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Music legend Hugh Masekela joins our Hungry No More campaign
This blog post was first published on the ONE Africa Blog
As our Hungry No More campaign continues, famed musician and trumpeter Hugh Masekela joins us in calling on African leaders to focus investments in their agricultural sectors, which will contribute to growing their economies and reducing extreme poverty.
Hugh Masekela
Hugh’s support couldn’t come at a better time as the African Union Summit begins this week with our Heads of State in Addis Ababa. Now’s the perfect opportunity to continue our campaign and press our leaders to take action. We’ll be presenting your petition and signatures at the AU later this week!
Here’s what Hugh has to say:
Growing up as a musician in South Africa I witnessed first hand the man-made obscenity that was apartheid and used music to protest against injustice.
Apartheid is now consigned to the history books, but another obscenity still exists on our continent. A famine in Somalia that has killed 30,000 children in 3 months.
Yet the current crisis is a man-made disaster that could have been avoided.
As our leaders prepare to meet next week in Ethiopia to attend a critical summit, please join me in signing ONE’s petition:
The petition reads:
Dear African Leaders,
We are haunted by the famine in Somalia that has killed 30,000 children in 3 months. We respectfully request that you help make this the last famine by: 1) supporting delivery of promised emergency aid; 2) increasing effort on peace and security; 3) keeping the long-term promise toward spending 10% of national budgets on agriculture and food security; and 4) doing so transparently, so citizens can ensure this money is well spent.With access to suitable seeds, technologies, and improved connections to markets, small-holder farmers can generate more income, send their children to school, help to keep food prices affordable and help lift their communities out of poverty.
When they meet next week our governments must show real leadership and ensure this is the last famine in Africa.
Please take action now.
Thank you for your support,
Hugh Masekela
Musician and ONE member
Africa Post The 2010 Football World Cup
As we approach the first anniversary since Africa joined the ranks of countries and continents to have hosted football’s most coveted sporting extravaganza – the FIFA World Cup, I would like to believe I am not alone in insisting that Africa and South Africa still have work to do to ensuring the real legacy of the tournament is experienced by future generations.
I am among those who will always look back with pride at having played a role in the delivery of the infrastructure ahead of and during the World Cup. The global branding and signage company ICON DISPLAY, whose South Africa operation I lead, was awarded the task of ensuring fans and visitors could easily navigate their way around the host cities, stadia and event sites with ease. Like others, we had to meet a specific deadline delivering the job to perfection. Collectively, the opportunity presented to big and small business, the local Government and African people by the 2010 FIFA World Cup is one we might never see again in our lifetime. As such, it begs the question how have we, and will we, leverage the massive investment by our Government into the development of stadia, transport, telecommunications, hosting, legacy, culture and much more.
Without question, our collective successes in 2010 set the tone for a new look at what is possible in Africa. But this must result in important commitments on the how value created during the World Cup can continue to be captured and circulated for generations to come. It also highlights further opportunities for Africa and South Africa to respond and trade itself out of poverty.
It is ultimately about strategically leveraging Africa’s competitive edge not only as a direct result of these trends, but also by unlocking opportunities for innovation in 21st century Africa. It is about identifying new ways of using our own natural resources such as gold, coal, cocoa and solar energy. Gold for instance can be used to drive wealth preservation by developing micro-finance schemes, a method already piloted in China and India by the World Gold Council.
Finally, Africa’s business leaders, political leaders and civil society alike, having successfully hosted the World Cup have no choice but to urgently prioritize ways to leverage the investments made in 2010. It is critical that we sustain the momentum drawing on ideas like ‘shared value’ espoused by E. Porter and R. Kramer, with policies and operating practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates. Africa has the opportunity to lead the world in demonstrating and resetting the boundaries of capitalism. It can continue to showcase success, leveraging the success of the World Cup, by focusing its resources toward unearthing unique ways to serve its needs, regain credibility, efficiency, create differentiation and expand markets – and ultimately addressing fundamental issues of our eroded and distorted value system.
In Conclusion let’s respond to the call of others including US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on her visit in 2009 that ‘Africa to trade with itself out of poverty’.
This piece was first published on the ONE Africa Blog
The young catalysts in Africa’s economic transformation
Last year I turned 36, and a friend sent me an SMS to wish me a happy birthday and inform me that I was officially no longer considered a “youth”. In my new role as an “elder”, I can now take the time to ponder the role of young people, whose growth I have invested much of my life to, especially in regards to determining the future of Africa.
This afternoon, as part of a selection process for a high school scholarship programme, I had a flash-forward experience where I met the future president of South Africa – She is 12. I know who she is because she told me. The young lady gave a clear synopsis on the state of the nation, and what she would like to do. When challenged on some of her views she replied, “I don’t have all the answers yet, but this nation is not excellent, and when I am president I will solve the challenges.” A friend once told me that when someone tells you who they are, you should believe them – she’s onto something.
As I continuously work with 12–30 year olds, I am struck by the commonalities that they have as a generation. They are fearless, audacious, moralistic, courageous, and have a clear understanding of the shift that has taken place in the world. We, the non-youth, have an awareness of it, and yet they live it. They are a generation with an absolute belief in themselves, both as members of their community and as individuals. The youth of today are unconventional and are not afraid to show “the man” the middle finger. They have personalized the future, and have a clear understanding of what they can do and what they will dare. They are prepared to search the horizons for new solutions simply because they can, and they are not afraid of the answers – unconventional (for us!) as they may seem.
Today’s youth speak the same language as their peers and are largely on the same page. They understand their differences and similarities, and they are hungry for change. They were born into a world with HIV/AIDS, increased natural disasters and environmental degradation, unstable food security, and the golden arches. They have watched the leaders of the day make decisions, and our responses to them. They are not afraid to hold us accountable, and they have begun to do so. They are not afraid to “be the change they want to see” − the movement has begun.
They have mapped their own path, they know the direction – ours is to support them and follow. The child has become the parent; it’s a new world order. Their role is to maintain focus and direction, and ours is to invest in them with useful education, and preserve their courage and ability to believe in themselves.
When I met the “president”, she and her peers had several things in common: they understood the need for self-preservation, loyalty and need to protect others, even those that have hurt them. They could not connect to failure – they each had varied appetites for risk. What was apparent was that each one had a clear vision and was prepared to attempt it. In the words of Seneca, “It is not because we dare that things are difficult, it is that we do not dare that they are difficult.”
The youth of this continent are like a well-thought through pension fund portfolio – if we make the right investment, in protecting the capital, it will pay off in the coming years.
This piece was first published on the ONE Africa Blog
Meet the faces behind the investments
In the development community, we tend to message in the abstract: Africa. Poverty. Transparency. Mortality. Growth. These words make for snappy elevator pitches and clever tweets, but they can also numb us to the reality and difficulty of what we do, and we can too easily lose sight of the unique people and programs for whom development efforts are intended.
I feel so lucky to travel around sub-Saharan Africa with ONE, because I get to come face-to-face with the people who are recipients, distributors and designers of development programs. I flew to Johannesburg, South Africa, last Tuesday, and my time here so far has yet again allowed me to meet up with some really impressive people who have devoted parts (or all) of their lives to making their country a more healthy, stable and just place.
Take Sister Suzan, the head of the antenatal clinic at Chris Hani Baragwanath “Bara” Hospital on the outskirts of the Soweto slum. She’s worked at Bara for 35 years — through apartheid, through the emergence of the HIV pandemic, through the previous government’s refusal to allow antiretroviral treatment for AIDS, and (most notably of late) through major progress.
When AIDS first hit Soweto, mothers who were pregnant couldn’t get drugs to prevent the spread of HIV to their babies or to protect themselves. In the early 2000s, a single dose of treatment (nevirapine) was available for the babies, but mothers struggled to access treatment early enough to stay healthy, and as many as 50% of babies were still born HIV-positive. Now, all mothers who come to Bara can receive treatment and counseling services from Sister Suzan and her staff, and rates of mother-to-child transmission of HIV have been reduced to less than 5% across Soweto.
Grassroot Soccer staff members
Or, take the staff of Grassroot Soccer (GRS), a motley and energetic crew of both South Africans and Americans on year-long internships. GRS taps into the energy of thousands of children ages 10 to 19 who aspire to be star athletes and teaches them the life skills they’ll need to prevent the spread of HIV and to feel empowered along the way. When we weren’t kicking around soccer balls on the field, we heard impressive testimonies from the staff members — many of who became emotional when describing their commitment to the work they did on a daily basis, often having seen the devastating impact of HIV in their communities and families firsthand.
There are not enough blog posts to profile all of the Sister Suzans here. In less than a week, we’ve met up with health experts, brave AIDS activists, innovative thinkers — and they all have a lot of great advice for ONE on how we can be smarter advocates. Each of these people has one other thing in common — they are working on development projects that have benefited from foreign investments. In fact, the message we’ve heard over and over is that global foreign assistance programs (including mechanisms like the Global Fund) helped to lay the groundwork for massive scale up of health efforts and a more sustainable path for the South African government to adopt a majority of the responsibility for health services themselves.
So, as our government leaders consider their aid investments around the world—particularly as they’re facing increasing budgetary pressures at home—we should remind them of the real lives that hang in the balance. This week has reminded me that when we think about foreign assistance, we should think about what it means for Sister Suzan’s ability to ensure that all mothers can prevent their babies from being born with HIV. We should think about what it means for the jobs of South Africans working at GRS to ensure that the next generation of kids can have lower rates of HIV and higher rates of education and skills. We should think about what it means for the civil society groups and doctors who are doing selfless work every day to make sure people don’t have to suffer from diseases that aren’t even a nuisance in the western world. Because the global community has been generous and bold with our foreign aid investments, and our partners in the developing world can’t afford for us to hide behind the abstractions in this critical moment.
Thanks for the reminder, Cape Town
It was a blindingly bright and scorching hot day for the U2 360° show in Cape Town last Friday. And with little shade and a long walk around the stadium to where the fans were, I was worried that the heat would cook my volunteers, bedecked in their black T-shirts, before they could really get to work.
ONE members at the U2 show in Cape Town
But they showed me I was wrong to worry.
So while the heat shut down their iPads, they kept on patiently working, gathering nearly 4,500 petition signatures by the end of the day.
It was a great way to end my run on the tour; with a powerful reminder that no matter what the challenges, ONE members will keep on working hard to make a difference.
Rocking Soccer City
I’m back on the road with the U2 360° Tour, and yesterday had a fabulous show day one in sunny Johannesburg.
The team of ONE volunteers were exceptional – gathering more than 200 petition signatures each. Thank you and congratulations to everyone on the team.
ONE Members in Johannesburg
Before sending them out to volunteer, I gave them my pitch about what it means to be a ONE member, it goes something like this:
Being a ONE member is making a commitment that when there’s an opportunity to make a difference – when a mobilised public can tip the balance of a decision – that you will be a part of it; that you don’t want to sit out the political fights when lives are on the line.
But the beauty of ONE is that being a member means something slightly different to different people. So during the day I asked a couple of the volunteers what being a ONE member meant to them. Here are a couple:
Lozola Belle:
We all know the problems around the world, yet we all feel powerless by ourselves. However, as a united front we can make enough noise to make the governments and the powers-that-be to act.
Sandra Felix:
To be a ONE member is to join your voice to about 2 million other people in the world for good basically, and to advocate for those people who can’t advocate for themselves.
The common theme that struck me was that it isn’t just about doing good work. It’s about joining together to change the world for the better. And thanks to the team of passionate volunteers in Johannesburg, another few thousand ONE members have joined us!
ONE members join the football world and African leaders in calling for education for all
 The yellow card is presented to South African President Jacob Zuma. |
After a month of excitement on the pitch the football World Cup is now over for another 4 years. But whatever team you supported, the real winner was Africa, with the tournament shining a light on continent and helping to shift many of the negative perceptions about it.
But just as important was what happened off the pitch, with world leaders meeting in Johannesburg prior to the final to attend the World Education Summit, hosted by South African President, Jacob Zuma. The Summit brought together more than 100 delegates with heads of state from Kenya, Mozambique and Botswana, as well as FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, co-chair of 1GOAL attending.
During the summit our friends at 1GOAL presented a giant yellow card to President Zuma containing the names and messages from supporters around the world, including more than 10,000 ONE members, all calling on world leaders to provide education for 72 million children worldwide by 2015.
The leaders responded to the call, and their commitment to invest in universal education together with the call from African Heads of State to urgently prioritise investment in education are very welcome.
The summit in South Africa is an important first step but the major breakthrough needs to come at the upcoming UN Summit in September to help accelerate progress towards all the Millennium Development Goals.
Aaron Mokoena, 1GOAL ambassador and South Africa football captain said:
“President Zuma must be credited for calling this summit. 14 million football fans from around the world have signed up to this campaign and now world leaders need to make the dream of Education for All a reality. History shows that where the political will exists, great things can happen. South Africa now shares the delivery of this legacy with the rest of the world.”
And with the next World Cup taking place in Brazil in 4 years time, former Brazilian player Socrates added:
“Without an education children can be left with little more than hope to get them through life and the fact that today, in 2010, millions of children cannot go to school due to grinding poverty shames us all. We look to the Brazilian State and the next President to ensure there is a lasting legacy from this World Cup. In Brazil there are still approximately 5 million children of primary school age not attending school and approximately 14 million illiterate adults. Brazil must continue the good work that has started in South Africa and sustain this work so that by the next World Cup in Brazil, we have taken huge strides in getting every child into school.”
A global health diva
A month ago I had the opportunity to travel across Ghana and Sierra Leone with Yvonne Chaka Chaka, South African musical legend and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Despite her modesty, Yvonne would inevitably steal the show at every stop we made, bursting into song in schools, hospitals and factories at the request of our hosts.
Yet it wasn’t until last weekend that I witnessed the true power of Yvonne’s voice on the continent. To help celebrate her 25 years in the music industry, fellow South African musicians Lira and Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse joined Yvonne in Sun City, South Africa. Lira and Hotstix helped warm up the crowd, but it was Yvonne who convinced three First Ladies and a handful of Ministers up to dance on stage and captured the audience with films from her travels to meet women across the continent.
After keeping first ladies and ministers up all night dancing, the next morning Yvonne brought them around a table for a much different purpose: a consultation on integrated preventative strategies to meet Millennium Development Goals 4, 5, and 6, which target the reduction of child mortality, maternal mortality, and the spread of infectious diseases.
Integration might seem like a bland topic to follow-up a concert, but considering the occasion – the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day- the discussion was anything but boring. Women across the continent are perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of integrated, comprehensive approaches to healthcare. Here in DC and in African capitals, programming and funding for health is often compartmentalized into buckets like HIV/AIDS, child survival and malaria; but for women, interventions like clean water, vaccinations, skilled birth attendants and insecticide-treated bed nets are all part of a single package to keep them and their families healthy. Although I was one of the only observers from the Washington, D.C. advocacy community, this conversation felt especially timely given the administration’s commitment to both an integrated and women’s centered approach in the Global Health Initiative outlined last month.
The forum kicked off with three presentations on integrated strategies. First, Debrework Zewdie, Executive Director of the Global Fund, talked about the Fund’s success at promoting integration and supporting health systems in countries like Ethiopia and Malawi, as well as its current financing challenge. She was followed by Sophia Musaka Monaco of UNAIDS, who spoke of the remaining barriers to achieving universal access to HIV/AIDS, treatment, prevention and care and warned that through disease specific interventions we are “treating our people like programs.” Finally, Dr. Eric Lugada presented on a pilot program that CHF International launched in Kenya last year with the help of Yvonne and a firm called Vestergard Frandsen launched last year in a Kenyan community. To tackle the three interrelated challenges of HIV, malaria and diarrhea, the program used a community-based model to deliver CarePacks, which include bed nets, “Life Straw” water purifiers, condoms and educational materials. You can read about it here.
After the presentations, a lively discussion ensued on the impact of poverty and disease on women and what needs to happen to make real progress in healthcare across the continent. The spectrum of topics reflected the diversity of the participants, ranging from greater accountability and spending by African governments and to better incorporating men into women and family health programs, to greater financing for integrated approaches through demand-driven mechanisms like the Global Fund. A need to address women’s health and utilize their role as leaders in their community was central to all these strategies.
The meeting concluded with a commitment by Yvonne to bring everyone back together in August for a second “Leading African Women’s Forum,” and to continue to offer up her voice for not just AIDS or malaria or child health, but for an integrated approach to address the health of women and their families. Ideas and opinions on all these topics will continue in DC and other hubs across the globe, but it takes often someone like Yvonne- a true global health diva- to bring them together and extend them to the communities where they matter the most.
Invictus
South African football captain Aaron Mokoena and ONE co-founder Bob Geldof at the screening of the film Invictus
On Monday night ONE was lucky to host an advance screening in London of the new film Invictus, which opens this month in much of Europe.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, Invictus tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) to help unite their country. Believing he could bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallied South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they made an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup final.
As the world’s attention turns to the continent this year for the football world cup, it’s time to unite once again to celebrate the successes we’ve achieved, and renew our energies to go the distance to achieve the rest of the Millenium Development Goals by 2015.
We were joined on the night by journalists, politicians, footballers, celebrities, and a lucky ONE member, Benjamin Palafox, who won our online contest.
After the film ONE co-founder Bob Geldof and South African football captain Aaron Mokoena, spoke passionately about the importance of this 2010 for Africa and how the world cup can focus the eyes of the world, including the 3 billion or more who will watch the competition, on the good news that’s coming from the continent.
Keep an eye on the ONE blog for video from the event, which we will be posting shortly.
P.S. To find out more about Invictus visit the the official movie website.
UK Minister adds her voice to 1GOAL
© 2009 Foreign & Commonwealth Office
UK Foreign Office Minister Glenys Kinnock has signed up to the 1GOAL campaign during her recent visit to South Africa.
Speaking at Winnie Ngwekazi Primary School in Soweto, she said “Many millions more children are in school now because governments have focussed on that as a priority, but it is still totally unacceptable that 75 million children are not receiving any kind of primary education.”
She also said that she will discuss 1GOAL when Commonwealth leaders meet next month in Trinidad & Tobago.
The 1GOAL campaign, a partner to ONE, aims to ensure that the lasting legacy of the football World Cup next year in South Africa is that every child can be learning in school by 2015.
Watch an interview with Glenys Kinnock discussing 1GOAL:
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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, African Union, Agriculture, Hungry No More, South Africa