Oxfam America’s Porter McConnell shares her analysis of the White House’s Millennium Development Goals action plan.
The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit is coming up in September. World leaders will discuss how to end hunger, send kids to school, keep mothers and their babies healthy, stop HIV/AIDS from becoming a death sentence, and all kinds of other poverty-fighting goals.
It’s a tall order. So President Obama asked USAID to produce a plan for doing the United States’ share to meet the MDGs. Today, the White House releases that MDG action plan.
A plan to fight the MDGs is a great stepping stone in fighting global poverty, but it’s not the whole story. If the US is committed to fighting global poverty, President Obama needs to deliver a global development strategy at the upcoming MDG Summit.
I’m happy to report that the MDG action plan mentions a new “development policy” coming out soon. Why is it so important that the US come up with a plan to fight poverty? Until the US has some kind of mission statement, all of these piecemeal reform efforts are like a ship without a compass. Why bother investing in “game changing innovations” if we don’t know what destination we’re trying to get to? Which innovations? To do what? How do we know when we’ve succeeded?
If you’ve been reading the ONE blog recently, you will have noticed the recent comparisons between the Exxon Valdez spill and the horrors occurring in the Nigerian Delta where estimates are they have been experiencing the equivalent of this every year for the past 50 years.
But the Delta region has experienced more than just this ecological disaster and the effects it has had upon this traditional fishing community, and this is what is traced in the film ‘Sweet Crude’ which partner organization Oxfam America is screening in conjunction with the Sierra Club and the Publish What You Pay coalition.
The film is a moving story tracing the evolution of the filmmaker’s growing investment in telling the tale of how the people of this much neglected region of Nigeria are being impoverished by the very resources that allow others to live in extreme wealth. At its roots, the story is one of a people’s attempt at survival, the corruption keeping them down, the greed surrounding the oil, and the armed resistance of people who feel they have no other place to turn.
The screenings are part ongoing efforts to help citizens from resource-rich countries hold their governments accountable for the management of their natural resources.
I highly recommend seeing this film as it is a perfect example of the curse of resources. And, if you live near either Naperville, Illinois or Atlanta, Georgia then you have a chance to see the film for free!
Admission is free of charge but reservations must be made in advance. Call Rachel at 202-548-6593 or email Rachel.ackoff@sierraclub.org.
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Event details for Naperville:
WHEN: Sunday, June 27th at 7:00pm
WHERE: The DuPage UU Church is located at 4 South 535 Old Naperville Road in Naperville, Illinois.
For Atlanta:
WHEN: Monday, June 28th at 7:30pm
WHERE: Plaza Theatre 1049 Ponce De Leon Avenue Atlanta, GA.
Beginning in just a couple hours, Oxfam will host a livestream of their event “Can Country Ownership Work?: Field Perspectives on Strengthening Health Systems”.
Here’s a brief description of the discussion via Oxfam:
Have doubts about country ownership? Want to hear more about how it works in practice? Right now, President Obama’s Global Health Initiative, the Global Fund, and the International Health Partnership are all seeking to increase country ownership of donor health funds. Civil society and health ministries in developing countries have experience with a range of donor approaches: from disease-specific initiatives to health system strengthening to direct budget support. Please join Oxfam America and Management Sciences for Health a live webcast and listen to first-hand perspectives on country ownership from government and civil society health providers. Webcast will feature a chat room where online listeners can ask questions during the Q&A portion, and a twitter feed, please use #oxfammsh. Tough questions are welcomed.
You can stream the event live when it begins at approximately 2 PM EST here:
As promised, here’s the video from Friday’s great session– hosted by Oxfam America– on improving aid to developing countries. You can check it out below. (One note- the event doesn’t actually begin until about the 8 minute mark.)
This morning I attended a great panel discussion hosted by Raymond Offenheiser and Oxfam America on improving aid to the developing world. As moderator Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy magazine noted, this particular discussion came as the White House and the State Department are weighing and evaluating an overhaul/rethinking of US development policy. (In fact, it was Josh himself who broke news of the leaked Presidential Study Directive which proposed a massive restructuring of US development strategy.)
Throughout the discussion, John Githongo did a great job of illustrating and explaining– with some personal anecdotes– what ownership looks like… that is, what it means for a developing country’s people to really take responsibility for aid implementation, good governance, building infrastructure, etc. As Offenheiser also noted, “Oxfam and the US government don’t ‘do development’… the people do development.”
It was also interesting to hear John talk about what he described as the “declining relevance” of US aid in Africa in part because of other developed countries that are really getting in the game (China, Russia, etc.) and because African economies are growing. He did, however, talk a lot about how American values are perceived and shared around the globe, and how they influence development assistance.
Just as the institutions of religion should not be confused with the faith of people, aid industry institutions have developed in ways that put distance between them and the values that informed their establishment – ending poverty and inequality and promoting prosperity that emerges from people’s labor, thus affirming and dignifying them as owners of their own destiny. These values are as relevant today as they ever were. Africa is approaching an economic, political, and social tipping point, and smart donor support that leads to the empowerment of ordinary people is needed at this moment of risk and opportunity.
It was an aspect of development assistance I’d not heard much about before. I’m guessing Oxfam will post the video of today’s event shortly– I’ll let you know when they do. And I might have a bit more to add once I’ve had some time to digest what I saw and heard today.
PS– Oxfam’s report “Ownership in Practice” was referenced pretty heavily throughout this morning’s event. You can check it out here.
Tomorrow I’ll be attending a panel discussion hosted by Oxfam. Under the title “How Can We Improve Aid to Developing Countries?” the discussion will be centered on how U.S. foreign aid can produce better results by promoting country ownership and bolstering anti-corruption efforts. Below is the list of panelists. You can watch a livestream here beginning at 9 AM EST.
Josh Rogin, author of The Cable blog at ForeignPolicy.com, Washington Post columnist (Moderator)
Raymond C. Offenheiser, President, Oxfam America
John Githongo, Chief Executive of Inuka Kenya Trust and Head of Twaweza Kenya (Keynote)
Esther Tallah, Manager, Cameroon Coalition Against Malaria; board member of UNITAID
Honorable Minister Amara M. Konneh, Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs, Liberia
If you tried to draw a diagram of the U.S. government’s toolkit for fighting global poverty and meeting the MDGs, you would quickly find yourself submerged in a spaghetti bowl of conflicting responsibilities and mandates, with no clear goals, and no shared vision. This confusion in Washington leads to confusion on the ground, with very real costs for the world’s poor.
To address the problem, President Obama has mandated a presidential review of global development policy (the “PSD”). And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has launched the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (the “QDDR”). But these efforts are at risk of becoming an operational plan without a guiding mission.
In an op-ed on foreignpolicy.com Friday, Oxfam America President Ray Offenheiser calls on the Obama Administration to step back from simply stirring this spaghetti and articulate a clear vision for how the United States will fight global poverty.
To figure out whether our aid actually works, we need to know what we are trying to accomplish. Is our primary goal to reward our allies? Is it to keep our enemies from gaining power? Or is it to help people escape poverty and build a more hopeful future for themselves? The Obama Administration needs to answer this question first to get the best structure for our foreign aid.
That’s why Oxfam and others are calling for the Obama Administration to step back and deliver a clear strategy to fight global poverty and meet the MDGs – call it a National Strategy for Global Development.
Check out foreignpolicy.com to read the full op-ed.
-Porter McConnell, Aid Effectiveness Team, Oxfam America
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