“As I was visiting hospitals and health huts in Senegal, I was also receiving e-mailed updates on House GOP budget cuts. The Global Fund, down 40 percent. Child survival programs, which include anti-malaria efforts, down 10 percent. AIDS relief, down 8 percent. Development assistance, down 30 percent.

These reductions were intended to be symbolic, but what do they symbolize? Fiscal responsibility? Hardly. No one can reasonably claim that the budget crisis exists because America spends too much on bed nets and AIDS drugs. Our massive debt is mainly caused by a combination of entitlement commitments, an aging population and health cost inflation. Claiming courage or credit for irrelevant cuts in foreign assistance is a net subtraction from public seriousness on the deficit.

So, do these cuts symbolize the Republican rejection of fuzzy-headed liberalism? Actually, the main initiatives on malaria and AIDS were created under Republican leadership. They emphasize measured outcomes and accountability. If the goal of House Republicans is to squander the Republican legacy on global health, they are succeeding.”

Read the full article here. And in case you didn’t get a chance to read his blog post yesterday, he’s on a trip to Senegal with Malaria No More, visiting US-funded projects that are helping to fight malaria where people need it most.

A malaria rapid test shown to us at the Hospital General de Grand Yoff

Arrived early this morning in Dakar, Senegal on a short trip with the good folks at Malaria No More. I’ve only been to Senegal once before, in 2005, but it is obvious how much as changed.

Our first briefing was with the USAID experts who implement the President’s Malaria Initiative, announced by the Bush administration in the run up to the 2005 Gleneagles G8. The PMI team reported that Senegal has seen a 30 percent decline in infant mortality from all causes between 2005 and 2008 –- and that one major reason has been progress against malaria.

Senegal is conducting this fight aggressively. With strong support from PMI and the Global Fund, Senegal was the first African country to introduce routine rapid tests, which make the diagnosis of malaria quicker (now taking about 10 minutes) and more accurate. It was the first African country to move toward the goal of universal bed net coverage, which it hopes to reach by the end of this year.

Defeating malaria –- one of the main killers of children in Africa -– is not a mystery. It requires the broad distribution and consistent use of insecticide treated bed nets, along with indoor residual spraying and treatment with effective combination drugs. It is a matter of will and resources.

Can’t wait to get out into the field over the next few days to see how PMI is being implemented.

I have been working for Malaria No More for just over a year and a half and have loved the cause every step of the way. For me, investing in the fight against malaria just makes sense. There has been demonstrated return on investment, economic benefits and lives saved. Quite simply, the statistics made a powerful case to me. Perhaps most compelling is the fact that there is a light at the end of the tunnel: we can end malaria deaths by 2015.

There is, however, a difference between knowing and seeing.

I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Dakar, Senegal this past summer, and I was amazed by everything I saw. The people are extraordinarily friendly (especially to someone who doesn’t speak any French or Wolof) and Dakar is a gorgeous city, situated right on the water.

Dakar is also one of the most fitness-oriented cities I have ever seen. Every day, hundreds and perhaps thousands of people gather on the beach to run, work out and stay in shape. For someone born and raised in New Jersey and currently lives in Washington, D.C., Senegal represents quite a departure from what I am used to.
Beyond my wonder at this new, incredible place, is the shadow of malaria.

Despite being familiar with malaria issues, when I stepped off of the plane, I didn’t feel any more vulnerable to a crippling disease, nor did any sort of warning constantly come to my mind. But the evidence was there for me to see.

During my time in Senegal, I saw two women being treated intravenously to defeat their malaria infection. Both women were adults and should survive with their treatment, but the energy had just been sucked right out of them before my eyes. I then knew, viscerally, why malaria keeps children from school and parents from working their jobs, it is quite simply impossible. I witnessed mothers and children who slept without the protection of a bed net. I knew that these people lived in continual danger from a common mosquito. A pest. A nuisance. A deadly predator.

But despite the tenacious nature of malaria, success in Senegal has been widespread. Last year, the government began the distribution of two million bed nets for children under five. Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour launched his Xeex Sibbiru Song Contest campaign in order to raise awareness about malaria, and the results are amazing to behold.

I saw health huts, rapid diagnostic tests, bed nets and drug treatments becoming more and more widely available. These simple and basic interventions are providing families, in the remotest of areas, with a defense against a completely preventable disease. All of these treatments and the support of government and multilateral organizations like USAID, the President’s Malaria Initiative and the Global Fund are rolling that shadow back. Morning is coming in Senegal, as long as we keep up our support.

For more personal stories like these, visit the Living Proof website, and be sure to celebrate the proof with friends and family, too.

-Ben Brophy, communications and policy associate, Malaria No More

Agriculture is a love of mine. I have been gardening on plots of land in inner city Indianapolis for five years.

It’s this love that led to me become a founding fellow for Global Citizen Year . The program helps young Americans gain a global perspective and develop skills to help address the global issues we’ll face in the future. Each fellow has an apprenticeship. Mine was agriculture.

I worked on a small scale farm for Pate Diop in Gorom, Senegal. I saw just how hard it is to grow enough food for one’s family and for the global market. And I saw just how hard these farmers have to work, overcoming technological disadvantages to do their work.

With Pate and his four sons, I watered 500 tomato plants, 300 pepper plants and whatever other plants he needed to make ends meet. The watering cans we used were made from a plastic gas container that was cut in half. A branch was nailed to either side. They weren’t pretty gardening cans from Sears, but they worked. We worked from 7 AM to 10 AM and then took a donkey-drawn cart back to Pate’s house to escape the hot sun. When we pulled up into the front yard, the women in Pate’s family would be waiting to carry the produce off the markets in huge baskets on the top of their heads. One small box would be kept for the family.

But I often felt frustrated at the markets. There were tables lined up and down the street with women selling vegetables and fish, but all the tables and all the food looked exactly the same. Working hard every day to see the people in my community left with only a small box of food and a market where they couldn’t compete was difficult for me. These were things I had heard and read about, but to gain the different perspectives and to actually live the story was powerful.

My experience on Pate’s farm helped me realize that even with a lot of hard work, farmers often fall short—they’re not able to grow enough food or it’s not at the right price to compete. So in the end, food security is really about giving farmers like Pate the capacity to cultivate more from his land and more for the community.

- Mat Davis, Global Citizen Year fellow

He writes:

The visit to Senegal provided me an opportunity to discuss this issue with policymakers in the national and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, academics who are studying the phenomenon, and leaders of local communities that have been affected by displacements. The team was also able to examine first-hand the impact of environmental and climate changes at very local levels, including among fishing, herding and agricultural communities. For example, we met with the leaders of a fishing community in Camberene (near Dakar), which has experienced both an inflow and outflow of migrants.

The local imam opened the meeting with a prayer and told us the story of the founding of the community by a religious man — a history that continues to influence the community’s generally welcoming attitude toward incoming migrants, including those leaving farming communities in northern Senegal because of desertification. The community members lamented the loss of their beaches to coastal erosion, the rising sea water temperatures, and the slow decline of fishing as a sustainable livelihood. Some of the women said that it is good for young men to migrate abroad, but others lamented that migration isn’t a long-term solution for the community and that the financial crisis has taught them that they cannot always count on remittances.

We also met with a community in Lebar Boye in northern Senegal where the land has become too salinated to farm because of the decreased amount of fresh water, accentuated by a dam that was built to prevent flooding. As a result, most of their children were now working in urban centers. Some farming continued in the Senegal River Valley despite the drought conditions because of a government-funded irrigation system. At one of the farms, we met two young men from Guinea Bissau who travel north to work during the dry season and then head back to Guinea Bissau during their community’s farming season. Climate change and the consequences are not bound by national boundaries.

Full piece here.

Creating a “360-degree malaria education and advocacy campaign” in the small West African country is no easy feat. The idea is to mix multiple communication channels with local marketers of entertainment, sport, faith, and business so everyone on every level is included in the education process. Step one: promote malaria prevention through song. Senegalese icon Youssou N’Dour crafted the song Xeex Sibbiru, or Fight Malaria in English, which challenges Senegalese to see the impacts of malaria and choose to take action against it. You can listen to the song on the Child Fund International blog here.

The USAID funded project has many other key contributors including Child Fund Senegal. The NGOs distribute the song at the community level to decision makers such as community leaders, mothers, grandmothers, and heads of households. The song is also broadcast on the radio and discussed in awareness raising sessions.
Surround Sound: Senegal involves community-based maternal and child health services as well as the President’s Malaria Initiative.

Find out more about how the Surround Sound campaign works within Senegal and how great work is being done in the prevention of malaria on the Malaria No More site here.

At an afternoon event hosted by Congressman Donald Payne (D-NJ), a packed room on the Hill heard from Representative Payne, Darius Mans, Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), and President Wade, among others. It was evident that each speaker was proud of this new compact, the partnership it reflects, and the potential it has to further development in Senegal. Rep. Payne lauded President Wade for his commitment to democracy, and Rep. Jackson-Lee said that the Senegal compact was an “…affirmation of President Wade’s commitment to democracy, tolerance, and the future of his young people.”

In his address, President Wade said “I am proud to be the president of a country that the American people believe deserves support for our development.” He praised the U.S. for recognizing the critical role infrastructure plays in development, a factor that Wade himself has made a priority for Senegal.

Darius Mans welcomed this new partnership, and said that the compact reflects Senegal’s own development priorities, emphasizing long-term growth through infrastructure and agriculture. This compact, he said, signals that Senegal is “open for business” with the private sector, and that the next step will be to deliver on these promises. Mans expressed his hope that the MCC compact with Senegal will provide frameworks for lasting growth in the country.

The compact, which is one of the largest signed to-date, focuses on road rehabilitation and irrigation, with an eye towards bolstering agricultural productivity and food security in Senegal, and boosting rural markets and trade. The plan will involve rehabilitating crucial roads in northern and southern Senegal, which is intended to help agricultural communities get their goods to local and international markets and improve access to services like schools and hospitals for rural communities.

The compact will also fund a water and irrigation management project in the Senegal River Valley to increase crop yields. Senegal currently imports 70 percent of its rice, which makes it vulnerable to the dramatic increases in food and rice prices that took place as recently as last year. The irrigation program is designed to increase crop production as a way of improving Senegal’s food security.

One is excited about the Senegal compact, as you can see in the press statement we released today; we look forward to following its implementation and results.

-Beth Adler

In the MCC’s press statement released today, acting MCC CEO Darius Mans said, “On behalf of MCC, I want to congratulate the people and Government of Senegal for developing an innovative compact that will make a tremendous difference in reducing poverty through economic growth by bolstering food security and transportation connectivity. The Senegalese have laid out a clear vision of improving the quality of their lives through a results-oriented plan. MCC welcomes the opportunity to work together to achieve these compact goals.”

The compact intends to invest in rehabilitating crucial roads in northern and southern Senegal, which, the MCC believes, will enable agricultural communities to get their goods to local and international markets and could mean improved access to services like schools and hospitals for rural communities. Senegal’s compact will also fund a water and irrigation management project that will develop up to 10,500 hectares of land in the Senegal River Valley. Senegal and the MCC hope that the new irrigation scheme will also help prevent the abandonment of 26,000 hectares of land by revamping drainage canals and ensuring secure land-tenure for farmers. The irrigation project is intended to increase crop yields, an essential step towards food security for Senegal, which, as the MCC notes, currently imports 70% of rice consumed in the country.

The compact is expected to be signed on September 16th; be sure to check back here as we will post additional details on the blog.

-Beth Adler