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

Anyone who tuned in for Bill and Melinda Gates’ “Impatient Optimists” presentation on Tuesday got to see a very special performance courtesy of Vocal Motion 6, an a cappella group from Namibia who use their talent to educate young Namibians about HIV prevention.

Music is a particularly powerful way to reach a wide audience and hold peoples’ attention, so it’s great to see Vocal Motion 6 utilizing their talents– which are immense, as I can attest to– in this way.

The Living Proof Project chronicles their “Living Positive Tour” in this photo gallery. Click the image below to see for yourself:

Today I came across two reports from two different organizations on the ground in Uganda that I thought would be of interest to readers.

The first is from Nothing But Nets and documents the distribution of malaria nets in Tetugu, a camp managed by the UN Refugee Agency, and a neighboring village. Lynda Commale, who authored the piece, concludes:

My hope is that after this observation trip, we can better understand the need for nets in the communities we visited. I cannot say this clearly enough — mosquito nets, treated with insecticide, are the best prevention against malaria.

The International Rescue Committee’s blog offers another account from Uganda on the work of the IRC to help hundreds of children and former child laborers go to school for the first time.

Joanne Offer writes about their work:

Today, Lakot attends primary school in Kitgum, thanks to a unique program run by the IRC called LEAP— Livelihoods, Education and Protection to End Child Labor. Across north and northeast Uganda, the IRC is paying the school fees of children and former child laborers, repairing school buildings, installing latrines, constructing new houses for teachers, and training teachers to become better instructors.

“Since the IRC started helping us, school enrollment has gone up,” said Nadutuka Daniela, the head teacher at the Loodoi Primary school in the district of Moroto. “The IRC is paying fees and has given materials—books and uniforms—that parents can’t afford. People are so happy about it.”

Each piece is definitely worth a read.

Last Thursday, the Center for Global Development (CGD) released the 2009 Commitment to Development Index (CDI), their annual ranking of rich countries based on their policies to help the developing world. CGD has published the CDI since 2003 in an effort to move beyond looking at just aid and evaluate whether rich nations are living up to their policy commitments in all areas of development. The CDI ranks 22 rich nations for their policies and actions to support poor nations to achieve greater prosperity, good government and security. Namely, these nations are scored in seven major policy areas: quantity and quality of aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security and technology.

Sweden topped the 2009 CDI rankings while none of the Group of 7 (G7) nations, the world’s most industrialized nations, were scored in the top 10. Among the G7, Canada scored the best, coming in at 11th, followed by France, Germany and the UK, all tied for 12th. The United States was ranked 17th, scoring highest in trade and lowest in overall aid. Collectively, the G7 did best in the investment and trade policy areas and worst in the aid and migration components. Rankings for Canada, US, Japan and Germany remained largely the same as in 2008, but the UK dropped from sixth to 12th, mostly due to falling scores on the aid and security components. France improved from 16th to 12th and Italy moved up from 20th to 18th. South Korea, only its second year included in the CDI, remained in last place.

According to the CDI, the G7 is not using their full potential to attack global poverty: “It is the United States, Germany, France, Japan and the other economies that have multiple linkages and potential in absolute terms to make a difference for poor countries,” said CGD president Nancy Birdsall, “their failure to use it to the fullest is a blow to the cause of truly shared global prosperity.”

Coming off their Living Proof Presentation last night in DC, Bill and Melinda Gates were featured on NPR this morning to go a little more in depth about US investment in global health. It’s a nice follow-up piece to last night’s event.

You can check out the audio below, and the story here.

I just returned from Sidney Harman Hall here in Washington, DC where Bill and Melinda Gates presented the Living Proof Project.

A lot of you watched the speech live here on the ONE Blog so I won’t rehash the event detail for detail, but what I saw tonight was probably one of the most compelling and crystal clear cases for US investments in global health I’ve ever witnessed. Smallpox eradicated, polio reduced 99 percent, measles reduced 93 percent, terrific progress made in the fight against HIV/AIDS and malaria– it was truly inspiring to see these facts laid out by two people who are playing such a pivotal role in encouraging the US government to do more.

But with so much to be optimistic about, Melinda Gates probably put it best when she said “the world is getting better. But it’s not getting better for everyone, and it’s not getting better fast enough.”

The presentation was interspersed with some fantastic footage chronicling US global health investments on the ground. It’s no secret that video is often the best medium to really capture some of these powerful stories, and the crowd’s reaction definitely demonstrated that.

I just have to share this one that documents the results of Rotavirus vaccine in a clinic in Nicaragua. Even though I’d seen it before, I still find it really striking.

The Gates cited several specific examples of programs that are making great strides in global health– from the Global Fund and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, to the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the promise of the Millennium Development Goals.

It was fitting that the Gates chose to make this presentation in DC given the importance they placed in the US Government’s ability to make an enormous impact. As Bill Gates put it, though foundations like the Gates Foundation can act as catalysts, governments in rich countries “have the money, the expertise, and the leadership to deliver the interventions that will save millions of lives.”

There’s a lot more I could add, but I’ll choose instead to end it the same way the Gates did tonight– by pointing you to www.livingproofproject.org so you can see for yourself what I saw tonight and spread the word in your community about all the great work that’s being done thanks to US investments in global health– and how much is still left to do.

You can watch the presentation in its entirety in the below blog post.

This morning we were honored to publish a guest blog post from Melinda Gates who, along with her husband Bill Gates, will be speaking in Washington, DC tomorrow night about the Living Proof Project.

If you don’t live in DC, no worries! We’ll be hosting a live webcast of the presentation here on ONE.org. Be sure to RSVP here, and invite your friends as well. The presentation will begin at approximately 7:00 PM EST and will highlight the millions of lives have been saved, improved and empowered because of the investments in global health.

See you then!

A special guest post from Melinda Gates:

This week, I’m in Washington with Bill to do something that might seem unusual: say ‘thank you.’ We’re saying thanks to those who have been a part of the U.S. government’s tremendous leadership in improving global health. Our trip will include the launch of a new effort called “Living Proof Project: U.S. Investments in Global Health are Working,” a campaign aimed at conveying to Americans the tremendous progress we are making on multiple fronts in the effort to improve health around the world. Our hope is that if more people see this impact they will be moved to share these compelling stories and support America’s continued leadership in global health.

I know that for Bill and for me, these stories have had a profound impact on the way we look at the opportunities in the years ahead. At our foundation, we have come to believe that sharing stories of success is one of the most important things we can do to motivate and inspire others. Through our work, especially our visits to the field, we have been deeply touched by personal stories of lives changed for the better.

When I visited Ethiopia earlier this year, I met Tsion, a hard-working young Health Extension Worker stationed at the Wuye Gosee community health post in North West Shewa, Oromiya Region – about 3 hours drive north of Addis Ababa. She lives at the health post, in one of the rooms where she sees patients. When she’s not working at the health post, Tsion is visiting other outreach clinics and homes in the area. She and another Health Extension Worker cover a massive caseload of about 1,500 households. They walk more than two hours to reach some of the homes.

One of their most important responsibilities is tending to pregnant mothers and newborns. In Ethiopia, most families choose to deliver their babies at home with the help of traditional birth attendants. These traditional attendants lack important skills like stopping internal bleeding after delivery or resuscitating newborns if they’ve stopped breathing. Now the Ethiopian government has started a Health Extension Program that is rapidly improving access to health care in rural areas. In the past five years, more than 30,000 Health Extension Workers have been trained — and the health of children and women is improving.

The Health Extension Program is a great starting point: an opportunity to deliver safe, effective care for many more women and their newborns. Now we need to build on this success—expanding it to even more women in Ethiopia, and helping families in other countries benefit from what Ethiopia has learned. For millions of women in poor countries, the birth of a child isn’t the pure joy that it should be. It is joy mixed with terror, because there’s a real possibility that the mother or her child will not survive.

That’s why, when it comes to global health, Bill and I are optimists – but we’re impatient optimists.

We’re optimistic because, when we travel around the world, we constantly meet people like Tsion and her patients whose lives have been transformed through smart, generous investments in global health. We have seen living proof that U.S. investments in global health are working. Millions of lives are being saved. Tremendous progress is being made. But there’s still so much more we’re impatient to see done.

When you only hear about the problems in global health, they can seem very daunting. But if you see the amazing progress that’s being made — in part due to the generosity of the U.S. government and other donor nations – I know you’ll be as hopeful as I am. And you’ll want to do more.

Look at what U.S. support has helped accomplish:

• The number of children under 5 who die each year has plunged from more than 20 million in 1960 to fewer than 9 million in 2008
• Vaccines are a great investment with a huge pay-off: since 1980, vaccines have brought down the number of diphtheria cases by 93 percent; tetanus by 85 percent; and measles by nearly 93 percent
• 32 million people received life-saving malaria prevention and treatment services in 2008

The United States and its partners around the world have the potential to save and empower millions more people. Bill and I hope to share these stories of success on October 27, through a live presentation titled “Living Proof: Why we are Impatient Optimists,” which will show how U.S. investments in global health are changing the world.

-Melinda French Gates

Today, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria announced the largest single malaria initiative ever signed by the Global Fund, which will provide the resources for 30 million bed-nets in Nigeria. Each year, there are approximately 57 million cases of malaria in Nigeria, causing an estimated 225,000 deaths annually. Check out the full press release here.

As part of its efforts to eliminate malaria, Nigeria aims to place two bed nets in every household in the country by distributing 62 million bed nets by December 2010. Global Fund grants will provide half of this total. Other contributors include: the World Bank, DFiD, USAID, UNITAID, UNICEF and the Nigerian government.

“I am extremely pleased that our partnership with Nigeria continues to grow: it shows Nigeria’s strong commitment to fight malaria, and strengthens our relationship since Nigeria is also a Global Fund donor,” said Professor Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Nigeria is showing why reaching global targets for malaria is no longer fanciful but something that can actually be achieved,” he said.

The malaria grants signed today amount to US$ 285 million over two years. The Global Fund used a flexible approach by signing, in July 2009, an interim agreement to allow for the timely distribution of 3.4 millions bed nets, which have just arrived in country in time for the mass distribution campaign planned for December this year. Two other grants were also signed, one for tuberculosis for US$40 million and one for Health Systems Strengthening for US$55 million.

Along with the great infographics we’ve been writing about on the ONE Blog, the Living Proof Project has also produced some great photo essays. Each one tells a story and really illustrates the topic in ways words alone often can’t.

This gallery I thought was particularly striking. It follows Kevin who is HIV-positive and works at a health center in Dimbokro, Cote d’Ivoire.

Check it out by clicking the image below: