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Vulture fund update
We’ve been campaigning alongside the Jubilee Debt Campaign to see an end to vulture funds using Jersey’s courts to prey on poor countries for old debt. And last night Senator Ian Gorst, Jersey’s Chief Minister, announced plans to do so by introducing a law against vulture funds, as made permanent in the UK last year.
Over 26,000 of you in the UK signed our petition calling for this to happen. Very rarely are issues without grey areas, but companies just shouldn’t be able to behave in this way, and stop the poorest of countries getting back on their feet. And that’s what we’ve said as ONE to Jersey’s Chief Minister – and we’ve been heard.
In announcing these new plans, Senator Gorst said that:
“This demonstrates Jersey’s commitment to play its part in the global effort to support measures which assist the world’s most heavily indebted poor countries.”
We hope this means that the law will be introduced imminently, so countries like the DRC have a chance to stand up against these vultures. We may well still have more to do, and will keep you updated on Jersey’s promise, but for now, thank you for helping right this wrong.
Sabina’s story: The promise of a generation born free of HIV
Robert Yule, senior media relations manager of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, shares Sabina’s inspiring, true story of life with HIV/AIDS.
The past 30 years of the AIDS epidemic have seen their share of advances and setbacks in preventing and treating the disease. Ironically, one of the greatest successes is still one of the least known. Seventeen years ago, scientists discovered how to prevent almost all new HIV infections in infants and young children.
One happy family. Sabina and Patrick with their son, Betton. Photo credit: James Pursey/ Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
Throughout the past decade, international organizations, national governments, corporations and individual donors have joined together in a mission to eliminate pediatric AIDS worldwide. The results so far have been impressive –- prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV coverage for women in low- and middle-income countries has jumped from just 15 percent in 2005 to 53 percent in 2009. Still, that’s not nearly high enough to create a generation born free of HIV.
Organizations like the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) have been working in sub-Saharan Africa and other affected regions to bring that number up to 100 percent — and to bring the number of new HIV infections in children down to zero.
In Tanzania, for example, there were an estimated 86,000 pregnant women living with HIV in 2009. Reaching these women with lifesaving PMTCT services -– both to protect their own health and keep their children HIV-free –- is a top priority for EGPAF, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
EGPAF recently met one mother in northwestern Tanzania who shared her account of how she found out that she was HIV-positive, and then discovered that her children didn’t have to be:
Sabina at home with her son, Betton. Photo credit: James Pursey/ Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
Thanks to life-saving drugs, Sabina and her husband Patrick, both HIV-positive, are able to carry on a normal lifestyle. Photo credit: James Pursey/ Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
“My name is Sabina, and I am 35 years old. I live with my husband Patrick and our four children in Busangi Village, Kahama District, Tanzania.
I work as an embroiderer and make beautiful patterns on cloths. My family and I also depend on our family farm to make a living. We plant rice, maize and cotton.
I first learned I was HIV-positive in 2009, when I was five months pregnant with my son. I had visited a clinic for a regular prenatal check-up, where I was counseled and tested for HIV and malaria.
My results came out positive, and I felt the whole world crumble around me. I called my sister who works as a nurse in Mwanza. Fortunately, she helped me understand the diagnosis, and made me realize that having HIV didn’t mean that I was going to die.
But it was still difficult. I struggled with disclosing to my husband for more than a year. I hid my drugs in the maize flour so he wouldn’t find out I was HIV-positive.
When I finally gained the courage to tell him, he reacted differently than I imagined he would. He was supportive. He went to the hospital, got tested, and was also diagnosed HIV-positive.
Since learning our HIV status, my husband and I have lived happily together. I educated my husband about living positively with HIV, and we take our drugs together.
We also worked hard to ensure that our unborn baby would stay healthy, following all of the precautions for him to be born HIV-free.
Our baby boy, Betton Patrick, is now eight months old and HIV-negative. When we found out, we celebrated with our family.
We are grateful that we have not passed this virus to any of our children. It is the best gift we can ever give them.
I can’t believe how we have overcome the odds. I encourage all women to get tested for HIV early so they too can take the right steps to stay healthy and raise HIV-negative children.”
Fight the famine – feed the future
Joint blog by Jamie Drummond and Marieme Jamme:
ONE and Africa Gathering today co-hosted a meeting at ONE’s London offices to share information and discuss both short and long term solutions to the current crisis in the Horn of Africa.
Discussion focused on how to ensure there is a platform for African voices to be heard on this issue, including those from the Horn of Africa, and especially from Somalia, to advocate for solutions that will stick.
Often in the past the international community has not listened sufficiently, nor acted with a sophisticated understanding of cultural issues or the local situation. As a result opportunities for progress have been missed. We are determined to do our part to ensure these mistakes are not repeated.
Attending were a cross section of representatives from the African entrepreneurial community, international development community including Muslim Aid, Disasters Emergency Committee and other development groups, diaspora communities, artists and Somalian grassroots groups as well as members of the media.
Amongst many views expressed, we discussed the following action items, and many of the attendees agreed to act together to:
- Encourage the media to interview local experts and voices from the region about short and long term solutions.
- Campaign aggressively that the short term and long term financing gaps are met. ONE has launched a petition calling upon world African and world leaders to do just this.
- Short term: the short term financing gap for the famine and crisis appeal must be urgently met. So far a short term need of $2bn has been identified, about $1bn has been contributed, a further $269m has been pledged but not yet contributed, and a gap of $739m for which no pledges have yet been made by the international community. You can follow the latest in appeal pledges and contributions here
-Long term: the long term financing must also be found for sustainable solutions especially through often-promised investments into agriculture and food security in the Horn and indeed across Africa. African governments have promised to spend 10% of their budgets on agriculture through the Maputo Declaration – yet only 6 governments so far have met this promise. Similarly the international community promised many times, including at the L’Aquila G8, to fund long term agricultural development in the developing world especially sub-Saharan Africa. Yet so far donors have only met 22% of their promises according to a recent report on Agriculture Accountability by ONE. - Advocate for a political solution and roadmap for Somalia out of this entrenched crisis. It is appropriate that regional bodes like the OIC and others, for example the Qatari government, show leadership on this issue and work with Somalian civil society to come up with a lasting solution.
- Further encourage African leadership in civil society and the diaspora, both cultural, policy-making and private sector leaders, to step up and raise their voices more on this issue with practical actions in mind.
Attendees included:-
Saif Ahmed CEO MADE in Europe
Mark Tran Journalist Guardian
Hadeel Ibrahim Executive Director Mo Ibrahim foundation
Kingwa Kamencu President Oxford African Society
Kath Hindley Deputy Chief Executive DEC
Andy Shipley News Editor Plan UK
Mustakim Waid Public Relations Manager Somali Relief and Development Forum
Jonaed Afzal Emergency Response Manager Muslim Aid
Marieme Jamme Spontone Global Solutions Africa Gathering
Sol Guy Co-founder 4REAL Manager of K’naan
Bunmi Olurantaba African Blogger
Lilly Peel Features Editor Panos.org
Katheleen Bomani Africa Gathering
Belinda Otas African Blogger/Journalist
James Birch APPG on Agriculture
Tolu Ogunlesi African Blogger for 234NEXT
Dean Ricketts Watchmen Agency
Hussain Abdullah Frontline SMS
John Morris Journalist
Bernard Aryeetey Save the Children
Mark Galloway The International Broadcast Trust
Dawda Jobarteh Africa Progress Panel
Amber Rudd MP for Hastings
Molly Mattessich National Peace Corps Association
Nii Simmonds The DAIN Network
The silence after meningitis and the promise of a new vaccine
Our friends at PATH are on an amazing mission to bring a new meningitis vaccine to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Follow their stories on the ONE Blog as the journey unfolds.
Alidou Ouedraogo can’t remember when meningitis stole his hearing. He frowns slightly as he watches his teacher’s fingers spell out the question in sign language. He gently touches his head, to indicate he’s thinking. Then he signs, “When I was very small.”
It’s been at least 16 years since Alidou recovered from meningitis, but not without experiencing one of its most common side effects: hearing loss.
Age 19 now, he began school at the Integrated Education and Training Center of Deaf and Hearers in his hometown of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso when he was three.
The school, which is known by its French acronym, CEFISE, is directed by Théresè P. Kafando, who helped her late husband build the school from 19 students in 1988 to about 3,500 today.
From the start, CEFISE has accepted an exuberant mix of deaf and hearing children on the theory that they help each other learn. Today, about 450 of her students are deaf, Madame Kafondo says. At least 80 percent of those students, she estimates, are deaf because of meningitis.
At the CEFISE school, 80 percent of deaf students have had meningitis.In a bright yellow dress and chartreuse sling-backs, Madame Kafondo hurries across the school’s dirt courtyard, dispensing correction or affection to students, depending on need.
On the third day of a countrywide vaccination campaign, the five-year-olds are lined up and ready to receive MenAfriVac™, a new vaccine that holds promise to eliminate the strain of meningitis that causes epidemics in African countries like Burkina Faso.
If a similar vaccine had been available close to 20 years ago, would Alidou’s world be different now? It’s a question he sees no sense in pondering, choosing instead to look ahead. He is interested in electricity and how it works. He would like to go to the university. He doesn’t know which career he’ll choose.
“Right now I can’t tell you,” he signs. “There are many, many things I can do.”
-Kathleen Donnelly, senior publications associate, PATH
Photos courtesy of PATH/Gabe Bienczycki
Coming next week: meningitis protection for Africa
Our friends at PATH are on an amazing mission to bring a new meningitis vaccine to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Follow their stories on the ONE Blog as the journey unfolds.
On Monday morning, I’ll wake up in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and join the crowds of people moving toward the Place de la Nation in the center of town. As the sun rises high and hot in the West African sky, we’ll stand together in the rose-colored dust of the plaza and watch musicians and dancers perform. A few dignitaries, including the nation’s president and the head of the World Health Organization, will speak. Then, the children and young adults of Ouagadougou will form a line, bare their shoulders and receive a dose of a vaccine with the potential to end epidemic meningitis in Africa.
The first mass vaccination campaigns with MenAfriVac™ will have begun. By early next year, some 20 million people throughout Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger will have received the vaccine, and will be protected from a disease that has killed or disabled hundreds of thousands in their homelands.
Passionate about the fight against extreme poverty? Apply to the Faiths Act Fellowship
Here’s a great opportunity from our friends at Faiths Act, a collaboration between the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Interfaith Youth Core. Faiths Act is a global movement of people of different faiths taking action together against preventable disease and extreme poverty and the program is currently accepting applications for their 2011-2012 fellowship.
The fellowship is a one-year paid program that brings together exceptional future leaders inspired by faith to serve as ambassadors for the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and is open to people in the UK, US, India and Canada between the ages of 20 and 27. Faiths Act Fellows work in local NGOs to mobilize communities to take part in MDG-focused, multi-faith action.
Here’s a video to help explain a little more about the fellowship:
If you’re wondering what your odds are at winning the fellowship, here’s a tip: there are 30 spots available. And we’d LOVE it if a few of our members landed the fellowship. So, apply today or share it with your friends. Good luck!
Securing sustainable development outcomes through good governance and transparency
Dr. Sipho Moyo, ONE’s Africa director, wrote this blog post for Transparency International (TI) to help illustrate how public sector corruption makes an impact on development. To view the original post, go to TI’s blog.
At ONE we are enhancing our aid advocacy work by highlighting attention on issues of good governance and transparency as being key elements to achieving sustainable development outcomes, including better service delivery across sectors like health, education, and better management of natural resource revenues, as well as more efficient investment in infrastructure for growth – energy, water, roads etc.
Our take at ONE is that transparency is a cornerstone of good governance as it allows citizens everywhere to hold institutions and governments accountable for their policies and performance, and thus fosters trust and helps to minimize corruption. That is why we support the emerging global governance initiatives which seek to partner with donor agencies, civil society, and governments for better development outcomes – such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) and the Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) initiative.
In further acknowledging transparency and governance as global concerns we at ONE are proud to have been part of the advocacy coalition behind the success of the critical Lugar-Cardin oil revenue transparency amendment tucked into the recent US Financial reform legislation. This requires extractive companies listed on the US stock exchange to disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission all payments made to foreign governments of the countries in which they operate. This increased transparency will help to reverse the “resource curse”, which has become shorthand for the corruption, conflict and poverty that is too often associated with natural resource-rich countries. Shining light on the payments made by multinational companies will empower African civil society to hold their governments to account for revenue received – an important step in ensuring resources benefit all citizens, not just corrupt elites. We are now rolling this campaign out in the UK and Europe, which will force companies trading in those countries to be more transparent and thus have a direct, positive impact on economic growth.
The 2010 Ibrahim Index, Africa’s leading governance assessment, reveals a mixed picture about recent progress across the continent. While many Africans are healthier and have greater access to economic opportunities than five years ago, many are less physically secure and more politically disenfranchised. The index highlights both the areas of progress and the setbacks in governance, and points to the need to pay attention to the rights and safety of citizens if Africa must continue to make progress along a sustainable growth and poverty reduction path.
As we heighten emphasis on results we also believe that increased assistance should be given to core public sector institutions in developing countries for improving their capacity, efficiency, transparency, and accountability in key functions like budget formulation, implementation, oversight and procurement management. This will result in higher quality service delivery particularly as the role of parliaments, judiciary, audit agencies, civil society and media becomes more important.
Ultimately better governance helps fight poverty, improves living standards and raises development outcomes. With improved governance, infant and maternal mortality will decline significantly as resources allocated to health service delivery are fully deployed as intended. The same is true for improving education and boosting GDP. Furthermore, good governance has been found to significantly enhance aid effectiveness. Transparency lies at the heart of much of this, and will continue to be a core principle for ONE’s advocacy work across the world.
John Githongo on the impact of technology
John Githongo, anti-corruption activist and chair of the organizations Zinduko and Twaweza in Kenya, popped in to the ONE office in London recently and took some time out to talk to us.
Twaweza (which means “we can make it happen” in Swahili) is a 10 year initiative that was launched last year. It seeks to enable people in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to improve their quality of life by getting them to become more informed and motivated, and thereby holding their governments accountable.
Digital technology and mobile communications will play an important role. In this short clip John talks about mobile phones and their growing presence and significance across the continent. According to a BBC report, Africa has the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world, with 4 in 10 people now having a mobile phone. In Kenya there are over 15 million handsets in use whereas that number used to be more like 15,000 a decade ago. As well as personal communication, mobile phones are fast becoming vital for distributing news, and are a valuable tool to help citizens become powerful agents of sustainable change.
Watch the video:
Today is HIV Vaccine Awareness Day!
Did you know – despite everything we’ve learned about HIV, the number of new infections each year is close to what it was in the mid-1990s: the total figure today is 2.7 million? Antiretroviral treatment (ART) helps keep HIV at low levels within the body, but ART can have side effects and must be taken every day for a lifetime. What’s more, access to life-saving treatment can be an issue for people living with HIV in developing countries. Thanks to programs like the Global Fund and PEPFAR, treatment is increasingly available, but it still only reaches a third of people who need it to survive.
We must continue to extend current prevention, care and treatment options to as many people as possible to mitigate AIDS here and now, but we must also invest in the future to bring the epidemic to an end. Continued investment in prevention research, to include new tools like vaccines, microbicides and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), will produce net savings in the long term – and save lives.
In fact, only vaccines have historically ended major viral epidemics. They are proven to be cost-effective and practical. There will be an AIDS vaccine in our lifetime, and we must continue the search.
So today, on HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, I urge you to become informed about AIDS vaccine research. We all have a role to play whether it is as advocates, volunteers, health professionals or researchers.
- Checkout NIAID’s information hub around HIV Vaccine Awareness Day
- The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has a new website, which features an interview with Dr Anthony S. Fauci (Director, NIAID)
- Global Health TV recently posted four interviews with leading AIDS advocates about their commitment to finding an AIDS vaccine
- IAVI President & CEO, Seth Berkley, recently gave a talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) as part of their Global Health Policy Center’s speaker series
For those of you reading this blog who are already involved – today (and every day) is an opportunity to say thank you!
-Nicole Schiegg, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative–Washington, D.C.
Defeating a Global Killer
Diarrheal disease is a leading killer of children under age five worldwide, responsible for the deaths of nearly 1.6 million children annually.
Are you surprised? If so, I understand why. Diarrhea is a hard thing to talk about and most of us aren’t dying from it. At best it is the subject of unfortunate jokes and at worst usually an infrequent symptom of a passing stomach virus. But there are children in the U.S. who still die from it and there are far more avoidable deaths from diarrhea around the world.
In fact, diarrheal disease is commonplace in Africa and Asia, as Nicolas Kristof and student contest winner Paul Bowers note in their recent Facebook and NYT blog posts. But it doesn’t have to be commonplace. The global health community knows what is necessary to prevent and treat diarrheal disease – there just isn’t adequate attention and funding to bring this knowledge and the tools to those who need it most.
Yesterday, PATH along with over 80 supporting organizations announced a call to action to encourage our peers in the health, development, environmental, water/sanitation, and research communities to push for adequate funding of the proven interventions that prevent and treat diarrheal disease.
This call to action comes on the heels of the releases of Diarrheal Disease: Solutions to Defeat a Global Killer from PATH and Fatal Neglect: How Health Systems are Failing to Comprehensively Address Child Mortality from WaterAid America which both highlight the urgent need to refocus attention on diarrheal disease. You can be part of the call to action too. Please take a few minutes to check these reports out at www.path.org and www.wateraidamerica.org.
-Dr. John Wecker, Immunization Solutions Program and Rotavirus Vaccine Program, PATH
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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: Debt, Debt Cancellation, NGO Partners