Being alive in 2021 is another opportunity to cause positive transformations in our areas of interest. The year presents hope and glamour for ONE’s Champions. It is also full of uncertainties, especially following the lessons learned in 2020. Quite a silent year it was; from silencing the guns in Africa to the forced silence on the world economy courtesy of COVID-19. This does not in any way insinuate that the challenges of 2020 are gone. On the contrary, they remain...
Carine Umutoniwase is a Kenya ONE Champion and the founder of Footprints for Change. COVID-19 has crippled education systems worldwide, leading to the closure of schools for months in countries like Kenya. This saw millions of children out of school, confined to their homes. E-learning was instituted as a response to the learning loss that resulted from schools closing — but this increased inequality among learners, especially for those in underserved and marginalized communities that have limited supply to electricity...
Less than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic started, AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Moderna have created safe and effective vaccines against the virus, and some nations have begun vaccinating their citizens. Although this is great news and a major scientific achievement, the work isn’t done, and we’re seeing some signs that this accomplishment could be undermined by a failure to get the vaccine everywhere. The pandemic won’t end with just a vaccine, but when there is global access to it and...
The National Assembly recently approved the 2021 budget proposal submitted by the federal government of Nigeria. As the nation grapples with the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic, here’s what you need to know about Nigeria’s government priorities and allocations: The 2021 budget is higher by 26% from last year’s budget (N13.6 trillion vs N10.8 trillion). There was an increase in debt service allocation. In fact, debt servicing is almost 3 times more than total allocation to education...
Amadou Mahtar Ba, a member of the Africa Policy Advisory Board of ONE, is sharing why debt relief is crucial for Africa to recover from COVID-19. The economic and health costs to Africa as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented by any measure. With the death toll rising above 50,000 and more than two million confirmed infections so far, the continent has many reasons to be worried. So far, COVID-19 lockdowns have triggered the first continent-wide recession in 25...
This year, in the face of a global pandemic, the fight against global poverty and inequality became tougher, but more important than ever. Our tireless activists fought for fair deals on debt, vaccine access, aid budgets, and more. Hundreds of thousands of global activists signed petitions, completed surveys, tweeted at or sent emails to politicians, attended briefing calls, shared messages of solidarity, or danced to our anthem “Stand Together.” Here’s a quick look at some of what ONE and our activists...
With Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca all announcing this month that their vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are proving to be highly effective in clinical trials, the world is closer to finding a safe and effective vaccine to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic will not end with a vaccine, but when everyone, everywhere has equal access to it. That’s why we launched our Vaccine Access Test in September. The Test provides the framework to answer one important question: Are the...
ONE Champion Stephanie Kusa shares some key takeaways from a special webinar hosted by fellow champions on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Every year, the world marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October. To commemorate this day, ONE Champions from Nigeria, Kenya, and Ethiopia collaborated to host a webinar. They focused on the progress made in Sustainable Development Goal 1 (SDG 1) which is one of the 17 goals established by the...