It’s been about two and a half months since ONE delivered 143,863 petition signatures to the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), urging them to stand up to Big Oil by releasing a corruption-fighting rule… and we’ve heard crickets.

However today, Oxfam America, our Publish What You Pay Coalition partner is turning up the heat in a big way. They’ve filed a lawsuit against the SEC for unlawfully delaying the issuance of a strong final rule that would require disclosure of payments to from oil, gas and mining companies to the US and foreign governments. The final rule was due on April 17, 2011.

This was a follow up to Oxfam’s letter of April 16, 2012, asking the SEC to issue a final rule within 30 days or face litigation. And that deadline just expired as of today.

“We have been patient, but the Commission’s continued failure to issue a Final Rule implementing Cardin-Lugar frustrates Congress’ intent to increase transparency in resource-rich countries, said Ian Gary, senior policy manager of Oxfam America’s oil, gas and mining program. “ For those living in poverty in resource-rich countries, there’s no time left to wait.”

Gary added, “Oxfam America is simply asking for the SEC to follow the law.”

This is a very bold step on the part of Oxfam America to hold the SEC accountable for implementing the Cardin-Lugar extractives transparency amendment. We’ll keep you updated on the legal process.

To learn more about Oxfam America’s lawsuit, go to their website.

Don Steinberg. Photo credit: El Tiempo

ONE: Hunger is a global issue — how is a focus on growth in the agricultural sector so central to poverty reduction, and why is an emphasis on Africa particularly important?
Ambassador Steinberg: Food security is vital to human security. On a national level, countries marked by hunger, volatile food prices, and poverty stemming from a lack of agricultural productivity face constant political and security crises that undercut stability and economic development.

At the personal level as well, hunger and malnutrition affects the entire life-cycle, causing stunting in infants and young children, poor concentration and inadequate learning in school-aged kids, low resistance to communicable and infectious diseases, and low productivity and high absenteeism in the work place.

Africa is particularly vulnerable to the effects of hunger and malnutrition, and is the only continent where agricultural productivity has remained stagnant for the past three decades. Given that growth in agriculture is, on average, at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors, investments in agriculture are fundamental to transforming Africa and the rest of the developing world and eradicating poverty and hunger.

The 2009 G8 in L’Aquila signaled an important turning point for global focus on food security. What is different about the 2012 G8 –- how does its food security and nutrition focus relate to the 2009 commitments, and what’s happened since?
L’Aquila was a pivotal moment for hunger and poverty reduction. It put the global spotlight back on agriculture and food security, and spurred our commitment as donors to support agricultural development with our partner countries abroad. In 2012, we’re keeping that focus on agriculture, food security, and nutrition, and renewing our emphasis on engaging the private sector, civil society institutions, and the research community.

With the foundation set by the L’Aquila commitments, it is time to spur wider engagement and ownership of the future of global food security. In this fight for food security, no one entity has a monopoly on good ideas, financial and human resources, ground truth, or moral authority.

Building on the foundation set by the L’Aquila commitments, it is time to spur wider engagement and ownership of the future of global food security. The private sector has a vital role as a partner in making progress toward food and nutrition security in an innovative, sustainable, and responsible manner.

What will it take in the years ahead to advance food and nutrition security?
No one country, institution, or leader can resolve such complex problems alone. G8 countries are coming together to fight poverty in part by convening and connecting global private sector investors with developing country markets to drive long-term investment and growth.

Developing countries will have to take the lead in ensuring that public and private investments can flourish and that regulatory environments promote growth and investment. We believe this new approach will become a new way of doing business in development in Africa and that, together, we can create a more stable, peaceful and prosperous world.

It’s not too late to help make these goals a reality at the G8 Summit. You can learn more here, and participate in the ONE Street Tweeter — a tweet-fed robot that will take your message to the streets in the run-up to the G8.

Bono and President Obama, at last year’s World AIDS Day event, will meet again at the Chicago Council’s Symposium on Global Agriculture. Photo credit: Ralph Alswang/ ONE.

This event is a dream come true for us here at ONE — we’ve been trying to “plant the seed” in the G8 to put sustainable global agriculture at the top of their agenda at this year’s summit. And now, thanks to this event, President Obama, G8 and African leaders, businesses, international organizations and civil society, Bono and more will have the opportunity to devote time and attention to this topic. Although we can’t be certain it will affect the outcomes of the Summit, we think it’s a great way to kick off the G8.

The best part? You’re invited to the event, and you can participate, too. The Chicago Council is livestreaming the day’s panels, discussions and events on their website. Feel free to drop in, leave and come back to the event whenever you wish, all from the comfort of your computer. Panelists and guest speakers will all be on standby, ready to answer your questions on Twitter — so be sure to follow @GlobalAgDev and direct your questions and comments to #globalag.

Here’s a list of some of the guests who will be attending:

President Barack Obama
His Excellency Dr. Boni Yayi, President of the Republic of Benin & Chairperson of the African Union
His Excellency Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia
His Excellency John Atta Mills, President of Ghana
His Excellency Jakaya Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania
The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary, United States Department of State
The Honorable Rajiv Shah, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development
Bono, Co-Founder of ONE and (RED)
The Honorable Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, UN World Food Programme
Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development
Ms. Josette Sheeran, Vice Chairman, World Economic Forum

And again, here’s how you can get involved:

- Watch the livestream of the event. It starts at 8 a.m. EDT. You don’t have to watch the whole thing, but make sure you keep it up in a tab on your browser so you can follow along. Find out which events you want to watch by checking out the agenda here.

- Follow live blog posts and analysis from Roger Thurow and other hunger experts at the Chicago Council’s Global Food For Thought blog.

- Ask questions to the panelists and guest speakers by tweeting at @globalagdev and using hashtag #globalag. They’ll be on the lookout for your questions, so you may get an answer from Josette Sheeran of the World Economic Forum or even Rajiv Shah of USAID!

I’ll be following along, too — so remember, you can always tweet at @ONECampaign with any questions you have about the event. See you on Friday!

Recently 65 world-renowned researchers, economists and Nobel laureates got together and answered that question. They released their findings yesterday after more than a year of reviewing proposals and evidence, thanks to the Copenhagen Consensus Center. Being economists, they weighed their choices carefully using cost-benefit analyses. Seventy-five billion dollars may sound like a lot, but $18.75 billion (1/4 of $75 billion) represents only a 15 percent increase on top of the current $130 billion that developed nations spend annually on foreign aid.

Photo credit: Helen Keller International

Given the budget constraint, only 16 interventions stood out to the panel as worthy investments:

1. Bundled nutrition interventions in preschoolers
2. Expanding the Subsidy for Malaria Combination Treatment
3. Expanded childhood immunization coverage
4. Deworming of schoolchildren
5. Expanding tuberculosis treatment
6. R&D to increase yields, fight biodiversity destruction, and lessen the effects of climate change
7. Early warning systems to protect populations against natural disasters
8. Strengthening surgical capacity
9. Hepatitis B immunization
10. Using low‐cost drugs in the case of acute heart attacks in poorer nations
11. Salt reduction campaign to reduce chronic disease
12. Geo‐engineering R&D
13. Conditional cash transfers for school attendance
14. Accelerated HIV vaccine R&D
15. Extended field trials of information campaigns on the benefits of schooling
16. Borehole and public hand pumps

If you follow ONE’s blog and campaigns regularly, you’ll notice that ONE advocates for many of these interventions. Currently, Thrive –- ONE’s campaign to break the cycle of poverty and malnutrition — is campaigning for #1, #4, #6, and #7 (in bold above). Intervention #1 bundles micronutrients, deworming and nutrition education, and the panel’s Outcomes Report recommends that donors spend $3 billion of the $18.75 billion per year on this bundle — very similar to what ONE recommended in our report “Food. Farming. Future.” This research is also corroborated by what our friends at 1,000 Days have been saying for, oh, nearly 1,000 days.

Almost 300,000 ONE members have signed our petition to lift 50 million people out of poverty and prevent stunting in 15 million kids. Despite this and clear evidence that agriculture and nutrition interventions are best buys in development, it is still unclear whether the world’s richest governments are going to seize this opportunity. Now, with just four days until the G8 summit at Camp David, leaders need to take action on country-owned agriculture and nutrition.

Tweet at @ONEstreettweet to get your 40-character message to the G8 printed on the road.

From left to right, Mark Entwhistle, Sara Messer, Peter Braid, MP for Kitchener-Waterloo, Sarah Stone, Ben Leo

The event drew about 25 local members, many of whom were also members of our partner organization Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB). Ben Leo talked about the exciting campaigns that ONE is currently running –- the Beginning of the End of AIDS and THRIVE, which includes an online petition to the members of the G8 to keep the world’s most poor and vulnerable at the top of the agenda at the upcoming G8 Summit.

You can sign the petition here:

We were very pleased to have Peter Braid MP for Kitchener-Waterloo attend and share with us the role that Canada plays in development programs all over the world, and reiterate Canada’s commitment to the issues that we care about at ONE such as global hunger and maternal and infant health. Mr. Braid also told us about his own travels to Africa and how he has seen first hand that Canadian aid works. He affirmed the work that ONE is doing and encouraged us to continue to advocate on behalf of the world’s most poor and vulnerable.

It was a great evening connecting with some of our awesome ONE members in Canada. Head over to the new ONE Canada Facebook page and “like us” and follow us on twitter @ONE_in_Canada for the latest from ONE members in Canada!

Sarah Stone, ONE Member Waterloo, Ontario

Africa must end hunger to sustain growth – U.N. – The United Nations Development Program said on Tuesday that “Africa needs to boost agricultural productivity and address the debilitating hunger that affects 27 percent of its populations if it is to sustain its economic boom.” The report highlighted that “investment in agricultural productivity was important not only for reducing hunger but also in creating jobs for Africa’s rapidly growing population.” (Reuters, Katy Migiro)

Business, NGO leaders join hands to push progress on health goals – The MDG Health Alliance is a new private-sector led global effort to improve health in developing countries that will be launched on May 15. The organization was convened by the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy for malaria, Raymond Chambers. The alliance “seeks to work with the United Nations, nonprofit organization and other stakeholders to support efforts to boost progress toward meeting health-related MDGs.” (Devex, Ivy Mungcal)

Africa and the Power of the Pivot – Africa has “become the world’s most underrated growth story – in part because many of its governments have developed the resilience that comes with the ability to pivot.” Despite the fact that Africa and India have similar populations, “Africans spent 35 percent more on goods and services in 2008 than Indians did,” and total foreign direct investment in Africa grew from $9.4 billion in 2000 to over $60 billion in 2011. (NYTimes, Ian Bremmer)

African growth depends on food security – The Africa Development Report indicates that almost 218 million people in Africa are undernourished and 55 million children are malnourished. The rapid growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa have not translated into significant hunger reduction, and increasing agricultural productivity and creating resilience against natural disasters are necessary to put an end to the chronic food insecurity and the U.N. must “leverage the indigenous crops and foods in Africa and have them access global markets so that farmers can also tap in to this 36 trillion dollars global trade system.” (AP)

Bob Geldof has called on the leaders of the G8 to make good on their promises to tackle extreme poverty and hunger.

Over 290,000 ONE members have signed our Thrive petition calling on the G8 to support a global plan to ensure 50 million people escape poverty through agriculture and 15 million children no longer endure chronic malnutrition. Plus, this week thousands of ONE members have been sending messages to be written on the road leading to the summit by the ONE street tweet robot.

You can watch the full report from ITV here, or as featured on MSNBC below:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There is a time in a child’s life that has a profound impact on her ability to grow, learn and rise out of poverty. It’s the 1,000 day window beginning with a mother’s pregnancy through to her child’s 2nd birthday. During these critical 1,000 days, ensuring that mothers and children have proper nutrition can have a profound impact not only on the individuals, but also on the long-term health, stability and development of entire communities and nations.

Photo credit: Helen Keller International

In fact, it’s been demonstrated that nutritional status improves when mothers receive proper nutrition throughout their pregnancies and continue to nourish their babies through breast feeding from birth to two years, while introducing nutritious solid foods at 6 months. Better nutrition is linked to healthier economies and a country’s GDP can increase by at least 2 to 3 percent annually as a result. Investing in better nutrition during this 1,000 day window is a smart investment for the health of children, families, communities and entire countries.

On the other hand, malnutrition equals mal-development.

Leaders from around the world will soon gather at Camp David for the 38th meeting of the Group of Eight (G8). As they come together to address a range of economic, political and security issues, strategies for preventing malnutrition must be high on the agenda. Only when children are well-nourished and growing to achieve their full human potential can we say our development efforts have been successful.

Too often, policy-makers focus on economic indicators or national agricultural production yields to determine how well a nation is faring. We believe that investments in national and economic development should use the growth of children as the best and most accurate yardstick — a human yardstick — to measure success. Indicators of child malnutrition, such as height, reflect much more accurately than gross domestic product whether development progress has truly been achieved in a country. Chronic malnutrition reduces not only the productivity of that specific individual, but also their entire community and country.

In my work at Helen Keller International I see this truth every day. For example, Sanfo Salimata is a mother who lives in the village of Koulwoko in the African country of Burkina Faso. Through Helen Keller International’s Homestead Food Production program, which incorporates Essential Nutrition Actions (cost-effective interventions that are proven to improve health and nutrition outcomes for mothers and children), Sanfo has learned that eating vitamin A-rich vegetables can prevent vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and night blindness which she experienced during her first pregnancy. In fact, globally, VAD is the number one cause of childhood blindness and also impacts the proper functioning of the immune system. It is estimated that 670,000 children will die from VAD, and 350,000 will go blind – every year.

HKI also introduced Sanfo to the orange-fleshed variety of sweet potatoes which are rich in vitamin A. During her second pregnancy, she ate these potatoes whenever she could. She had more energy, less hunger and no night blindness. She also found that eating the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes made her newborn baby boy healthy and, in her opinion, more beautiful. Sanfo learned the importance of giving her baby only breast milk during the first six months of his life, and, when appropriate at six months, to feed him micronutrient-rich complementary foods while continuing to breastfeed.

Sanfo’s commitment to proper nutrition before and after the birth of her baby is helping give him the best possible start for a healthy and productive life. He now has the proper foundation to make the most of his educational and vocational opportunities that will in turn allow him to contribute positively to his family, his community and his country.

Sanfo has done everything in her power to help her child survive and thrive, and we owe it to her — and the countless other mothers like her — to do the same. Improving nutrition during the critical 1,000 day window is one of the best investments we can make to help people live healthier, more productive lives. In fact, a prestigious group of economists at the Copenhagen Consensus Centre estimated that for every $1 invested in nutrition, as much as $138 is generated in better health and increased productivity.

Investments now can save more than one million lives each year, improve an individual’s educational achievement and earning potential, and reduce the risk for developing various noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes and other chronic conditions later in life. But, in order for these results to be realized, funding for nutrition must be prioritized now.

As G8 leaders meet next week, we call on them stand up for nutrition and invest in these critical 1,000 days. It is an investment bound to pay dividends in the social and economic prosperity of entire nations.

Read more G8 news and blogs on HuffPost’s G8 big news page.

18% Of Deaths Among Under 5s Caused By Pneumonia Globally – According to new research from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an international team of experts, “of the 7.6 million deaths worldwide among children under 5 years of age in 2010, 18% were caused by pneumonia, while 14% were the result of a complication of a preterm birth.” Senior author Robert Black, MD, MPH explained that “even though total deaths among under 5s worldwide dropped from 2000 to 2010, in order to reach the Millennium Development Goal, the decline will need to be steeper.” (Medical News Today, Christian Nordqvist)

Canada pledges $114M for Africa – The Canadian International Development Agency has pledged $114.2 million Canadian dollars in humanitarian aid to Africa. The funds will “be used to address food insecurity and malnutrition, and improve people’s livelihood and access to safe drinking water” and to meet the needs of refugees in the area. (Devex, Jenny Lei Ravelo)

UN: Bed Nets Sharply Reduce Malaria Deaths – A new United Nations report shows that “malaria has dropped from being the leading cause of death among refugees living along the Sudan border,” due to the Nothing But Nets campaign run by The United Nations Foundation. U.N. officials expressed concern about a “possible wave of new refugees fleeing violence between Sudan and South Sudan.” (VOA, Mohammed Yusuf)

New report puts spotlight on Africa’s social, economic gaps – The Africa Progress Panel’s more recent report focus on inequality and calls for urgent action to bridge the widening economic gap as well as “gaps in youth education and employment, access to agricultural lands and tools.” (Devex, Ivy Mungcal)

Some of you might recognize these quotes…

We’ve posted them on our Facebook wall and Twitter feed to help inspire our ONE members to continue taking action against poverty where they can, in their own ways. People on social media love them — whenever we post them up, they get hundreds and even thousands of likes and shares. And it makes us feel good to know that we’re helping to spread our activist culture with others.

But now it’s your turn. We want to hear a quote that inspires you. It an be a quote from your favorite humanitarian, your mentor, your parents, your own quote, a famous celebrity, the Bible, the Koran, anywhere. One thing — we want to use it to help raise awareness against global hunger and malnutrition. So, any food, agriculture and farming-related quotes are much welcome.

On Friday, we’ll choose our favorite quote and have our graphic designer, Patricia Lavallee, design it into a cool graphic like the ones you see above. We’ll share it on our social media accounts during the G8 Summit (which is this weekend) to help raise awareness for global agriculture.

So, let’s get started! Share a quote with us in the comments section below. Good luck!