In his annual foreign policy speech to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown set out the five great challenges the world faces today. One of these challenges is meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

In the speech he said:

For now more than ever it is both our duty and in our interest to help meet the Millennium Development Goals. For we cannot solve climate change without Africa; nor can we solve the food crisis without Africa. We need a fully financed ‘energy for the poor’ initiative; where commercial sources of capital dry up support from the international institutions; and we need to support agricultural development in Africa, in the past feed the world meant that we helped to feed Africa. In future, if we do things right, we will do best by enabling Africa to feed the world.

He goes on to make some interesting statements in relation to sustainability and bringing the environment and development together:

This is why as we prepare for an ambitious post 2012 climate change agreement at Copenhagen, for which I pledge our Government’s unbending commitment, the European Union must, and I believe will, agree in December its ‘2020′ programme for energy and climate and show European leadership at its best. And I want the World Bank to become a bank for environment as well as on development, helping developing countries move towards sustainable energy paths of their own.

It’s great news that the British Prime Minister has explicitly made the Millennium Development Goals one of his top foreign policy priorities. Let’s keep him to his word.

Full speech can be read here.

-Jessica Gomez-Duran

Former secretary general of the UN, Kofi Annan, yesterday published an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune with some reflections about this past weekend’s G20 Summit and how to best move forward. He notes how the financial issues discussed at the summit are particularly relevant to Africa.

Excerpts below, full piece here

Events of the past few months have again underscored that no single country or small subset of countries, even the most powerful or wealthy, can manage the forces unleashed in our globalized world. The Washington meeting potentially represents the beginning of an era of unprecedented cooperation for concerted action on other equally pressing issues, such as climate change, food security and poverty reduction.

The current crisis comes as Africa struggles to maintain this positive momentum after a year of rising food prices and unprecedented volatility in fuel costs. Food and fertilizer are punishingly unaffordable for consumers and farmers. Recession and slowdown in high-income countries, as well as China, India and the Middle East, are resulting in plummeting commodity prices and exports, reduced remittance flows and decreases in foreign direct investment.

African leaders face an almost impossible challenge: how to protect their fragile economies and vulnerable people from global recession at a time when their revenues are decreasing. Maintaining levels of public investment is the basis for political stability and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Inability to do so could have profound consequences – in terms of unemployment, poverty and social and political tensions.

-Chris Scott

This past Tuesday, a group of African finance officials met in Tunis to discuss the impacts of the global financial crisis on the continent and strategize about how to address the likely consequences. The meeting was a call to action from the African financial community to the leaders attending the G20 summit to put the concerns of the developing world on the agenda for the meeting, which begins tomorrow in Washington, D.C., and to consider Africa’s dire situation when addressing the financial crisis. As we’ve outlined in previous posts, for many African countries the financial crisis could mean an increase in poverty and inflation, a decrease in economic growth, and a deepening of the food and fuel crises already gripping the continent.

ONE’s Edith Jibunoh in Nigeria has sent along a few highlights from the communiqué issued at the meeting which detail important points for this weekend’s G20 summit and the upcoming Financing for Development conference in Doha.

• Ministers said that the financial crisis is undermining Africa’s progress made in the last ten years and, along with the impact of climate change, will hamper countries’ abilities to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. They also expressed concern for the impact the crisis would have on trade and investment.
• On trade, the ministers urged a successful conclusion of the Doha Round of global trade negotiations, especially considering the spillover of the financial crisis to trade. They promised do their part by taking steps to improve the supply capacity in African countries through enhancing competitiveness, building infrastructure, and promoting greater economic integration within Africa. Ministers also promised to deepen their economic reforms and strengthen structures of governance and accountability.
• The Ministers also emphasized the importance of the international community keeping their commitments to Africa to improve aid quality, consistent with the Paris Declaration and Accra Call to Action. They asked that the F4D conference in Doha endorse these issues and reiterate their commitments.
• Finally, the participants asked South Africa to convey their views at the upcoming G20 meeting, although they stressed that one country representing the continent was not a substitute for inclusive African participation. They called for “new multilateralism” that fully reflects current realities and ensures the proper representation of all countries.

ONE will be bringing you information about the outcome of the G20 summit next week, so be sure to check back here.

-Beth Adler

I thought I should share some inside skinny on the week we spent in New York September 22-26 at the UN’s special summit on the Millennium Development Goals. We went there to try to attract some attention to – indeed celebrate – the efforts against extreme poverty in recent years, and to call for an acceleration of that progress.

Bono was frantically blogging for the Financial Times in every spare second throughout the week on his way to and from meetings with various leaders. The meetings were many: with Spanish President Zapatero to plan for their E.U. presidency in 2010; with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia to discuss their remaining private commercial debt (think that’s sorted now); with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to push on the overall Millennium Goals project; and with President Sarkozy of France and President Barroso of the EU to push Europe on delivering an extra billion euros from the EU budget to fight hunger and invest in agricultural productivity in Africa. Bob Geldof arrived a few days into the melee and participated on the opening panel of the Clinton Global Initiative, popped up on CNN, and met with Mayor Bloomberg, Bill Gates and others along the way.

One highlight was unveiling our “Celebrate Accelerate” video to a crowd of activists and leaders (including Bill Gates, Bob Geldof, Jeff Sachs) honoring the “quietest storm in town”: the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Another, was dropping in on the “In My Name” launch where we regrouped with will.i.am and other activist allies.

An important part of the week was passing over ONE members’ hunger petition, with 50,000 signers, to Bob Orr, the Assistant Secretary General. The petition targets Ban Ki-moon, and all the G8 leaders, asking them to finance the current $1 billion gap in worldwide agricultural financing.

In addition to all of this, Kim Smith and a team of staff and volunteers brought the ONE Bus to town and, thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, parked it in some highly visible locations in the city.

By September 26th, it was clear it had been a decent week. In total there were $16 billion worth of commitments, some old, and some new, focused largely on building upon success to get more kids in school; eliminating malaria deaths by 2015 (yes, that’s got chutzpah – but by acting together it can be done); and renewing efforts against maternal mortality and hunger.

By investing in the fight against extreme poverty we can create new and stable markets where currently there are none; build strong global growth engines that can keep the global economy going when some of us falter; ensure strong health systems; and ensure that other’s instability doesn’t become ours. Above all – because it’s morally the right thing to do.

So now this piece of the campaign goes on to upcoming votes in Brussels on agriculture funding, and a key meeting about financing for development that is happening in Doha, Qatar, in the Middle East, at the end of November. We’ll keep you updated on both.

-Jamie Drummond

Government ministers and global health advocates from across the world are making their way to Almaty, Kazakhstan this week to focus on primary health care. The summit marks the 30th anniversary of the Alma-Ata Conference, which took place in the Kazakhstani city before the collapse of the USSR.

In the years since 1978, Alma-Ata has become somewhat of a hallmark and source of nostalgia in global health circles. The conference was the first of its kind to put the concept of health equity on the international agenda. Aiming to launch a campaign for health for all, attendees laid out their vision of primary health care. Identifying health as a fundamental human right, they argued that health care should not only be universal and affordable, but should be delivered in collaboration with local citizens in a way that is appropriate to the context.

These tenets were laid out in the Alma-Ata Declaration, which gave countries and international organizations a target date of 2000 for implementation.

Thirty years later the ideals of Alma Ata are far from being realized. Here at ONE, we know the stats on the global health deficit all too well: over 9 million children die before their fifth birthday every year from preventable, treatable causes; half a million mothers die every year during childbirth. While many at the time branded Alma-Ata and utopian, in retrospect its failure was more a result of unforeseen social and economic challenges that shaped the global health landscape of the 1980s and 1990s. WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, speaks to this in a recent article featured in the Lancet:

Nor could the visionary thinkers in 1978 have foreseen world events: an oil crisis, a global recession, and the introduction, by development banks, of structural adjustment programs that shifted national budgets away from the social services, including health…The emergence of HIV/AIDS, the associated resurgence of tuberculosis, and an increase in malaria cases moved the focus of international public health away from broad-based programs and towards the urgent management of high-mortality emergencies.

(more…)

Last year, many ONE blog readers participated in the Stand Up and Take Action event. Anita Sharma of the UN Millennium Campaign wrote up this great summary of the event, and how you can get involved (If you’re a college student, click here):

I admit I was a little nervous about U.S. participation in the global Stand Up and Take Action mobilization. With just a week to go, the annual effort to join millions worldwide in the fight against global poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is happening in the shadow of the biggest financial melt-down of my lifetime. But instead of withdrawing, people are coming together to show that we care about combating global poverty. At times like this it’s all the more important that we live up to our commitments and work harder to support those in need. In poor countries around the world, 50,000 children die each day of poverty-related causes, yet this crisis has not received the urgency or attention it demands. The economic crisis is having a dramatic impact on people who already struggle to survive grinding poverty and are the least able to cope with issues like high food and fuel prices.

But we know we can be the first generation to end extreme poverty. In 2000 world leaders got together at the United Nations and pledged to achieve the Millennium Development goals and outlined the shared responsibility to end poverty, disease and illiteracy and to protect our environment. We are more than half-way to 2015 and while tremendous achievements have been made, we still have a way to go. Challenges like the food and energy crisis, climate change and now the financial emergency, mean it’s more important than ever that we keep our promises.

From the smallest villages to city streets, to sports events and political lobbies, the sheer diversity of actions is staggering. In the U.S., groups have organized dances, teach-ins, film screenings and prayer circles to raise awareness and urge people to take action. Last year, the event set a Guinness World Record, with nearly 44 million people from 127 countries standing up. Our goal is to top that number this year, mobilizing 1% of the world’s population, or 67 million people. People have asked how to get involved and take action. It’s really important to join an event or plan your own during the three days of action. You can register online and download the “event in a box,” materials to spread the word, print materials, and learn more. On the day of your event:

1. Take a moment to explain STAND UP and ways for people to TAKE ACTION
2. Everyone comes together and (if able) sits or kneels down.
3. People in the crowd STAND UP in unison and take an action in unison. Some ideas include signing the ONE pledge, living in on $2 for a day, writing a letter to you local paper, and reading the STAND UP pledge.
4. Take videos, photos, and audio from your event and load it on the website.
5. Make sure to count the number of people participating (you can estimate for big groups) and load it on the website by COB October 19, 2008 and we’ll report it to the Guinness Book of World Records!

If you haven’t registered to be counted there’s still time! We can show our friends world-wide that we are joining them in the fight against global poverty.

-Anita Sharma, North American Coordinator, UN Millennium Campaign

At September’s special United Nation’s Summit, we had a chance to show a short video to a group of world leaders at the Secretary General’s reception. The film – “Celebrate, Accelerate” – marks the progress on the Millennium Development Goals to date and encourages further, faster commitments going forward.

Hope you enjoy it!

-Weldon Kennedy

Bono continues his liveblogging from the UN special summit on the MDGs this week. Some excerpts from his latest entry are below. See the full post on FT.com.

The ONE campaign has two and half million members, who urge us to make the case for increased aid as a key plank in America’s new foreign policy. ONE T-shirts have been turning up in town hall meetings for 18 months now, haranguing, hassling, but ultimately endearing themselves to all the presidential campaigns. They want the world to see what America has to offer the billion people who live on less than a dollar a day – practically speaking: medicine, new seed varieties, technology, know-how; policy speaking: what should America do more of? what should America do less of?

…Anyway we’ve now met with nearly a dozen of the presidential candidates in the course of their campaigns and of the four candidates left, three have declared their positions at onevote08.org/ontherecord, if you want to check them out.

On AIDS for example, Senators Obama and McCain both cosponsored the historic $48bn US AIDS initiative this year – an effort lead by Joe Biden – who I might add also fought in the trenches for debt cancellation for the poorest of the poor when I first started down this road. So it will be interesting to find out where Governor Palin stands.

A post from Mike of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation on their “MDG Blogging Day” tomorrow.

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The biggest barrier to making poverty history is letting people know it can be done. Tomorrow, with the power of your blog, you can help change that.

Most Americans don’t know that eight years ago the United States and 188 other nations ratified the Millennium Development Goals 8 goals that represent the largest concerted effort ever to end extreme poverty. Tomorrow, world leaders will meet at the UN to tell us what we already know, that we’re far behind on meeting these goals by the target date of 2015 and that most of the rich nations of the world (the U.S. included) are not keeping the promises we made in aid, trade and debt relief.

The Millennium Development Goals are the best hope we have ever had of making poverty history. And it’s up to us to spread the word about what ONE can do to make them happen.

That’s why tomorrow — Sept. 25 — Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation are asking you to join with bloggers around the world to post about making poverty history. More than 300 bloggers have signed up already. Your post can be whatever you like. It can be information about the MDGs. It can be a story of extreme poverty from your own life or travels. It can be a poem, a podcast, a video clip, a jpg of a piece of art, a prayer, an open letter to your leaders … whatever your way of raising your voice to let people know about the 1.2 billion people who live on less than $1 a day — and that it is within our grasp to lift them out of that poverty if we act now, if we act courageously, if we act as ONE.

All you have to do is go to www.mdgbloggingday.org and follow the instructions, add a badge to your blog, and join the webring. Then on Thursday, pour your passion into your post … and help make poverty history by letting people know that, if we work as one, it can be done.

You can take your pick of the badge you want to use as art with the post from the ones here.

-Mike Kinman, Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation

Today’s New York Times features a piece drafted by the Times’ editorial board calling on world leaders to keep their pledge to cut extreme poverty in half. The board makes a sharply nuanced case that living up to these promises made at the turn of the millennium would not only succeed in alleviating global poverty, but also strengthen our and other nations’ national security.

Some excerpts below, but the whole editorial is definitely worth checking out

Today, even as soaring energy and food prices exacerbate the suffering of the world’s poor, the richest nations are falling far behind on their aid commitments — and behind their past giving.

The current financial turmoil could make it even less likely that the wealthy nations will fulfill their promises to the poorest of the poor. Without that money, many of the development goals announced with such fanfare will go unmet.

Many countries tie too many strings to their largess — such as requirements to buy supplies from donor countries. (Aid flows are often swayed by domestic politics in the donor nations, making them unpredictable and difficult to manage by receiving nations.)

Aid isn’t the only area where the developed world is failing. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, wealthy countries acknowledged that poverty can be a fertile ground for terrorism and pledged to open their markets to exports from the world’s poorest nations. Those promises collapsed along with global trade talks this year.

-Chris Scott