Action Alert: Send an urgent message to your senators

On Monday, Maryamu brought us news about a new letter currently being circulated in the US Senate. This letter– which is addressed to the chairman and ranking member of the senate budget committee– asks them to protect the International Affairs Budget from cuts devastating to the world’s poorest people.

Already, the letter has bipartisan support: Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), George Voinovich (R-OH) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) are all signatories. Now we need your senators to sign on as well. But the deadline is coming up fast.

Our petition reads simply “Please sign the bipartisan budget letter supporting a $58.5 billion International Affairs Budget” and will be delivered to the Senate soon. You can join our effort here.

With a strong U.S. International Affairs Budget, we can eliminate malaria as a major public health problem in the world, ensure no child is born with HIV, and prevent more than 4.2 million future child deaths through vaccination. But we need to act quickly.

Thanks for all you do.

Big Meeting with Representative Spratt

Yesterday in Rock Hill, South Carolina, ONE led a diverse and distinguished group of South Carolinians to meet with House Budget Chairman, Rep. John Spratt, about the importance of the small, but critical, International Affairs Budget – the part of the budget where all of ONE’s priority programs like PEPFAR, GAVI, and the Global Fund, are funded.

There are over 13,000 ONE members in South Carolina, of which 1,700 are in the 5th district, and we had a wide rage of ONE members with us including: people with backgrounds in faith who came to advocate for “the least among us”, veterans who have seen and been part of on-the-ground development programs like a girl’s school in Afghanistan, students who organize on campus in support of ONE, and the NAACP who has partnered with ONE on a national and local level. All of us came together to urge full funding of the International Affairs Budget to the Chairman. We stressed not only the moral implications of life-saving and development programs, but also the national security implications and how this funding helps to win hearts and minds and build a safer and better world for us in the US, and around the world. We also brought with us sign-on letters from other members of Congress that stress the importance of this small part of the budget, even while taking into consideration the tight budget constraints that are present today.

Chairman Spratt, who was very familiar with all of the details of the International Affairs Budget, acknowledged our reasons and support for full funding, and stressed to us how both Secretary Gates and Secretary Clinton have led the way for a continued robust development pillar of our foreign policy. He went on to compliment ONE and our group for being so articulate and well-informed. He expressed to us his own desire to help make our request a budget reality. Chairman Spratt took time to speak individually with every attendee and get to know the reasons and backgrounds that compelled them to action for the world’s poorest people. He expressed interest in our upcoming South Carolina ONE Workshop, and at the end of our meeting, he even recorded a short impromptu message for us and ONE members everywhere. In it, he talks about the importance of US foreign assistance programs and encourages all Americans to educate themselves on these issues and to speak out in support of these programs. Check it out (it cuts out just a bit early at the end):

I was proud to be part of the meeting with so many amazing ONE members whose hearts and heads are in the right place, and to speak directly with Representative Spratt.

Architecture for Humanity announces new 1,200 pound spokesman

His name is Hugh Manatee, and he’s the new spokesanimal for Architecture for Humanity. According to Cameron Sinclair, Hugh Manatee– in partnership with the South Florida Aquarium– will soon be embarking on a 12-month tour:

Thanks to the support of an anonymous Japanese donor, the tour launches in Tokyo at a special Pecha Kucha event hosted by Super Deluxe on May 8, 2010. Hugh will then visit Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and India before a long journey through Africa. Then, during the 2010 World Cup, Hugh travels through South Africa before visiting construction projects Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Architecture for Humanity prides itself on the strong community of design and construction professionals it has worked with over the past decade. Therefore, the organization is giving them the task to decide where Hugh visits on the last leg of the tour. The final leg begins in Biloxi, Mississippi to visit the Model Home Project and then, based on requests posted on You Tube in April, Hugh will take direction from the organizations’ supporters and friends before heading to the headquarters in San Francisco. It is hoped that the tour will be completed on April 6, 2011.

You can read more about Hugh’s new role (with pictures!) here.

So what do Haitians say they need most?

According to a new survey from Oxfam, the answer is jobs.

The survey of more than 1,700 people found that amongst the people of Haiti’s most pressing needs, jobs led with 26% with schools and homes following with 22% and 10% respectively. The survey’s results are really fascinating, and one of only a few examples I’ve seen feedback directly from Haitians.

Oxfam policy adviser Porter McConnell offers her take in a blog post published earlier today:

I’ve been thinking about that answer [jobs], and how it relates to all the ideas I heard at a panel discussion sponsored by Oxfam’s aid effectiveness team in Washington last week that focused on ways aid can help or hurt Haitians rebuild their country. Many of those ideas will get aired again at the UN today when international donors and government officials from Haiti meet to hash out next steps for the country.

But one idea stands above all the others: the need for Haitians to be in charge of rebuilding their country. Every one of the experts on the panel—including Haitian Ambassador Raymond Joseph, prominent Haitian Americans Paul Auxila and Joel Dreyfuss, and professor Robert Maguire–made that same point.

And they went further. They cautioned us not to think of Haiti as a blank slate.

Auxila, the chief operating officer for Management Sciences for Health, put it this way: “We need to realize we’re not starting from scratch.”

Haitians, from ordinary citizens to the Haitian government, have made tremendous efforts to improve their situation in the last decade. If we Americans are going to help Haiti recover from this terrible disaster, we need to use Haitian institutions, not build new ones apart. If we want Haiti to be better prepared the next time disaster hits, we need to make sure we’re not setting up temporary solutions with temporary technology and know-how that will fall apart when we leave.

Another key finding from Oxfam’s survey: Over 70 percent of those surveyed praised the actions of foreign governments during the post-earthquake relief period.

You can read Oxfam’s press release here.

Haiti Donors Conference in session

Right now in New York, a conference is underway to help mobilize international support for the development needs of Haiti. Haiti’s government, which is represented at the meeting, is expected to “present its vision for the country’s future and how international support can assist”. Other nations including the US, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, France, and Spain are also in attendance.

You can watch a live stream of the proceedings here and check out the conference’s website at www.haiticonference.org/.

We may have more on this as the conference progresses.

ONE urges donors to fully fund the Global Fund and GAVI

Donors have just met in The Hague to discuss the impacts, efficacy, and future resource needs for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (the Global Fund) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI).

ONE has long championed the transformational impact these mechanisms have had. Both the Global Fund and GAVI are even more critical now, as we enter the last stretch to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline; if the Global Fund and GAVI are not fully financed during the next three years – the period covered by the Fund’s replenishment cycle—the MDGs will not be met and the mechanisms will be unable to scale up their life-saving work.

“We know these mechanisms are effective and cost-effective,” said Josh Lozman, ONE’s Chief of Staff and Senior Global Health Policy Advisor. “Only if they are fully financed between now and 2015 can we eliminate malaria as a major public health problem in the world, ensure no child is born with HIV, and prevent more than 4.2 million future child deaths through vaccination. In spite of the economic climate, investments in these mechanisms will allow us to achieve major milestones in global health.”

Both mechanisms have achieved impressive results through their partnership together and with donors, recipient countries, and civil society:

• Global Fund-supported programs save an estimated 3,600 lives every day. The Global Fund supports anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS for 2.5 million people, treatment for tuberculosis for 6 million people, and bed nets to prevent malaria for 104 million people.
• GAVI-supported work has averted an estimated 5.4 million deaths by vaccinating more than 257 million children.

The Global Fund will hold a pledging conference in October 2010 during which donors will commit to funding levels for the next three years; GAVI’s funding will be decided through annual budget processes in donor countries. Full funding of these two mechanisms is one of ONE’s top priorities and will be the focus of campaigning efforts during this year.