What: ONE member conference call to recap the G20 summit When: Thursday, October 1st at 8:00pm Call in number: 1-800-214-0694 Password: 787225
On the call, we’ll be talking about our campaign to convince the G20 to go to Africa for a future summit, our presence on the ground in Pittsburgh, including the ONE mural (check out the slide show below), and what the summit means for the world’s poorest people.
We’ll also have the latest on our “Upgrade Aid” campaign and will be taking your questions.
Your hosts for the call are:
Tom Hart – ONE’s Director of Government Relations
Virginia Simmons – ONE Online Communications Manager and our eyes and ears during the summit in Pittsburgh
Jessica O’Connell – ONE Project Manager for the G20 Summit
The ONE Campus Challenge competition between colleges and universities is officially kicking off next week, but Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri has thrown down the pre-season gauntlet by logging an incredible 70 phone calls in support of ONE’s Upgrade Aid campaign.
Check out this video to see how they did it:
The Upgrade Aid campaign is about better, smarter U.S. foreign assistance — so the precious development dollars we fight so hard for all year go to the best, most efficient programs on the ground. Webster University’s 70+ calls supporting the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act seem to have made an impact with Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, who officially signed on as a cosponsor for the bill on Tuesday.
You can still make phone calls on behalf of S. 1524 here. And now we also have an Upgrade Aid petition you can sign, here.
Last year, Webster University’s ONE Campus Challenge participation ranked them in the top 10 global poverty-fighting schools in the nation. This year, they’re already setting the bar high, and we’re excited to see what the new season brings from each of the more than 2,400 Campus Challenge schools.
Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of meeting a crew of amazing ONE volunteers who had worked for eight hours before the DC U2 show signing up thousands of new members. I posted the first batch of their profiles here, below are profiles of more outstanding volunteers.
Deidre Bennet is from Rockville, MD, and has been a ONE volunteer for at least three years. She’s met with her Maryland representatives many times to talk about ONE’s issues, hosted a ton of events, and most recently, signed up new ONE members at the Virgin Festival. She said that today she’d already signed up people from all over – including from Florida, Pennsylvania and even Puerto Rico.
Matt lives in DC now but is originally from California. He works full time on the issue of climate change but he took the day off from his job to volunteer for ONE. He’s been energized by how enthusiastic people have been when he tells them about ONE. (Side note, Matt got a text message during the day alerting him that he was an uncle. Congratulations Matt!)
Nancy Delgado (on the right above) has been a ONE member for some time but this was her first time helping out in person. She got an email from Matt Higginson asking for local volunteers, and she jumped right in!
Kimberly Richer (on the left above) is from Centerville, Virginia, and has been a ONE member for at least four years. She helped set up a meeting with Congressman Wolf in July. When I talked to her she had already signed up at least 75 new people.
Maria lives in DC and has been a ONE member since the Live 8 concerts in 2005. She’s volunteered a lot since then, including helping delivery Water for the Poor Act petitions to the Congress this summer and signing up new members at the Islamic Society of North America Convention over fourth of July weekend this year. I chatted with Maria while she recharged the RED laptop she was using to sign up new members around the FedEx Field parking lot.
Evan Haaz is from Texas but lives in DC now. This was his first time volunteering for ONE. He said that he doesn’t usually get involved with causes but that he made an exception for ONE and said he was having a really fun time.
Abby is a student at Johns Hopkins. She said she’d been a ONE member for a while, and U2 fan all her life — and this was her first time volunteering with ONE.
Kim Rogers (who we somehow didn’t get a photo of from the day) is from Iowa and lives in DC now. She did a lot of volunteering for ONE in Iowa during 2008 elections, including a bunch of work around the Iowa straw polls. She said that everyone had been really receptive at the show. Her best victory of the day? She signed up a couple from Austria who have been following the tour since Europe. They’ve been to every show, but Kim was the first volunteer to finally sign them up!
Jessica Gomez-Duran from ONE’s UK office checks in with this exciting development from the Labour Party Conference in Brighton:
Yesterday was a pretty incredible day. And no it wasn’t because the sun was actually shining in the UK (although that is pretty incredible). The Labour Party Conference is happening in Brighton this week and yesterday the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made his big 59 minute speech to Labour supporters and the UK population more generally.
During his speech, Gordon Brown announced that the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on development assistance will become law under forthcoming legislation.
As the Prime Minister stated, “And let me say what was once an aspiration – 0.7% of national income spent on international development aid, has become with Labour a promise, and will in future become a law. We will pass legislation that the British government is obliged to raise spending on aid to the poorest countries to 0.7% of our national income. Others may break their promises to the poorest, with Labour Britain never will.”
This is a significant step and it will contribute hugely towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. We welcome this great news here at ONE but we will of course be working to ensure that money to help Africa adapt to climate change will be above and beyond the 0.7 per cent and not included within it, as well as making sure that the aid is spent effectively.
Last week we alerted you to a new endeavor by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation called the Living Proof Project. Living Proof’s mission is to underscore all the great progress being made thanks to U.S. investments in global health.
Today I want to share with you two more videos produced for the Living Proof Project: one set in Egypt, and the other in Nicaragua. You can check out all of the videos here, and please share them with your friends and family! Our continued commitments to developing nations really do make a profound and positive impact.
The New York Times: Global AIDS Detection and Treatment Sees Major Increase
The ranks of people taking antiretroviral drugs in the developing world rose by more than a million to surpass 4 million people globally, the United Nations reported Wednesday in its 2009 progress report on H.I.V. and AIDS. According to the New York Times, “the number of people being tested for H.I.V. more than doubled in dozens of countries last year, improving detection of AIDS and contributing to a major surge in those being treated.”
The Globe and Mail: Geldof asks Canada to help push his cause
ONE adviser Bob Geldof is striving to capitalize on Canada’s coming role in the global spotlight, as host of the 2010 Olympics, G8 and G20 meetings to help push for eradicating poverty in Africa. Geldof, who was invited to Vancouver this week for the Peace Summit, is trying to mobilize politicians, activists and the media to get African relief on the radar as Canada prepares to enter onto the world stage. “It’s an immense year for diplomacy for your country, whatever your political position is, whatever government you support…you’ve got the world’s attention,” said Geldof.
Financial Times: America has passed on the baton (Op-Ed, Jeffrey Sachs)
In an editorial for the Financial Times, Jeffrey Sachs writes that the establishing of the G20 has officially reduced the U.S.’s influence and leadership in global economic policy. According to Sachs, “even during the 33 years of the G7 economic forum, the US called the important economic shots, and although the US constitutes only about 20 percent of the world economy, it has until recently been the indispensable leader, the key to nearly every significant regional military alliance and to global trade, finance and cutting-edge technology.”
BBC: $100bn a year for adaptation
Adapting to impacts of climate change will cost $75-100 billion dollars per year in the developing world from 2010, according to preliminary findings released by the World Bank at the latest round of UN climate talks in Bangkok. How to finance adaptation, including how much money will be available, is a major theme in the talks that are supposed to produce a new global treaty this year. The major costs and figures, which are said to be “more precise than previous estimates by UN agencies and development charities,” would come mainly from improving coastal protection and protecting transport links.
The Guardian: By 2050, 25m more children will go hungry as climate change leads to food crisis
Researchers believe South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa will be the hardest hit by failing crop yield if global warming continues on its current trajectory, according to a new report released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The Guardian writes that “the grim scenario is the first to gauge the effects of climate change on the world’s food supply by combining climate and agricultural models.” UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, is pressing the industrialized world to step up investment in seed research and to offer more affordable crop insurance to the small farmers in developing countries.
The Guardian: Why sustainable development is so difficult in rural Africa
The Guardian discusses a new integrated development project in Uganda, where both the Guardian and Observer newspaper readers and Barclays Banks have invested £2.5m to help transform the lives of an agricultural community north-east of the capital, Kampala. The project was launched to assess the possibility of creating sustainable farming communities in Africa; however, a recent study of the community indicated that there has not been enough time to embed the changes into the local community and local government structures.
Sheryl WuDunn appeared on The Colbert Report Monday night to discuss the new book Half the Sky which she co-authored with Nicholas Kristof.
The interview is interesting and entertaining, with Colbert handling the affair with his trademark wit and satire. You can read more about Half the Skyhere.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
