United Nations

Earlier this week, UNICEF, the WHO, and the World Bank issued a joint report on the state of the world’s vaccines. The report found that while more children are being vaccinated than ever before, nearly 24 million of the world’s most at-risk children are still not receiving life-saving vaccinations.

Dr. Mickey Chopra, UNICEF Chief of Health and Associate Director of Programmes discusses the report in this short clip. For those who might not have time to read the full findings, I thought this would be of value:

UNICEF, the WHO and the World Bank came together today to announce that while more children are being vaccinated than ever before, nearly 24 million of the world’s most at-risk children are still not receiving life-saving vaccinations. Reaching these children will require an estimated $1 billion each year.

The announcement came today after new data was released in the The State of the World’s Vaccines and Immunization, a report jointly-authored by the three organizations. The report found that 2008 was a record high for global vaccinations, with more than 106 million children immunized. The report acknowledges that donor support for the GAVI Alliance (a public-private partnership launched in 2000 to increase access to new and underused vaccines) played a large role in making this possible. More than 200 million children have been immunized with vaccines funded by GAVI and over 3.4 million premature deaths have been averted.

This comes on the heels of an announcement last month by UNICEF that in 2008, child deaths dropped below 9 million (to 8.8 million) for the first time, thanks in large part to immunizations, the use of insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria and Vitamin A supplementation. Yet more than 3 million of the 8.8 million children who still die every year are dying from two main killers: pneumonia and diarrhea. New vaccines exist that could prevent the majority of these deaths, but they are still not available in the world’s poorest countries.

Over the coming months and years, GAVI Alliance will be the main vehicle for getting these new vaccines to the countries that need them most. With increased donor support, GAVI partners plans to introduce the vaccine against pneumococcus, the bacterium that causes pneumonia, in 42 countries and the vaccine against rotavirus, which causes diarrhea, in 44 countries by 2015.

Together, these could prevent an estimated 11 million child deaths by 2030. Here at ONE we’re looking forward to helping GAVI, donors and other partners to make this plan a reality.

Today is Global Handwashing Day. And even in America, with soap and safe water easily accessible, it never hurts to remind everyone to do what mom used to say: wash your hands with soap. Even Elmo is on board, teaching kids to wash their hands often, for 20 seconds, with soap, while singing a song like Happy Birthday.

And for good reason. The truth of the matter is that handwashing with soap protects from several common diseases, including pneumonia and diarrhea. While these diseases aren’t fatal for most of us, for people in developing countries, especially children under the age of five, they can be.

Twenty-four thousand children under the age of five die every day from causes that we know how to prevent—causes such as diarrhea. In fact, diarrheal disease is second only to pneumonia as the leading killer of children worldwide and dirty hands make it easy for diarrheal disease to spread. Poor hygiene, lack of access to sanitation and unsafe drinking water together are responsible for 88 percent of diarrheal disease worldwide. Handwashing with soap, when done before eating and after using the toilet or changing a diaper, can cut that by nearly half. It’s a simple act that can save lives. We envision a day when that 24,000 unnecessary, daily deaths will be reduced to zero. We believe in zero.

A report released by UNICEF and the World Health Organization yesterday highlights the important reality that only by focusing on the preventable and treatable diseases that plague children of the developing world—like diarrhea—can we reduce global child mortality. The good news is that we know what works, and the measures to prevent and treat diarrheal disease are simple, effective, and cost-efficient.

Worldwide 1 billion people do not have access to safe water for drinking, let alone for handwashing. Child health advocates like me have long cried out for investments to assure children’s human right to be healthy and to have clean water. They also need investments that help them apply these interventions to their advantage, and yes, teaching children how to wash their hands is part of that.

In 2000, the United Nations set a challenge to all nations to commit to reducing global poverty and improving the health and welfare of people everywhere by 2015. This included a promise to stem child deaths by two-thirds.

We are well past the halfway point to 2015. Investments in health and development have made some progress toward reducing the number of child deaths, but now is the time to ensure that all of the tools we know to be effective in controlling disease throughout the western world are also used in a global effort to fight diarrheal disease. Prioritizing an integrated approach that includes handwashing with soap to control the spread of diarrheal disease is key in achieving Millennium Development Goal 4, reducing the under-5 mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015. The MDGs should be our guide, because children are at their heart.

Today is Global Handwashing Day. So, when you put down this paper, don’t forget to wash your hands. Oh sure, if you forget, you’ll survive. But remember others – especially children – around the world aren’t so lucky. Their well-being deserves our continued attention because all children deserve to celebrate their next birthday.

-Caryl M. Stern, President and CEO of The U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Actor Orlando Bloom, who has worked with UNICEF for several years now in Nepal, Russia, and Sarajevo, has been appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

According to Ann M. Veneman, UNICEF’s executive director, Bloom will be a “voice for vulnerable children” in a role that “helps build momentum to improve the lives of children around the world.”

You can read more about the appointment on UNICEF’s Field Notes here.

Oh, these UN weeks. Every year when the UN General Assembly meets (and this year, the Clinton Global Initiative and the G20 are putting their heads together, too), advocates for the world’s poor try to build momentum towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight targets designed to reduce global poverty and disease by 2015. In years past, we’ve entered these discussions with hugely complicated problems to solve. But this year is a bit different. There is big progress to report on MDG 4 – reducing preventable childhood deaths.

Last Thursday, UNICEF released a report announcing that the number of children dying each year before their fifth birthday had dropped to 8.8 million—the lowest number on record (an achievement that flew under most of the major medias radar screens). And while this is still 8.8 million too many deaths, it’s down from 12.5 million deaths in 1990. That means that doctors, nurses, community health workers, educators—even politicians and donors—have helped prevent 10,000 children from dying each day. TEN THOUSAND! One of these saved sons or daughters could hit upon the next big life-saving idea.

But there’s a catch. Right now, we actually don’t need any new big idea to take a significant step forward. Three million of the 8.8 million children are dying from things that we know how to prevent and treat: pneumonia and diarrhea. In the next year, vaccines for pneumococcal disease and rotavirus—two of the main causes of the diseases—will be introduced at approximately $7 a piece, a price cheap enough to realistically be distributed in the developing world. So we have the life-saving vaccines, and we know what it takes to distribute. Now we just need the money to do it.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI)—an innovative financing organization that funds the purchasing and distribution of vaccines—will be largely responsible for purchasing the pneumonia and rotavirus vaccines. And while they’re running short on funds, exciting progress was made during the busy UN week.

At a UN event yesterday afternoon, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and World Bank President Robert Zoellick announced a landmark $5.3 billion international deal that would tackle women’s and children’s health in the developing world—and save an estimated 10 million lives. The $5.3 billion investment, which marks the culmination of a year’s work by the Taskforce on Innovative Financing for Health Systems, includes:

• New commitments by leaders of Nepal, Malawi, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone to expand access to health services
• A $1 billion expansion of the International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm)
• A new mechanism for making voluntary contributions when buying airline tickets, expected to raise up to $3.2 billion by 2015
• $515 million for results-based funding health programs
• $360 million worth of debt conversions
• Launch of a value-added (VAT) tax credit pilot, expected to raise up to $220 million a year
• The commitment to explore a second Advance Market Commitment for life-saving vaccines

While this exciting announcement is not going to fulfill all of GAVI’s financing needs, it hopefully sets an important precedent that other donors will soon follow. It would be quite an achievement if at next year’s meeting of the UN General Assembly, there is even more good news to report.

The lives of 3 million children depend on it.

-Josh Lozman

Climate change is more firmly on the global agenda now more than ever, not just because the final round of the UN Climate Change Conference is taking place this December in Copenhagen, but because we are increasingly seeing the effects of climate change. ONE is also calling for the G20 to address climate change this weekend at the Pittsburgh G20 summit, but we’re keeping with our theme looking at it from the perspective that ‘Africa can be a part of the solution.’

Despite contributing only 3.6% of total global carbon emissions, sub-Saharan Africa will feel these effects—through droughts, floods, erratic rains that disrupt growing seasons—both first and worst. Any deal brokered in Copenhagen later this year must include the impact that climate change will have on the world’s poorest—and take into account the potential that developing countries hold to address climate change. The G20 meeting in Pittsburgh is the perfect place to get ahead start by working to do the following:

• Ensure that any global climate deal mobilizes funding to support the response to climate change in developing countries. In the short-term, agree on a down-payment to help developing countries deal immediately with the impact of climate change and build trust in international negotiations;
• Agree on principles to ensure that climate financing is spent predictably, effectively and through transparent governance structures;
• Ensure that a global climate deal considers Africa’s potential contribution toward reducing global carbon emissions, particularly in regard to carbon markets.

Not only will Africa bear the brunt of the climate change impact, but sub-Saharan African countries have the potential to help reduce global carbon emissions. The development of robust carbon markets, the adoption of low-carbon and leap-frog technologies, and the institution of carbon-offsetting programs like re-forestation projects can all flourish in the developing world—without sacrificing development, and maybe even encourage it.

ONE’s message at Pittsburgh is that no global recovery can be constructed in a stable manner if it excludes Africa, and the same goes for any discussion on climate change. We’ll be bringing you the latest from Pittsburgh as the week progresses, so keep an eye out here on the blog.

-Beth Adler

This morning, President Obama addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, saying that it was time to “embrace a new era of engagement based on mutual interests and mutual respect.”

He noted that over the past nine months, the US has tried to lead by example on issues of national security, climate change and food security. But he said that this was just the beginning—and the U.S. couldn’t go it alone. He said that it was time for leaders from across the globe to “take their share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.” He noted that the UN was founded on the belief that nations could work together to solve global issues, but that too often, it became a place to play politics and air grievances. Leaders gathered there today could either be remembered as the generation that put off hard choices and defined themselves by their differences, or the generation that worked together to build on common interests.

President Obama then laid out four pillars to achieving this future. The first was non-proliferation and disarmament. The second was the pursuit of peace and security, both by targeting violent extremists and strengthening peacekeeping efforts. He noted in particular the importance of securing peace in Darfur. The third pillar was the preservation of the planet. He noted that the dangers of climate change could no longer be ignored—land will disappear, wars will erupt over resources and “development will be devastated by drought and famine.” President Obama said the U.S. would press ahead with deep emission cuts and would share new technologies with countries around the world. And while the wealthy nations must take the lead, he noted that “any effort that fails to help the poorest nations both adapt to the problems that climate change has already wrought–and travel a path of clean development—will not work.

The final pillar was a global economy that promotes opportunities for everyone. As President Obama noted:

At a time of such interdependence, we have a moral and pragmatic interest in broader questions of development. And so we will continue our historic effort to help people feed themselves. We have set aside $63 billion to carry forward the fight against HIV/AIDS; to end deaths from tuberculosis and malaria; to eradicate polio; and to strengthen public health systems. We are joining with other countries to contribute H1N1 vaccines to the World Health Organization. We will integrate more economies into a system of global trade. We will support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year’s Summit with a global plan to make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the eradication of extreme poverty in our time.

-Kara Arsenault

This past week, Australian’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, along with Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull, lifted up the role that citizens, people of faith, and governments have in the fight against global poverty at the launch of the new Poverty and Justice Bible, at the Parliament House in Canberra.

Joined by Tim Costello of World Vision Australia as well as representatives of Micah Challenge, Prime Minister Rudd highlighted Australians collective commitment to increased international development assistance, and the role faith groups have in advocating for more and better aid:

Of course, for those of us engaged in national political life, our work on policy is incomplete unless we are working arm-in-arm with the great organisations of the Church and charitable sector.

All of you in this room know full well that there is a limit to what Government can do. All of you know full well that, when it comes to dealing with poverty, at home and abroad, this is often done best when you have a creative and effective partnership between the resources of Government and the compassion of Church and charitable organisations.

…In Australia, what we have sought to do in recent times is to put our shoulder to the wheel by lifting Australia’s contribution to ODA around the developing world…

Problems abroad however, cannot be ignored. Remember, it was [John] Wesley who said ‘the world is my parish’. And so it is for us as well.

Therefore, by lifting what we seek to do around the world, and by also putting our shoulder to the wheels of other countries in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals, our objective is to make a real and quantifiable difference.

Video of the speech can be found here.

-Adam Phillips

On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly began its 64th session in New York City. But what does this group really do—and why should we pay attention?

Founded in 1945, the General Assembly is (among other things) the chief policymaking arm of the United Nations (the UN consists of five main bodies: General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council and International Court of Justice). Made up of all 192 members of the UN, the Assembly provides a unique opportunity to discuss a range of issues affecting countries across the globe. It also gives each member state—regardless of size or stature—one equal vote. That means that developing countries can often help determine the agenda of the Assembly and the character of its debates.

While the Assembly issues only non-binding recommendations for member nations, many of these proposals have affected the lives of millions across the globe. In 2000, for example, the Assembly adopted the Millennium Declaration, a landmark agreement highlighting eight goals to reduce global poverty and disease by 2015, now commonly referred to as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS). Since 2000, substantial progress has been made toward some of the MDGS. For example, an estimated 3.2 million HIV-positive Africans are currently on antiretroviral treatment and 88 million bed nets have been delivered by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, substantially reducing malaria deaths in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya.

The General Assembly is one of the few world bodies that has representation from every country—and while it’s voice may not be binding, it is representative and resounding. And this year, there is much that needs to be done in the fight against extreme poverty and disease—including accelerating progress toward the MDGs—particularly in light of the food, financial and climate crises. Next week as the General Assembly meets, and the G20 gather in Pittsburgh, let’s hope for some important life-saving action.

The UN General Assembly’s yearly regular session runs from September to December. We’ll keep you posted on any news during this year’s session.

-Kara Arsenault

It’s hard to keep track of our calendars here at ONE these days, as the next two weeks are jam-packed with important development events. Over the coming days, folks at ONE will be attending the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh (September 24-25), the UN General Assembly (the 64th session opened yesterday), a UN Summit on Climate Change (September 22), the Clinton Global Initiative (September 22-25) and a special seminar organized by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in New York.

It’s an important two weeks for the development community, as critical issues—innovative financing for global health, climate change funding, women’s empowerment, global economic recovery—will all be put on the table. Make sure to stay tuned to ONE’s blog, as we’ll provide updates on our travels throughout the coming weeks.

-Kara Arsenault