Senator Obama just addressed the Clinton Global Initiative via a live satellite feed and spoke of his commitment to embrace the Millennium Development Goals, “erase” the global education gap, and advance global health.

Below, an excerpt and video from his remarks.

(Senator McCain spoke at CGI a couple of hours ago, and we covered it here.)

We all have a stake in reducing poverty. There is suffering across the globe that doesn’t need to be tolerated in the 21st century. And it leads to pockets of instability that provide fertile breeding grounds for threats like terror and the smuggling of deadly weapons that cannot be contained by the drawing of a border or the distance of an ocean. These aren’t simply disconnected corners of an interconnected world. That is why the second commitment that I will make is embracing the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015.

This will take more resources from the United States, and as President I will increase our foreign assistance to provide them. But resources must be focused on the right priorities. No one wants to put good money after bad, or ignore the underlying causes at the root of these problems.

We shouldn’t just settle for a status quo – anywhere – where you can’t start a business without paying a bribe. Corruption wastes our tax dollars. It also ruins lives. This is a human rights issue, and we need to treat it like one.

We shouldn’t help those in need without helping them help themselves. That’s why I’ll partner with the private sector in creating a new fund for Small and Medium Enterprise, so we’re investing in ideas that can create growth and jobs in the developing world.

Above all, we must do our part to see that all children have the basic right to learn. There is nothing more disappointing than a child denied the hope that comes with going to school, and there is nothing more dangerous than a child who is taught to distrust and then to destroy.

That’s why the third commitment I’ll make is working to erase the global primary education gap by 2015. Every child – every boy, and every girl – should have the ability to go to school. To ensure that our nation does its part to meet that goal, we need to establish a two billion dollar Global Education Fund. And I look forward to signing the bipartisan Education for All Act that was first introduced by Hillary Clinton – a true champion for children.

Finally, we must continue the progress that’s been made to advance the cause of global health. I’ve been proud to support the PEPFAR program. I think (more…)

Bono continues his live blogging today from UN Special Summit on the Millenium Development Goals. You can see all his posts on the FT.com Blog site.

Below are some excerpts from his blogging late last night.

Aid is a leg-up, not a hand-out

“Lots of speeches etc going on inside the UN… President Bush, President Sarkozy. We’re on the outside today, meeting activists from Africa, India and Europe to talk about holding the people on the inside accountable for their promises.
The promises in question this week are the Millennium Development Goals or MDGs….

For those of you, the many of you, questioning aid on this site, you’re not wrong to suggest that it’s not the only answer. Of course it’s not. It’s trade, it’s governance, it’s private investment. But aid is critical… ask Germany, ask Ireland. See it as a leg-up, not a hand-out.
I’m not talking about the aid of the 20th century by the way. For too many years, much aid was wasted and ended up redecorating presidential palaces instead of building hospitals. That was our corruption as well as theirs. Handing over billions of dollars to a corrupt dictator because he isn’t a Commie, knowing he will use it to suppress discontent and swell personal bank accounts – that makes you complicit. But, this is a new century, and a new understanding of aid and partnership means that we are starting to see different results.”

Read his full post here.

President Bush just wrapped up a joint press conference with Ghana’s President Kufuor to receive Ghana’s official delegation. In his remarks, President Bush pledged to begin distributing medicines to about 8 million people “as part of a new initiative to combat neglected tropical diseases,” and he reiterated his support of the Millennium Challenge Compact.

Key excerpts below, full transcript here

President Bush:

Ghana and America stand as one as we work to secure freedom from poverty. Ghana’s leaders are governing justly, fighting corruption, and investing in their people. And America is proud to support these efforts through our Millennium Challenge Compact. Together, we work with Ghana to improve agriculture and infrastructure, and support development in Ghana’s rural areas, and bring prosperity to Ghana’s people. We have worked to promote free trade as a powerful engines of prosperity for both our countries. Last year trade between Ghana and the United States was valued at more than $600 million — an increase of more than 55 percent since President Kufuor and I took office.

Ghana and America stand as one in our work to free people from illiteracy and ignorance. Through the Africa Education Initiative, Ghana and the United States have partnered to provide thousands of scholarships to girls. We’ve trained teachers. And across that important country, schools are being renovated, textbooks are being distributed, and Ghana’s children are looking toward a brighter future.

President Kufuor:

Specific acts of U.S. assistance include the following: the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which avails Ghana businesses to export duty-free and quota-free some 6,400 commodities to the United States market; the African Growth Competitiveness Initiative, which supports our capacity development in international trade; the Millennium Challenge Account, by which your government has granted Ghana $547 million to modernize and commercialize agriculture. The significance of this would be appreciated when you know that over 60 percent of Ghana’s population are rural and agricultural. The African Education Initiative, which Mrs. Bush is sponsoring by donating books and other educational resources to promote literacy among the youth of my country.

News of a great development in Kenya ran on the BBC.com and in other media outlets earlier this week. On Wednesday, anti-corruption czar John Githongo returned to Kenya after four years of self-exile. During his tenure as Kenya’s secretary for ethics and governance, Githongo earned the reputation for being tough on corruption— in 2005, one of his investigations forced the resignation of several ministers over a scandal that involved state contracts worth more than $1 billion being secretly awarded to non-existent firms. After exposing the scam, Githongo fled to the UK because of threats to his life.

Githongo’s return is an important step forward for Kenya’s new coalition government, which was put in place after controversial elections set off two months of violence earlier this year. He is back for only two weeks, but his return (at the invitation of the new government) is hopefully a sign that Kenya’s new government is serious about tackling corruption and addressing some of the underlying issues that caused the election crisis. Speaking to the Kenya Human Rights Commission on Wednesday, Githongo submitted the controversial proposal of offering amnesty as a means of closing old corruption cases and moving Kenya forward.

Whistle-blowers like Githongo are vital to beating poverty in Africa and across the world. The fight against corruption and efforts to promote transparency and good governance help ensure that aid is spent well and channeled to the people who need it most. ONE is also proud to note that John Githongo currently sits on our Policy Advisory Board and serves as an important advisor on issues of accountability and governance.

Excerpt below, full piece here.

Addressing a public forum on fighting graft in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Mr Githongo said economic crimes must be resolved quickly and transparently. “The temptation to subject economic crimes to prolonged processes and the deliberation of committees not only delays justice but makes ultimate accountability less likely,” he said. Mr Githongo noted that there was a myth that corruption does not really matter as long as the economy is growing. “If you have high economic growth [and] a high level of corruption… then corruption causes political contradictions that leads to the kind of difficulties we had in Kenya at the end of last year,” he said.

-Chris Scott

Listen to this NRP piece from Thursday about McCain and Obama’s interest in boosting foreign aid. The beginning of the piece is transcribed below, but the full clip is just over 4 minutes and worth the listen.

The economy may be in trouble and the budget deficit growing, but supporters of U.S. foreign aid see some promising times ahead. That’s because both leading candidates for president have talked about the need to continue to help poor nations develop.

Every so often at town hall meetings on the campaign trail, Republican John McCain calls on people from a grassroots organization known as the ONE campaign. They ask him what he’ll do to help poor nations fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and illiteracy. McCain has said he sees foreign assistance as a key factor in securing America.

“It really needs to eliminate many of the breeding grounds for extremism, which is poverty, which is HIV/AIDS, which is all of these terrible conditions that make people totally dissatisfied and then look to extremism, particularly Islamic extremism,” he told a town hall meeting in New Hampshire last month.

At a speech in Washington this summer, Democrat Barack Obama also spoke about development aid as a strategic imperative for the U.S. in today’s world.

“I know development assistance is not the most popular of programs, but as president, I will make the case to the American people that it can be our best investment in increasing the common security of the entire world and increasing our own security,” he said. “That’s why I will double our foreign assistance to $50 billion by 2012 and use it to support a stable future in failing states and sustainable growth in Africa, to halve global poverty and to roll back disease.”

McCain has not been that specific about how much money he would spend, but he has set a goal of trying to eradicate malaria in Africa and fight corruption.

Steve Radelet of the Center for Global Development sees a total change in Washington’s attitude about development aid, and he’s hoping this will translate into some real reform….

Embezzlement and kick-backs, bid-rigging and extortion, manipulated water policies and corrupted enforcement of rules against water pollution plague the provision of drinking water, irrigation and hydropower all around the world. This is the key message of “the Global Corruption Report 2008: Corruption in the Water Sector.”

With more than thirty experts and practitioners exploring corruption issues in all areas of the water sector, the report is a first of its kind and its central insight is as clear as it is alarming: Corruption in the water sector is a root cause and consequences of a global water crisis that leaves more than one billion people without access to safe drinking water and poses a major impediment to inclusive human development and environmental sustainability. Fixing the global water crisis requires fixing corruption in the sector. A wide array of case studies from all world regions shows how rampant and devastating corruption is in the water sector:

• In India, for example, corruption is estimated to inflate the costs for water infrastructures by 25 to 45%. In global context such a corruption burden means that achieving the Millennium Development Goals in water will be almost US$50 billion more expensive.

• In Kenya, 66% of households in a survey report that they have experienced corruption in water service provision.

• In Mexico the largest 20% of farmers reap more than 70% of irrigation subsidies.

• In China, Indonesia and Zambia, fraud and manipulation have plagued resettlement programs in big dam projects.

But there is hope. Taking action against corruption in the water sector is possible.

The Report also presents a large number of innovative initiatives that have had a demonstrable effect on tackling corruption in the sector. More transparency and citizen participation, more collective action and stronger accountability mechanisms are identified as the basic ingredients for rolling back corruption in the water sector and for making water governance work for sustainable human development.

-Dr. Dieter Zinnbauer Chief Editor – Global Corruption Report Policy and Research Department TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL

July 19, 2008
11 am

The first stop this morning was the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center. John Podesta and I laid a wreath at the mass grave site of the genocide victims. I had the opportunity to do this last year when I was in Rwanda with Samaritan’s Purse, Scott Hughett, and my wife, Karyn (who is at home now recuperating from back surgery). The site and the service in which we participated are a moving, memorial remembrance of the million people who died over those 100 days of genocide. (It is so hard to comprehend). Each member of our delegation laid a single rose alongside the wreath, one by one, as we each paid our respects. Beneath that wreath lay a mass grave, one of many at the site, containing the partial remains of over 5,000 individuals from the Kigali region.

It was remarkable that the memorial was designed to tell the story a mere four years after the genocide occurred, (more…)

African development was again the subject of G8 discussions as world leaders gathered in Toyako, Hokkaido in northern Japan from July 7-9 for the 2008 G8 Summit. While the G8 was confronted with multiple global challenges, including climate change and a weakening global economy, the 2008 Hokkaido Summit marked an important “mid point” moment in the fight against poverty. The Hokkaido Summit came at the critical halfway point to both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the G8 Gleneagles promises to Africa. The G8 are dangerously behind on their landmark commitments to the region, having delivered only $3 billion of the promised $25 billion in additional assistance to Africa by 2010, according to the 2008 DATA Report.

After difficult negotiations, the G8 summit yielded small gains for the poorest. The bulk of G8 agreements on development and Africa and food security reiterated previous pledges rather than outlining new measures to get the group back on track. The G8 did announce plans for a new effort to tackle the global food crisis, though more details are needed to ensure its effectiveness and delivery. They highlighted the UN High-level meeting on the MDGs in September as an important opportunity to review progress and identify actions needed to overcome remaining challenges.

At a time when G8 credibility is at risk due to slow progress in delivering on commitments, there was a strong call for greater accountability in the G8 Communique. The G8 agreed to track progress against previous commitments in health, education, water and agriculture, as well as its compliance with anti-corruption measures.

Overall, the US, UK and Germany provided strong leadership in negotiations and have significantly increased their funding for Africa in recent years.

After the jump, the following brief overview of outcomes for Africa from the 2008 G8 Summit.

-Ben Hubbard

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On the second day of the Japan summit, G8 leaders promised to pursue targeted sanctions against members of the Zimbabwean government.

G8 leaders pledged, in an official statement to “take further steps…introducing financial and other measures against those individuals responsible for violence.” They also called for a special UN Security Council envoy to report on the situation in Zimbabwe and help mediate.

For the past week, the US and UK have been pushing for the UN Security Council to tighten targeted sanctions. The BBC reports that a sanctions package is expected to be presented to the UN by the weekend and that Russia, which has traditionally been against such sanctions, will not oppose it.

African leaders have expressed reservations against sanctions, favoring some sort of power-sharing unity government, which they called for last week at a two-day African Union Summit in Egypt.

Zimbabwe’s state media reported today that interparty-talks were to resume under the mediation of South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai maintains that his party will not resume talks until the current Zimbabwe government halts all political violence and accepts that Tsvangirai won the first round of elections on March 29.

-Nora Coghlan

Over the last year, I have been traveling to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in an effort to learn more about the country.

I view this as a long and ongoing learning experience to educate myself before making any attempt to advocate or “speak out.” My plan has been to explore, watch, listen and find those doing the best work with and on behalf of the people of the DRC, in an effort to give exposure to voices which might not otherwise be heard.

In short, I want to listen before speaking and learn before taking action. The “Nightline” segment airing Thursday June, 26 is an attempt to take the viewer along with me in that process.

It makes sense to be skeptical about celebrity activism. There is always the suspicion that involvement with a cause may be doing more good for the spokesman than he or she is doing for the cause.

I welcome any questions about me and my involvement, but I hope you can separate whatever reservations you may have from what is unimpeachably important about this segment: the plight of eastern Congo.

Anyone familiar with the Congo has heard the mind-numbing statistics: more than four million dead since 1998 (and many more before then), the most killed in any conflict since the Second World War. 1,200 people a day are still dying from conflict and conflict-related causes such as starvation and preventable disease.

The country languished as the second worst on the list of failed states until last year, when it bumped up a few notches (though it still ranks below Iraq and Afghanistan on many indices). (more…)