make a long-term difference in water and sanitation is to integrate water – and all other the other life-saving assistance that ONE members fight for – into a single strategy for fighting global poverty.

The current system is broken. There’s not even a single place in the US government to find out what the US is currently spending on water & sanitation and in what countries. In the Water for the Poor Act of 2005, Congress mandated an annual report on the government’s progress. But because there are fifteen different US agencies implementing water or sanitation programs overseas, the report does not capture all our efforts. The Millennium Challenge Corporation provided $429 million to help countries upgrade their water delivery systems and connect more households to clean water last year. But that investment is not even reflected in the Water for the Poor Act Report country data, which only reports USAID and State Department activities.

A scattered bureaucracy may not sound like such an urgent problem, but lives hang in the balance: without a clear direction, our water and sanitation assistance simply isn’t going where it’s needed the most. In 2008,

• Jordan received over $41 million from USAID for water and sanitation programs in FY 2008, even though 98% of its population already has access to improved drinking water.
• Niger, where only 42% of the population has access to improved drinking water, received only one-fiftieth that amount.

Learn more about why lending your voice to the fight for foreign assistance reform can also mean improving access to clean drinking water and improved sanitation for the world’s poorest.

-Porter McConnell, Aid Reform Campaign, Oxfam America

We’ve arrived! A team of us from ONE are now in L’Aquila, Italy for this year’s G8 Summit.

The journalists, NGOs and others have all started arriving, with the 3 day summit officially starting tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning ONE are holding a joint press briefing with Oxfam, which will cover Africa, development and food security issues in relation to the G8.

We’ll be writing a bit more over the coming days so keep checking back!

-Jessica Gomez-Duran

Volunteer members from ONE and partner organization Oxfam teamed together in the Twin Cities last week for screenings of two social justice themed movies, Sons of Lwala and Sisters On The Planet. The majority of the audience members took the opportunity to sign up for both campaigns prior to the movies, and then enjoyed free showings.

“Sisters On the Planet” was presented by Oxfam and shares the stories of four inspirational women who are fighting back against climate change. “Sons of Lwala” was presented by ONE and presents the story of two brothers from Kenya who become doctors in America. After losing their parents to AIDS, they are left with the task of returning home to finish the health clinic their father started.

After each movie, viewers learned how they could get further involved with both campaigns.

Pictured is Oxfam lead volunteer Leah Sedler as she discussed the current Oxfam campaign prior to the movie. Also pictured is Halima Farah as she signs up another member to the ONE campaign.

-Rochelle Gibbs, ONE Twin Cities Member

Friday night, ONE volunteers in Des Moines joined Oxfam at a Coldplay concert to create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice around the world. Volunteers talked to over 1,000 people to encourage them to tell President Obama the make a fair deal when the global climate conference occurs in December. Natural disasters are known to hit the poorest populations the hardest, but this can be prevented by building stronger foundations and infrastructure.

ONE members gave the volunteer coordinator for Oxfam on the Coldplay tour, Soha Yassine, a ONE pin that she now always wears with her backstage pass. The partnership shows that when we come together to raise awareness we can truly help the world’s poorest people.

-Abbey Moffitt, ONE Member

This week over 1,000 Christian pastors and lay leaders and activists will converge on Washington, DC to attend Sojourners’ “Mobilization to End Poverty.” ONE has joined with World Vision, the ELCA, and Oxfam America as the major cosponsors of this mobilization.

The 4-day event focuses on both domestic and global poverty, and ONE is the lead cosponsor on the international agenda. Arjun Mody from our Government Relations Team and Mikki Imai and Josh Lozman from our Policy Team have done great work in hammering out the global agenda.

The attendees are a natural audience for ONE. Many ONE members are already attending and we hope to make many others ONE members at the event.

ONE will participate in key ways during the event:

• ONE President & CEO David Lane will speak during a plenary session today at 1:30 EST in a session called “Half in 10 and the MDGs – Are these Goals Achievable?”
• Arjun will lead the training on international issues for the Lobby Day on the Hill.
• ONE will host an evening reception on Tuesday at 8:30. This is another chance to introduce those attending to ONE.
• During the only workshop on global poverty, I will moderate and Kenyan Professor Ndunge Kiiti will present. Prof. Kiiti is a leader from the partner organization Micah Challenge.
• ONE will keep a constant presence throughout the event at the ONE table. Thanks to the ONE intern crew for helping with tabling!

This promises to be a terrific event, and we’ll bring you more updates as they occur in the coming days.

To learn more, check out: www.sojo.net/mobilization.

-Adam Phillips

We’ve teamed up with Oxfam GB, Save the Children, Comic Relief, and Blue State Digital for the G20Voice project. We’re inviting 50 bloggers to attend the G20 Summit on 2 April in London. These bloggers will have full media access, right along with the rest of the main stream media. On top of that, we’re lining up briefings and speakers so that they will have an unprecedented level of access and information.

Besides being a great moment for citizen journalism, it will also increase the amount of media coverage of development issues around the summit since 15 bloggers from the developing world and 10 bloggers will focused on poverty reduction.

Where we need your help is figuring out what bloggers should come. 20 of the spots are being held for bloggers nominated by the world community, so take a minute to nominate a blogger who you think would provide a unique and powerful angle on the G20.

-Weldon Kennedy

Investments in schools like this one in Ghana are crucial to fighting poverty and insecurity around the world.

President-elect Barack Obama has announced his picks to lead nearly every cabinet agency, down to his announcement of four deputy or under-secretaries at the Department of Defense. And candidate for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s confirmation hearing – which has been expertly blogged here – began this morning. So what’s missing from this picture?

In an op-ed on foreignpolicy.com today, Oxfam America President Ray Offenheiser calls on Mr. Obama to start backing his words about fighting poverty and disease around the world with deeds.

First, the president-elect should quickly name one of the missing players on his foreign policy team – the administrator of USAID.

Next, Obama must work with national security advisor James L. Jones to give the responsibility for coordinating development policy across the U.S. government to a deputy national security advisor or a senior director at the National Security Council.

Check out foreignpolicy.com to read the full op-ed.

- Porter McConnell, Aid Effectiveness Team, Oxfam America

Last week over 10,000 people from more than 160 countries gathered in the old industrial town of Poznan, Poland to try to advance talks for a global treaty on climate change. But at the UN climate change conference, which ended in the wee hours of the morning Saturday, negotiators didn’t shown the urgency and political will needed to fight climate change and keep millions of people safe.

Global warming threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions – if not billions – of people. The poorest, most vulnerable communities are being affected directly – first and worst – despite being least responsible for the crisis.

Already, the impacts of climate change are making their mark. In Bangladesh, increased floods are washing away homes and crops, while changing weather patterns in Uganda mean farmers are gambling with to sow seeds, risking having them wash away in torrential rains or dry up in drought. And it’s only going to get worse. Across Africa, 75 million to 250 million people could face severe water shortages by 2020. Action is needed now.

Developed countries, those most responsible for climate change, arrived in Poland empty-handed and unwilling to engage in constructive discussions to move further towards a global deal in Copenhagen next December. Poor countries put forward important proposals, including Mexico’s bold announcement of plans to halve its emissions by 2050. But the EU, Australia and others seemed asleep at the wheel.

Some important progress on the Adaptation Fund, which was created to help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, was achieved, but this is only a small part of the overall solution that poor people require.

A deal in Copenhagen next December is still possible, and more urgent and necessary than ever. In the coming year, developed countries must stop floundering and demonstrate commitment and leadership at the highest levels. Let’s tell them to get busy soon!

-Laura Rusu, Oxfam America