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Micro hydro power lights up life in Africa
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ONE is inviting friends and supporters to share ideas on how to provide energy for the world’s poorest people as part of our Energy Poverty Challenge. In this piece, Ernest Mupunga, Southern Africa Director of international development charity Practical Action, discusses how small access to energy is challenging poverty and offering life-changing opportunities in Africa. “We can now study at night at the school and our schoolwork has improved significantly as we no longer have to use paraffin lamps to study and do assignments at night,” says Chipendeke Primary School pupil Madeline Bofu. “When I complete my education, I would like to become a lawyer.” Read her story here. “Our clinic is now able to treat people at night and store medicines,’’ said William Chanakira, from the Chipendeke Clinic. “The biggest problem we used to face was with women who gave birth at night. They had to provide their own candles or lamps”. These voices are from villagers from Chipendeke, one of the rural communities in Southern Africa that Practical Action have been working with to develop small scale micro hydro schemes– harnessing water to provide them with energy.
Chipendeke is situated 64km south east of Mutare, a province in eastern Zimbabwe. The micro hydro scheme uses a local stream to power a turbine, providing electricity to the area. It is owned and operated by the community it serves, with maintenance carried out by trained members of the community. As a result, it provides employment, as well as providing the power to re-energise the entire community. Much of the community’s income is generated through farming crops such as maize, wheat, potatoes and tomatoes. Introducing electricity in the area has improved the efficiency of the farmers and the quality of their produce. Farmers can now power workshops to repair damaged tools and can also power grinding mills, which vastly increases their productivity and income. Social life has been greatly enhanced. Communities can now watch TV and listen to the radio, keeping them in touch with the rest of the country, and can recharge their mobile phones. A clinic with a catchment area of 25,000 people can now sterilize drugs in cold rooms and provide maternity services for expecting mothers, including live saving cesarean births for complicated deliveries.
The school block, including teachers’ houses, has been electrified, increasing its chances of retaining qualified teachers. Children are now able to study at night. Local shop owners can refrigerate their products and a number of small business enterprises are emerging, such as peanut butter processing.
However, for four out of five families in Africa, access to modern energy is still a pipedream. There are political, economic, technical and institutional barriers that limit the development and use of renewable energy sources to meet the energy needs of poor, off-grid communities. Zimbabwe and Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most off track regarding progress on the MDGs, yet the geography and climate make it ideal for renewable energy systems that can provide marginalised people from rural communities with the resources they need to fight their way out of poverty. Practical Action is a leading NGO an ‘Energy for All by 2030’ initiative working to raise public awareness and political will to make energy access a development priority. You can find out more about Practical Action and their work on ‘Energy for All by 2030’ here and help us achieve this aim by making your point about energy access for all. |
Empowering Rwanda to Lead Fight Against HIV
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Guest blog post by Helen Blakesley from Catholic Relief Services. Cécile is talking to Séraphine about her medicine. Séraphine is HIV positive. She lost her husband to the virus and is now bringing up their six kids in Bungwe, a village high in the hills of northern Rwanda.
It’s just one of the changes since the center became an AIDSRelief site in 2005. Catholic Relief Services leads the consortium that runs the AIDSRelief program, which is funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a US Government initiative set up to help save the lives of those living with HIV/AIDS around the world. “A lot has changed, I’ve learned a lot with the AIDSRelief program,” says Cécile. “It’s helped so much with patient care, with medication, counseling. They’ve trained us, mentored us—really helped us to work as a team. Treating HIV and AIDS is a multidisciplinary affair. None of us can work alone.” What’s really stuck in Cécile’s mind from this morning’s consultation, though, is Séraphine’s boy, 12-year-old Jean-Claude. Cécile had to break some life-changing news to the child today. Like his mom, he is HIV positive. But Jean-Claude didn’t cry when he heard the news. He kept a bright smile on his face. He’s accustomed to coming to the health center with his mom to make sure she’s okay. ‘It No Longer Means Death’ Cécile has been counseling kids like Jean-Claude who may have been exposed to HIV during their mother’s pregnancy, delivery or breastfeeding. “Before, when you spoke to someone about HIV, it meant death,” Cécile says.“But, now, it no longer means death. We’ve been helped to treat patients as a human being like any other, not like someone who’s going to die.” Jean-Claude told her this morning that he wants to become a doctor. Throughout Rwanda, AIDSRelief has drawn on three pillars to strengthen existing local health systems. It has looked at the financial side of things—how funding grants are managed. It has shown how the use of data can be vital in tailoring and improving treatment and the overall program. And AIDSRelief has invested in establishing and maintaining high-quality HIV care and treatment services. All of this is against a backdrop of involving the community in care and treatment, such as regular home visits, which help ensure good follow-up. Nearly 12,000 people receive HIV care and treatment, and almost 7,000 of those undergo antiretroviral therapy The program has achieved outstanding clinical results in remote areas of the country: Only 2 percent of people fail to return for follow-up appointments, and 91 percent of people surveyed who are receiving antiretroviral therapy have a such a low level of the virus in their bloodstream that it’s undetectable. Long-Lasting Solution When PEPFAR grants were first awarded in 2004 with the goal of scaling up HIV care and treatment in developing countries, many critics said ‘it couldn’t be done’. But programs like AIDSRelief proved that antiretroviral therapy programs can be successful anywhere in the world. 
Over the past few years, though, PEPFAR’s focus has shifted from an external emergency response to an increasing emphasis on strengthening health systems and building a sustainable response owned by each host country. So, for the past 2 years , AIDSRelief has been accompanying Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, with its district hospitals and health centers, so that it could eventually take the driver’s seat. That transition is now complete. It’s the first time a host government has fully taken over a PEPFAR-funded HIV treatment program. Alphonse Kayiranga is a nurse educator with the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology, a member of the AIDSRelief consortium. “We’ve tried to do our best to prepare the different health centers and hospitals for transition,” says Alphonse. “We’ve tried to strengthen capacity and share our knowledge. I feel they’re well prepared. There’s also been work with central government to strengthen the national system. I’m confident that it’ll go well.” For Leia Isanhart Balima, chief of party for CRS-Rwanda AIDSRelief, and her team, the transition has had an interesting twist. “It’s not every day in development that you get to work yourself out of a job,” she says. “It’s been really special to work with the team and watch the way they’ve grown and to watch the sites take ownership of the program and the government really taking on responsibility.” She adds, “It’s neat to be able to let go and say we’ve put the basic building blocks in place for them, and now they can go on from here”. Helen Blakesley is CRS’ regional information officer for west and central Africa. She is based in Dakar, Senegal. This blog post first appeared on the CRS Voices Blog. Photo by Helen Blakesley/CRS |
A senior nurse at Bungwe Health Center, Cécile used to have to wait for a doctor to come to start people on antiretroviral therapy and conduct more complex medical evaluations—and those visits are only once a week. But now she can handle it by herself. She’s had the training courtesy of the Ministry of Health.The Energy Poverty Challenge: How to power the future we want
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ONE is inviting friends and supporters to give their perspective on the Energy Poverty Challenge and what is needed to solve it. In this piece, Reid Detchon, vice president for Energy and Climate at the United Nations Foundation and executive director of the Energy Future Coalition, discusses the link between sustainable development and clean energy and the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative.
One of the greatest barriers to success in tackling many longstanding global challenges is energy poverty. Access to affordable, reliable energy advances education, empowers women, and creates economic opportunity. Lighting alone can save the life of a woman in labor, make streets safer at night, and allow a child to study after dark. In short, development is not possible without energy, and sustainable energy is essential for sustainable development. But today, one in five people around the world lack access to electricity, and nearly 3 billion people rely on wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste for cooking and heating –- a major health threat that kills nearly 2 million people a year. In developed nations, which enjoy readily available energy resources, reliance on fossil fuels is putting billions of tons of carbon dioxide and pollution into the atmosphere each year. The way we think about and use energy must change. That’s why UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leading a global initiative, Sustainable Energy for All, to spur governments, businesses, and nonprofit groups to work toward three objectives for 2030: In June the international community will come together for the Rio+20 conference, marking the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit in 1992. This will be a pivotal moment to assess the how far the world has come and how far it needs to go to achieve sustainable development –- development that meets today’s needs without compromising the future for generations yet to come. New public-private partnerships are needed -– to invest in energy-efficient infrastructure that creates jobs, fosters economic growth, and improves energy security. They are needed to harness energy from renewable resources like wind, water, solar and biomass and reduce the risk of climate change. They are needed to create new business models that will make sustainable energy available to all. The old days of dirty energy must soon be over. Will you join us in hurrying the clean energy future? Do you have an opinion on how to solve the energy poverty challenge? If so, ONE wants to hear from you -– check out our Energy Poverty Challenge blog post to contribute to the discussion and find out more. Or, tweet your ideas to us using the hashtag #energy4all and #myenergyidea. |
Paving the road to a future free from hunger and poverty
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ONE Global Policy Director Ben Leo offers his analysis on this year’s G8 Summit in Camp David. The G8 Summit in Camp David last weekend marked the three year anniversary of the 2009 L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI). It also previewed the expiration of most of the financial pledges by the end of 2012. With one of the worst droughts in 60 years in the Horn of Africa — which ravaged the livelihoods of more than 13 million people in 2011 and another drought putting 12 million people at risk in the Sahel region of West Africa — I ask, is enough being done to address food insecurity and vulnerability to shocks for poor people in developing countries?
The G8 set a bold and much-welcomed goal of lifting 50 million people out of poverty over 10 years –- just as you asked. They plan to do this by crowding-in private sector investment through establishing cooperation agreements with interested African governments. The New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security will “increase responsible domestic and foreign private investments in African agriculture, take innovations that can enhance agricultural productivity to scale, and reduce the risk borne by vulnerable economies and communities.”
Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana will be the first, while Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Cote d’Ivoire are expected to follow shortly. Forty-five private multinational and national companies committed to spend $3 billion over three years. The G8 donors say they will put up another $3 billion to help facilitate private sector investment, but the timing, scale and individual commitments for G8 donors or private companies were not identified in the communique. Nor do we expect the forthcoming cooperation agreements to create a framework to monitor private sector investment. The G8 also committed to raise $1.2 billion over three years from new and existing donors to support the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP). The GAFSP embodies the Rome Principles, and only backs country-owned plans so this will help to fund at least some of the 30 country plans that are ready to go. The Camp David Accountability report shows that AFSI donors have committed 99 percent but disbursed just 58 percent of their $22 billion in pledges. According to the G8, they are on track to fully “commit” their financial pledges by the end of 2012 but no telling when all the funds will reach the ground. Four of 13 AFSI donors (Canada, Italy, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) have fully disbursed their pledges. The report also shows that G8 countries are aligning 90 percent or more of their programs with country-owned plans, yet 30 country investment plans remain just 50 percent funded. Overall, this year’s Camp David Accountability report is a huge step forward for G8 transparency. This improvement will tackle food security by providing in-depth tables of spending, descriptions of programs and a series of indicators to measure progress against the Rome Principles of country ownership, strategic coordination, and taking a comprehensive approach to both short-term and long-term solutions to food insecurity. Unfortunately, the G8 chose not to measure itself against the 5th Rome Principle of maintaining a sustained financial commitment to reducing global food insecurity. The G8 Communique is very soft on this point noting they will “continue to address current and future challenges,” but falling short of setting the $22 billion L’Aquila pledges as a baseline for spending. The G8 also came up short on funding country-owned plans. There are 30 plans, 22 of them in Africa, that are ready to go. They are tested, costed and affordable, but the G8 is only starting to work with three of them without a plan on how to scale-up. Seventeen of these countries also participate in the Scaling Up Nutrition movement aimed at building political will and momentum to tackle childhood undernutrition. However, the G8 failed to outline a target to reduce stunting –- irreversible damage to the brains and bodies of young children that limits their lifetime potential. A continued and sustained effort by ONE members and the international development community is required to 1) acquire the rest of the resources for country investment plans and proven nutrition solutions and 2) pressure the G8 to remain transparent and accountable to their promises. The G8 have started to pave the road to a future free from hunger and poverty, but it’s our job to make sure they stay on the right track. |
David Cameron: the world is watching
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Following the conclusion of this weekend’s G8 summit, world leaders have announced a bold new plan to break the cycle of hunger and poverty. While almost a billion people struggle to feed themselves around the world, tackling hunger is the most effective way to lift people out of poverty – growth in agriculture is twice as effective at reducing poverty compared to growth in other sectors. A plan to make famine and extreme hunger history is urgently needed. Over 300,000 ONE members signed a historic petition calling on the G8 for strong action against hunger. Messages from ONE members were painted on the roads leading to the summit, rock-stars and politicians made speeches calling for action; and the G8 leaders responded with pledges to back an action plan to provide poor people with the support they need to grow their way out of poverty. Although these promises are important, we need to maintain pressure on the G8. We need these leaders to know that all over the world, people are expecting them to keep their word and deliver on this global plan. As part of our ongoing campaign we’ve produced a tool to send tweets to UK Prime Minister David Cameron; as host of the next G8 summit he will be playing a vital role in bringing together world leaders to put the global plan for agriculture into practice.
As well as sending tweets to David Cameron, our tool tracks from where in the world they were sent from; demonstrating the global support for our call for action against hunger. We need you to add your voice, and let the British Prime Minister know that the world is watching. For anyone not on Twitter, we’ve also included other ways to contact David Cameron on the action page, so whatever your method of communication, please take action today. |
Vulture Funds: your voices delivered
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On Friday I went to Jersey to hand-in our petition to Cathy Keir in the Chief Minister’s Office, asking them to stop vulture funds using Jersey’s courts to prey on poor countries. Along with the Jubilee Debt Campaign we’ve been campaigning hard to see Jersey bring in the UK’s Vulture Funds law, and in a week’s time the Democratic Republic of Congo’s appeal to the Privy Council will be heard – with things hanging in the balance as to whether they’ll have to pay $100m to vulture fund FG Hemisphere.
After having much of their debt cancelled by the IMF and World Bank just last year, the impact that this will have on the DRC, and the people living in extreme poverty, is just unimaginable. The Chief Minister’s team confirmed that legislation is on the way, but there’s no way that it will now be in place in time to counter this case. We’ll be closely watching the outcome of the DRC’s appeal next Monday, and may have to call on you again to take action. Let’s hope this is a victory for right over wrong. Your voices have been heard by Jersey’s Chief Minister’s office. If you want to add your voice you can still sign the petition here. |
Bono addresses global leaders on hunger, agriculture and transparency at pre-G8 symposium
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Amid a flurry of public officials, business and NGO leaders and African heads of state at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs‘ Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, ONE had one of it’s own represented: our cofounder Bono. Bono just finished up a speech which covered everything from global agriculture to foreign aid to transparency in the mining industry. In the context of the day’s events, his remarks were a call to action to everyone in the room, urging us to work together to help lift 50 million people out of poverty. “The conversation has changed,” he said. “Aid is smarter. It’s finally dawning on most of us that the continent that contains the most poverty also contains the most wealth… Imagine a place bursting at the seams with gold, copper, oil… undeveloped arable land. Not to mention the human resources.” Bono praised President Obama’s new alliance to promote agricultural growth in Africa, which was announced earlier today. “If the words of his speech are turned into bold action in partnership with the developing world and the private sector, then today was a real moment,” he said. He did not shy away from acknowledging the harsh economic realities that many governments face today, bringing up the EU’s 0.7 percent ODA target, which is currently under threat. He also said that international development, like music, can be subject to the whims of fashion. “Hunger was boring, even unsexy, in some quarters,” he said. “But it’s not boring if you live in the Sahel right now.” It was an inspiring speech overall, but I think he summed it up best with this quote: “The moment we’re all working for is when we make aid history.” We couldn’t agree more.
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NEW VIDEO: Your G8 tweets on the street
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We’ve had an amazing response to our “Tweet at the G8″ action. Thousands of tweets were submitted to the ONE Street Tweeter on Twitter and through our online form. We culled through a ton of messages and painted them along routes to Camp David — where this weekend’s G8 meetings are being held — and in Washington DC near the White House. So watch a behind-the-scenes look at the ONE Street Tweet. And a huge thank you again to everyone who sent their messages to @ONEStreetTweet. 
Then, take a look at just the thousands of messages we’ve received on our ONE Street Tweet gallery.
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Lotukoi Peter’s message to the G8
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As world leaders meet in the United States for the annual G8 summit, Lotukoi Peter, a young man from Karamoja, Northern Uganda tells the youth-led development agency Restless Development about his message to the G8.
I was born in Lorukumo village and my parents took me to Lobuneit Primary school where I went until I was 11 and then dropped from school due to lack of school fees. I started idling around the community, taking alcohol from morning or involved in cattle raid planning and activities. I abandoned cattle raiding as now I know the importance of peace in the development of my community. I used to participate in When Restless Development volunteers started working in Kidepo parish, they mobilised young people into a group which I joined. I started learning about issues of sexual health, how to make a living and peace. I enjoyed the sessions and committed myself to the group in which I gained more knowledge in supporting my family and the community. Through the sessions delivered I learnt about vegetable gardening, I went ahead and established a commercial vegetable garden. The garden has helped me in getting household income, for example when one of my family members gets sick, I use part of the money saved from the sale of vegetables to provide treatment. Besides part of the savings from the sale of vegetables is use to buy more seeds for replanting and expansion of the garden. I learnt that the use of locally available resources like manure can help to improve vegetable growing because each time I grow the vegetable they do well when I have spread it to my garden therefore, it has become useful for me and has expanded the vegetable growing that has also enhanced me to go into commercial gardening. The biggest challenge [to start the business] was getting start up capital to run my business. Pests have been disturbing a lot by destroying my crops like cabbages, tomatoes, sukumawiki (spinach), cowpeas among others. Also the thieves uprooting my vegetables at night. What are your hopes for your business? Better incomes for these rural poor means that they will buy more from local producers and service providers, with important multiplier effects on the local rural economies and also for the benefit of the manufacturing and services sectors in the country people will be able to buy my produce if it expands. I hope to expand my business and also become an entrepreneur in the community. I now want to diversify my income by setting up another new project. I plan to expand my business to set up Turkey poultry because very many people from town do buy them expensively. My business will aim at making sure that my children do go to school, receive medical care and I also buy a car of my choice that I will be using for transporting my goods to the markets. What issue would you like world leaders to focus on that would have a direct impact on your life? Encouraging access to finance and business development services that will be instrumental in developing young farmers like me. The leaders should also focus on skills development related to the jobs that we doing in the community. This week eight of the most powerful leaders in the world are meeting for the G8 summit. What would your message to them be about what their priorities should be? The need to focus on young people’s engagement in Development processes in order to have improved livelihood. They should understand poverty dynamics and develop interventions that are conflict sensitive and can improve the lives of young people in Karamoja. One of the topics the leaders will be discussing is agriculture & farming and how to break the cycle of hunger and poverty. What do you think should leaders focus on in order to improve agriculture and tackle hunger in your country/community? Skill Development and provision of start capital to boost the agriculture. What would you like ONE members to know about your country/community? My Community is currently guarding peace existence among ethnic groups jealously to avoid setbacks through reporting and timely response to criminal acts by young people. With the current peace level in the region, we have begun producing peacefully, our run away children have began returning home and we also appreciate that they have come with new ways of living. Though the situation has improved, there are still cases of isolated cattle theft going on yet people today are hoping for sustainable livelihood. The statement is true because the Karimojong have a duty to choose to be alive, respect others and their property and to have peace as a state of perpetual love. I Seek peace if not I may join death. Living completely in the past is escaping realities. Restless Development is an agency that places young people at the forefront of change and development. It works in Africa and Asia to empower young people to take their lives into their own hand and trains, educates and inspires young people to be part of the solution. Find out more at www.restlessdevelopment.org |
Big win for agriculture: President Obama outlines new plan for global food security
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President Obama just gave a really important speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, which outlined a new alliance against global hunger and next steps to help improve food security around the world. We wanted him to put this issue on the agenda at the G8, and boy, did he do that in a bold way! Check out this great quote: “This weekend at the G-8 we’ll be representing many of the largest economies in the world. We face urgent challenges—creating jobs, addressing the situation in Europe, and sustaining the global economic recovery. But even as we deal with these issues, I felt it was important to also focus on the urgent challenge that confronts some one billion men, women and children around the world every day—the injustice of chronic hunger and the need for long-term food security.” The United States’ New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition will work closely with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, President John Atta-Mills of Ghana, and President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete with the help of African Union Chair Boni Yayi, President of Benin, to help solve the continent’s hunger crisis. These leaders have vowed to make food security a priority for their countries and beyond, and will specifically work to promote agricultural growth and raise 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years. The best part of the New Alliance is that it truly puts the power in the hands of African governments, allowing donor countries and the private sector to align their assistance with individual country plans. “There is no reason why Africa should not be feeding itself,” he said. President Obama said that as long as he is in power, the US will remain a global leader in development, with the fight against global hunger at the forefront. Here’s another great quote from his speech on that note: “As President, I consider this a moral imperative. As the wealthiest nation on earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition—and to partner with others. So we take pride in the fact that—because of smart investments in nutrition, agriculture and safety nets—millions of people in Kenya and Ethiopia did not need emergency aid in the recent drought. Still, when tens of thousands of children die from the agony of starvation, as in Somalia, that’s unacceptable. It’s an outrage.” Keep an eye on the ONE Blog for more analysis on his speech from our policy experts over the next few days. In the mean time, join us in thanking President Obama for putting global food security at the top of his G8 Summit agenda by sending him a thank you message via Tweet or Facebook Status:
Read more about President Obama’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition here. |
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About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. 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.
TAGS: Energy, NGO Partners