ONE has been a relentless advocate in the fight against extreme poverty. ONE and its more than 3 million members, along with ONE’s predecessor organization DATA and other non-profit partners, have played an important role in persuading political leaders to create and/or fund smart, effective programs and policies that have saved lives and improved futures in poor countries.
A few examples of this work, which ONE and our co-founder Bono have joined in alongside other advocacy partners, follow:
- Bono and ONE/DATA played an important role in the debt relief movement that helped to secure $107 billion in debt relief for poor countries over the past decade, allowing African governments to invest more in poverty alleviation and helping put an additional 42 more million children in school
- ONE/DATA played a crucial role in the global campaign that successfully pressed the G8 to make historic commitments to fight poverty and disease in Africa in 2005; the G8 agreed to double funding to Africa at that meeting and ONE has been holding leaders feet to the fire on those commitments ever since
- In the UK, ONE/DATA lobbied for the creation of, and were a key contributor to, the Commission for Africa, which produced a rigorous analysis and detailed programme for economic development in Africa
- ONE/DATA worked closely with US officials on the creation of the AIDS program PEPFAR and on winning funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria from across the G8; together these programs have helped provide life-saving AIDS medications to nearly 4 million Africans, up from only 50,000 people in 2002. The Global Fund has also helped cut malaria deaths in half in countries across Africa in less than 2 years
- In 2008, in the wake of the global food price shock, ONE successfully lobbied the European Union to deliver an emergency food initiative for developing countries
- ONE/DATA helped persuade President Bush’s Administration in the USto create the multi-billion dollar Millennium Challenge Account which funds smart, targeted development programs in well-governed poor countries which meet specific governance and transparency tests
- In 2009 ONE successfully campaigned for the IMF to sell some of its undervalued Gold reserves to provide emergency funding to poor countries that were being buffeted by the financial crisis. This helped protect critical health, education and other expenditures.
- In 2010, ONE successfully pushed for passage of an additional $450 million in debt relief for Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake
- In 2010 ONE’s Germany team successfully campaigned to prevent the German government from cutting funds to the highly effective Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
- ONE/DATA successfully campaigned for passage of the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which helped to increase African exports to the US to $44 billion in 2009 and has created 300,000 jobs in Africa
- ONE helped to ensure the Cardin-Lugar amendment became law in the US in 2010; the amendment requires better transparency in the oil, gas and mining industries – an important step to ending backhanded deals between energy companies and corrupt politicians that hurt people in poor countries. ONE is now campaigning for the UK and EU and ultimately all G20 and OECD countries to pass similar legislation
