International
Agriculture
Bob Geldof: G8 leaders still capable of ending poverty
This week Bob Geldof returned to Ethiopia to highlight various issues in the country including food security, in the run up to the G8 Summit due to take place at Camp David this weekend.
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
ONE Canada – Meet up in Ottawa
When Ben Leo, Director of Global Policy and Sara Messer, Policy Manager from ONE in Washington DC recently traveled to Ottawa, it seemed like a great chance to have a meet up with some of our ONE members in the Ottawa area. The event drew about 25 local members, many of whom were also members of our partner organization Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB). Ben Leo shared about the exciting campaigns ONE is currently running – The Beginning of the End of AIDS and THRIVE including the 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.
From left to right, Mark Entwhistle, Sara Messer, Peter Braid, MP for Kitchener-Waterloo, Sarah Stone, Ben Leo
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 as well as to 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
Honouring the commitment to put an end to food insecurity
This piece is part of a series of blogs by leading NGOs to call attention to a range of issues that should be raised at the G8 summit at Camp David in rural Maryland from May 18 to 19. This was originally published on Huffington Post Impact.
If you took the current population of the United States and quadrupled it, you would almost have the number of people living in extreme poverty in the world today. A whopping 20 percent of the world’s population — 1.4 billion people — lives on less than $1.25 a day. Over two-thirds of these extremely poor people do not have enough food to eat, and going to bed hungry is an everyday occurrence.
Dadaab.
Food security, hunger and poverty are some of the most overwhelming problems facing the world today. It is undeniable that the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty will not be easily broken, especially since it has been exacerbated in recent years due to external shocks like the global food and economic crisis. Countless parents are unable to feed their families enough nutritious food, leaving children hungry and malnourished. Over a billion people will go to sleep hungry tonight.
But don’t despair. Despite these hurdles, we can break this cycle for good, and the G8 must take the necessary steps to put an end to food insecurity once and for all. As the G8 countries prepare to convene at Camp David, agriculture in the developing world is expected to be a big focus. ONE and our 3 million members worldwide are jumping on this opportunity to ask the G8 leaders to remember their L’Aquila commitments and to invest in 30 country-owned plans that can ensure that 50 million people escape poverty through agriculture and 15 million children no longer suffer from chronic malnutrition.
At the 2009 L’Aquila G8 Summit, the G8 countries and five other donors responded to the global food crisis and pledged $22 billion in support of agriculture and food security initiatives. The donors promised to deliver the funds within three years, to agree on a set of principles as to how they would spend the money, and remain transparent and accountable on their commitment.
Despite the initial enthusiasm and diligence, however, the major donors failed to agree to consistent pledge years or a uniform system for measuring progress for the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI). As of July 2011, donors had disbursed a mere 22 percent of their $22 billion pledges, and in most cases, donors had not taken the Rome Principles to heart. Only 7 of the 40+ L’Aquila Initiative signatories have made pledges to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, GAFSP, the multilateral fund that best embodies the Rome Principles.
Just as important as the dollars and cents of the donor’s pledges is how the donors promised to spend those funds, as significant budget constraints in many countries make maximizing the impact of every aid dollar absolutely essential.
The Rome Principles call on all donors to design development plans based on the needs of each developing country and to guarantee that all actors are cooperating to achieve sustainable outcomes. The Rome Principle of country ownership calls for investing in country-owned plans, aimed at channeling resources to well-designed and results-based programs and partnerships. Country ownership is of particular importance to us now, and the United States has started to take country ownership seriously as part of its Feed the Future initiative. Unfortunately, most other donors lag behind in developing investment plans that are country-led.
With this lapse in mind, ONE has launched Thrive — an ambitious new campaign that calls on each of us to play our part in tackling the root causes of hunger and extreme poverty. You can learn more about the campaign and find out how to get involved at www.one.org.
Our recent research has shown that if donors, national governments, and the private sector funded the country agriculture plans of the 30 poor countries that have taken the time to determine what their farmers need to thrive, we could lift 50 million people out of poverty with those 30 plans alone. If we complemented those agriculture plans with nutrition interventions in countries that have demonstrated commitment to nutrition, 15 million fewer young children will suffer from stunting or irreversible developmental damage to their minds, organs and bodies
As food prices rise yet again, the barriers to achieving food security and poverty reduction remain more daunting than ever. Supporting country-led initiatives is one of the most proven ways to achieve sustainable development and progress against food insecurity, and I encourage the G8 leaders to remember this as they head to Camp David later this month.
Read more G8 news and blogs on HuffPost’s G8 big news page.
Taking it to the street
One of the biggest creative challenges we face is finding ways to adequately express the spirit and strength of our amazing membership — And more than this, to maximize the impact of member voices to push for the positive changes we are all seeking to achieve. Combine this scenario with a message-saturated G8 Summit and you’ll understand why we’ve had to find something extraordinary to do next week… Ahem, cue Tweet the Street…
We have been hard at work with some tech wizards to create the ONE Street Tweeter – a clever robot that can print short tweets, tweetetes if you will, (40 characters or less) on road surfaces. Yes – we want to take your messages on the road. Better still, if we print your message we’ll even send a pic of it back to you to share it with your friends.
So, what are you waiting for? You guys are more creative than any of those Mad Men types. Just tweet a message in your own words (no more than 40 characters including spaces) to encourage, rouse, and hustle the G8 to act now on hunger and poverty.
Tweet your message to @ONEStreetTweet or if you don’t do that sort of thing then you can type your message into the box below.
Let’s hit the road and get heard.
The simplest way to find out what the world’s poorest want is to ask them
The UN has announced that Prime Minister David Cameron, President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will co-chair a UN High Level Panel to advise the United Nations on global development beyond 2015 – the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were set in 2000 to significantly reduce global poverty and disease.
These leaders have an important job to do – they will need to help ensure that the existing MDGs are met as far as possible – a important job we must all stay focused on – and then set the agenda for what happens next.
Responding to the announcement, Michael Elliott, President and CEO of ONE, said:
“We congratulate the three leaders who have been chosen to lead the High Level Panel, all of whom are well qualified for the task ahead.
“We want to see the panel members adopt two important principles. First, to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are met as far as possible by 2015. It would be a travesty to set out new goals before we have done everything possible to reach the ones now in place. Second, to guarantee that the voices of the poorest are heard and acted upon in deciding what comes next. The simplest way to find out what the world’s poor want and need is to ask them, and the panel’s first item of business should be to undertake a genuine process of wide-ranging consultation to that end.
“Meanwhile, we should remember that we still have 1330 days to go before the end of 2015. During that time, governments and civil society must make a determined final push to halve global poverty and disease. Over the next three years, that will remain a primary focus of ONE and our 3 million supporters around the globe.”
Adrian Lovett, Europe Executive Director of ONE, added:
“This appointment is a recognition of David Cameron’s strong record on international development. He has demonstrated his commitment to the fight against extreme poverty and has backed his words with action.
“The Prime Minister must now take on the responsibility of global leadership. He has the chance to help set the world on a credible path towards ending extreme poverty and hunger. But to succeed, he will need to make this is a top priority in his negotiations with other leaders, in his UN role and as chair of next year’s G8.”
You can find out more about the MDGs here.
The jury is still out, but all eyes are on the G8
This blog originally appeared on Business Fights Poverty an online community for business and development.
The Camp David G8 Summit is fast approaching. Organizations like ONEhave been working tirelessly to influence the G8’s thinking on food and nutrition security. We’ve asked the G8 to not only deliver on their past commitments, but more importantly, agree to do more.
At ONE, we’ve also asked our 3 million members worldwide to plant a seed of change in the heads of the G8. This “seed of change” calls on the G8 – along with African governments and the private sector – to fully finance 30 agriculture and food security country investment plans and proven nutrition solutions to lift 50 million people out of poverty and save 15 million children from stunting within the next 10 years. Our new Thrive campaign report “Food. Farming. Future.” spells out the details.
How are the G8 responding? Well, it’s a little tough to say. No formal proposals have been shared publicly, but this is what we’ve been hearing about the anticipated US G8 Proposal:
- The private sector is the missing link to agricultural-led growth and food security and the G8 will focus its efforts on leveraging private sector investment in Africa to lift 50 million people out of poverty over 10 years
- To start, the G8 will pilot a number of investments – from risk management to scaling technology and innovation in the farming sector – in 6 “vanguard” countries: Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania
- The G8 will continue to prioritize country-ownership and align investments behind country-investment plans and target smallholder farmers, especially women small-holder farmers
As you can imagine, this is not a lot of detail for a global initiative that is so critical for breaking the cycle of poverty and malnutrition. Naturally, it raises a lot of questions:
- Will the G8 offer up new financing to back this initiative? Surely it cannot succeed, nor these goals realized, without sustained donor support.
- 6 countries is hardly global, will they reach the level of ambition needed to lift 50 million people out of poverty? And what does this signal to the remaining 25 countries (Cote d’Ivoire doesn’t have an investment plan) about the efforts they’ve taken so far to become investment-ready?
- How will the G8 ensure that the private sector aligns behind country plans? Or agree to target smallholders and women as their customers and beneficiaries?
- Which private sector are they referring to? Will the initiative help to build small and medium sized enterprises in Africa – a necessary requirement for building sustainable agriculture sectors – in addition to looking for outside investment?
- Where is nutrition in all of this? The consequences of neglecting childhood nutrition are devastating and debilitating for families, communities and countries.
- And what lies ahead for accountability? The current annual G8 Accountability reports are lacklustre. Greater transparency and consistent and standard reporting requirements are a must.
With less than 3 weeks to go, the G8 must demonstrate how it will align its endeavors behind country owned plans – this is needed to achieve greater impact, and to boost confidence in African leaders and prospective African investors – from outside and within. Africa is ready to do business and has enormous untapped potential to be a greater contributor to the global economy, but donor aid is the cornerstone to reducing investment risk – especially for reaching disparate and poor producers – and cannot be downplayed or dismissed, even under challenging financial circumstances.
Emily Alpert is ONE’s senior agriculture policy manager.
Quiz: Show me how you THRIVE!
OK, so it’s been about two weeks now since we launched Thrive, our campaign for global food security, which means you’ve had more than enough time to read the Thrive report and know it inside and out. Now’s the time to test your knowledge of global hunger and nutrition. Take this short quiz to find out:
(Hint: You can find all the answers in the Thrive report here.)
Question #1: How many children suffer from malnutrition?
a) 171
b) 178
c) nearly 1 billion
d) too many to count
Question #2: Why invest in agriculture?
a) it helps poor people raise their incomes
b) it helps families feed themselves year round
c) it can help grow rural economies
d) all of the above
Question #3: How many people live in extreme poverty?
a) Nearly 1 billion people
b) 1.4 billion people
c) 178 million people
d) None of the above
Question #4: what are the risks of failing to prevent malnutrition?
a) Children’s minds and bodies are stunted
b) People’s income-earning potential throughout their life is curtailed
c) A countries’ wealth can decline annually
d) All of the above
Question #5: Which of the following countries do not participate in the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement?
a) Malawi
b) Kenya
c) Mozambique
d) Ghana
Question #6: How many countries have investment plans that are ready to go?
a) 30
b) 50
c) 15
d) 25
Question #7: What should the G8 do at the Camp David Summit in May to fight poverty and malnutrition?
a) Fully fund ready to go agriculture country investment plans
b) Fund proven nutrition solutions in SUN countries
c) Support small-holder farmers, women, market access and sustainable farming
d) All of the above
Question #8: What should African governments do?
a) Wait for donor support alone to solve the problem
b) Hope the private sector will meet all their needs
c) Take greater leadership
d) Agree to a new compact on food security and nutrition
Question #9: How many children can be saved from stunting and people lifted out of poverty?
a) 18 million and 100 million
b) 178 million and 50 million
c) 15 million and 50 million
d) 100 million and 15 million
Question #10: Does the private sector have a role to play?
a) Yes, the private sector is fundamental to efforts to drive growth
b) No, the private sector doesn’t usually have much to do with farming
c) Yes, the private sector are needed to help build roads, storage and transport
d) A and C
Thanks for taking the Thrive Quiz! Now sign the petition to see how you did! Just kidding — here are the answers: 1. a, 2. d, 3. b, 4. d, 5. b, 6. a, 7. d, 8. c, 9. c, 10. d.
Bonus point: Tell us your score in the comments below, and we’ll choose one of you at random to win a Thrive cooking and gardening apron next Thursday, April 26.
Dear G8… join a massive twitter action to call for action on poverty
In four weeks time, the G8 leaders will meet Camp David in the United States to discuss a variety of issues, including agriculture in the developing world. We need to make our voices heard at this vital time – with your help we can put poverty issues on the table at this G8.
Starting on Thursday, 18th April to the 30th, ONE and a group of charities and NGOs are using Twitter to ask their members to tweet their leaders to tell them to keep poverty issues on the agenda at this G8. The issues range from hunger, disease, vaccines and economic growth. For the next 11 days, we need you to help push out these messages to your Twitter streams and get your friends and followers involved.
You can join this Twitter action in two easy steps:
1. Log in to Twitter and send these messages. Ask your friends and family to RT. (Click any of the links below to automatically tweet).
2. Watch your Twitter stream for tweets using either #G8 or #DearG8 in their tweets and then re-tweet them to your audiences. And don’t forget to check out their links and take their actions, too.
And don’t forget that you can use your other networks as well to support the #DearG8 tweets. Ask your Facebook friends or LinkedIn contacts to use their Twitter accounts and join in as well. Tell them that there is a way to break out of the cycles of reducing poverty and child malnutrition. So get started with these steps and put your 140 characters on Twitter to good use. Together we can make a difference.
Vote for a better acronym, ASAP
Here in the fight against global poverty the acronyms often seem endless. There’s the LDCs and MDCs, HIPCs and LLDCs, which we like to talk about in terms of GDP, ODI and latterly HPI (or if you live in Bhutan GDH). We campaign for MDGs at the G7, G8, G20, UN and EU, and then there’s the WTO and IMF and in the UK DfID (who like to buck the trend with a lower-case ‘f’). Sometimes it’s helpful to have a dictionary to hand when you work for an NGO.
But, often hiding behind these confusing mouthfuls of letters are vital initiatives which can help to make a real difference to people in poor countries.
Today, we need your help fixing one of these mouthfuls. GAFSP. The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program. It has a powerful mission, but a pretty clunky name. In fact, most people have never heard of GAFSP, as you’ll see in this video:
GAFSP works by asking countries (like Ethiopia and Liberia) to devise their own agriculture plans – things like building irrigation canals, farmer training programs, whatever they think will work and is appropriate. Then, national governments and donors from around the world (US, Canada, Spain) provide funding to help put these plans into action.
We asked ONE members for suggestions for a new name and have narrowed it down to the entries below. Have a look and then vote for your favourite here. We’ll send the top three to G8 officials and hope that one of them gets picked.
PLANT
Powering Local Agriculture Needs TodaySAGE
Sustainable Agriculture for Global EnterpriseFood Security Initiative (FSI)
F3
Financing for Food and FarmingAgAid
Food for the Future
MIDAS
Multilateral Initiative for Development of Agricultural Sustainability – everything it touches turns to gold!
Vote for your favorite name on Facebook, and then we’ll deliver the top three to GAFSP on April 17.
Thriving around the world
On Tuesday, ONE launched Thrive, our biggest and most ambitious campaign yet. And our teams in Berlin, Paris, London and Washington DC held stunts at iconic landmarks to get the campaign off to a great start.
First came Berlin with our new group of Youth Messengers, sowing seeds in their Thrive gardening aprons in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
They were soon followed by Paris, where a group of activists planted seeds in pots with the faces on of the 10 Presidential candidates! Who will flourish in this new campaign to break the cycle of hunger and poverty, by tackling the root causes?
Then in London, a tractor was driven to Marble Arch, where Thrive was also spelt out with vegetables. ONE members sowed their seeds of change to take away and watch grow as our campaign progresses.
A few hours later, activists in Washington DC handed in sweet potato and hibiscus seedlings to the White House to mark the launch of Thrive.
This campaign is taking off throughout the world, and you can be a part of it too right now by signing the petition calling on leaders to help 15 million children avoid malnutrition, and see 50 million people lifted out of poverty.
Thanks to all of our members who joined us at these launch events, together as ONE, throughout the world. Let’s thrive.
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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: Africa, Agriculture, Aid, Bob Geldof, Food security, G8, Thrive