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ONE at Cornerstone
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We’re at the Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, IL, this week signing up new ONE members. The festival grounds are, literally, in the middle of cornfields. Driving in, there were corn fields in all directions. I walk out of my hotel room in the morning, and there are corn fields. If you’ve never seen them, corn fields are beautiful first thing in the morning, rolling like waves. Corn fields are definitely growing on me. We got a little creative to get some attention for ONE as the Cornerstone Festival officially opened tonight. Right after they signed up, some new ONE members helped build a small wall of ONE bands. The wall attracted a lot of attention, and we signed up a bunch of people when they stopped to check it out. Things really get rolling tomorrow, with a full slate of bands on all of the stages. We’ll keep you posted how we’re doing growing the movement in corn fields out in Illinois. -Kimberly Cadena |
What We’re Reading 7/1/09
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Huffington Post: Nandini Oomman: Can HIV/AIDS Donors be the Lead ‘Gender Bender’ of Global Development? NY Times: Zimbabwe Says China is Giving it Loans Voice of America: US Looks to Expand Development Aid to Strategic Partner Ethiopia Africa Today: What America Wants from Ghana -Grace Lamb-Atkinson |
Bob Geldof to edit La Stampa
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Bob Geldof will be guest editing the Italian newspaper “La Stampa” this weekend as part of ONE’s campaign to encourage Italy to improve its record on Africa when it hosts the G8 summit next week. La Stampa is a respected Italian newspaper based in Turin in northern Italy. Its editor has turned over Sunday’s paper to a dedicated Africa/G8 edition. It will feature stories on a wide range of African themes, and contributions from prominent African, Italian and global figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bono, Kofi Annan and Sophia Loren. So far Italy has delivered just three per cent of the development aid to Africa it promised at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit. ONE is calling on Prime Minister Berlusconi to seize the opportunity of next week’s summit to turn around this abysmal record or forfeit all credibility as G8 host. -Helen Palmer |
Representative Davis introduced to ONE
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not only was she gracious while hearing about our cause but the congresswoman was very engaged. The outcome was better than I could have expected! Not only did I get a green light to contact her during summer recess, Congresswoman Davis accepted and wore the ONE wristband. Thank you Congresswoman! And special thanks to Cynthia Kowalski for inviting ONE to be there. -Josh McMahon, San Diego ONE member |
Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of meeting with Rep. Susan Davis, Congresswoman from California’s 53rd District. The event was sponsored by the Women’s Equity Council of the United Nations Association of San Diego. After giving a great speech about the role of woman in Congress and her latest trip to Afghanistan, I was able to speak with her briefly about ONE and the work we do.2,500
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2,500 - that’s how many new members of ONE signed up last week in the middle of a field in Pennsylvania to join the fight against poverty. For the last couple weeks, ONE has been traveling to music festivals all over the U.S., signing up new members. Last week, I was at a festival in PA and this week I’m heading to IL. ONE is partnering with Relevant magazine in this effort in a new project called “Reject Apathy”. You can learn more about it here. -Kimberly Cadena |
Schneidman: Helping Africa Save Itself
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Witney W. Schneidman, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Of State For African Affairs In The Clinton Administration, and friend to ONE, published this important article about aid in the July 13, 2009, issue of Newsweek. The beginning of his article is below, the full piece is on the Newsweek site. If you have questions, Schneidman will be available to answer some comments on this post.
Read the full piece here. |
Banking for the Poor in the Democratic Republic of Congo
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The Grand Marche market in Kinshasa brims with tens of thousands of vendors. To the untrained eye, the market is full of chaos and confusion. To those who dare to look past the sea of people, however, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest market is an organized, catalogued, and thriving economic system. Delegates from Opportunity International on a recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo soon discovered that there was more to the story than met the western-trained eye. Visitors are required to gain permission from the Queen of the Market (a title of true honor) to wander around the winding pathways between tightly-packed stalls. The Mayor of the Market lists the vendors present and their businesses as he proudly shows off his domain. The infrastructure is unexpected, and looks different than traditional infrastructure, but it works. In a market like this it is hard to believe that only 1% of the DRC’s 66.5 million people have bank accounts. Without access to formal financial services, the vendors in this marketplace are unable to get a loan that will help them to grow their business. They cannot safely save the profits that they make. They do not have the ability to take out insurance to keep them from losing their business if a fire devastated the market. They cannot gain additional structured training. Opportunity International, a ONE partner organization, has plans to open a formal financial institution (or FFI) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ultimately, the organization’s goal is to bring loans, savings, insurance, and training to those who are living on less than $2 per day. With 99% of the population in need of banking services, Opportunity is poised to enter a market with much potential. In this country roughly the geographical size of Europe, plagued by war, economic instability, and corruption, an Opportunity International formal financial institution can help to make the difference between families being able to afford only three meals per week to families being able to afford three meals per day. To learn more about Opportunity’s commitment to providing microfinance solutions to the working poor in almost 30 countries, visit www.opportunity.org. -Sonja Egeland Kelly, Opportunity International |
Sister Cities Take Action
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I recently met with the President of the US Africa Sister Cities Foundation (USACF), Shirley Rivens Smith. She told me that the Foundation is an arm of Sister Cities International which creates partnerships between cities around the globe. The purpose of sister city relationships is to promote friendship and mutual understanding between two cities and their citizens, based upon the principals of mutual respect, mutual benefit, and cooperation. USACF exists to create greater awareness of the 97 sister cities in Africa, address issues that affect Africans, and promote public awareness through African Sister Cities relationships. I was really impressed to learn from Shirley that USACF has a network of 4500 individuals, including mayors, who receive periodic updates from her. When I told her about the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009, she offered to send around the petition to USACF members. I’m certain that without the actions of people like Shirley, we couldn’t have reached our goal of 100,000 signers! We owe a big thanks to USACF and all the other organizations and individuals who helped spread the word! Thank you! -Ranna Lanagan |
What We’re Reading 6/30/09
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Reuters: Oxfam Calls on G8 to Increase Aid to Poor Farmers Financial Times: African Plan to Keep Vulture Funds at Bay Reuters: Crops Face Toxic Time Bomb in Warmer World New York Times (A1): Constant Fear and Mob Rule in South African Slum Reuters: Why the BRICs Like Africa Xinhua: 13th AU Summit Expects to Focus on Agricultural Investment, Food Security -Grace Lamb-Atkinson |
UN Conference: “Recovering from Global Crisis”
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I wanted to report back on another interesting session that I attended during last week’s UN Conference. It was titled “Recovering from Global Crisis: Towards an Action plan for Africa and the Least Developed Countries” and included Dr Dipu Moni, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh; Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, UN Deputy Secretary-General; and Mr Cheick Sidi Diarra, UN Under-Secretary-General, Special Adviser for Africa and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries (as represented left-to-right in the photo). At the start of the session, Mr Cheick Sidi Diarra stated that Africa and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) will likely be hit hardest by the global financial crisis. Many of these countries lack the “fiscal space” to pursue countercyclical measures to protect their industries (think “bail outs”) and to fund social safety net programs (think healthcare, education and social services). He warned that a reduction in Official Development Assistance (ODA) would make the prospect of meeting the MDGs even more remote and urged donor governments to: 1) deliver on the commitments they made at Gleneagles in 2005 as well as the recent G20 meeting; 2) resist protectionist trade policies; 3) finalize the Doha trade agreements; and 4) pursue reforming the global financial system, as to protect against instabilities and guard against future collapses. As he said, these steps are critical “to laying the foundation for future growth and sustainable development.” Dr Asha-Rose Migiro echoed the call for G8 countries to meet their 2005 Gleneagles commitments, mentioning that aid to Africa is about $20 billion short of the 2010 target of $50 billion per year. As she stated, “there is abundant evidence that aid can help transform lives and must remain a central part of the global development agenda.” She outlined what the UN considers their highest funding priorities, which are: 1) to close the funding gap for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations; 2) to provide agricultural development, including that for subsistence farmers; 3) to improve health systems and infrastructure for the world’s poor; 4) to ensure universal access to education, in support of the Education for All’s Fast Track Initiative; 5) to improve water and sanitation systems; and 6) to meet the gap for clean energy development. That being said, she said that we all must recognize that aid works best in conjunction with market forces. Dr Dipu Moni picked up on this statement, arguing that trade ¬can be the engine for growth and calling for the conclusion of the Doha Development Round, which could boost the global economy by at least $150 billion and would help fulfill its development mandate. She pointed out that even though the G20 countries pledged not to turn inward, at least 17 of them have already broken their promises and have instituted protectionist and nationalistic trade policies, such as tariffs, trade-distorting subsidies and buy national requirements that favor domestic goods. She said that the current crisis will have a serious impact on trade and that the outlook for 2009 is pessimistic, with the World Trade Organization (WTO) estimating that global trade volumes will fall by 9% in 2009, the largest decline since World War II. Dr Asha-Rose Migiro ended the session by calling Member States to build upon the Conference to forge a new multilateralism and stronger global collaboration so that we can enter 2010 and the decade beyond with the global financial crisis behind us, a climate change plan in hand and working towards the achievement of the MDGs. |
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The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with frequent contributions from volunteers, members and partner organizations.
The ONE Blog updates readers daily with the latest in global development news and analysis and what ONE members and our partners are doing around the world to influence world leaders in the fight against global poverty.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE or ONE Action. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
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TAGS: Illinois, Music, ONE Members