Oct 14th, 2009 10:48 AM UTC
By Jessica.Gomez.Duran
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Last week we wrote about ONE’s involvement with the UK’s Labour Party Conference. Some commenters naturally asked about ONE’s involvement withe the Conservative Party Conference. Today Jessica Gomez-Duran from ONE’s UK office reports back:
The ‘Africa Dream Team’ sticker album that was produced for the Conservative Party Conference
Well, now that we’re rested post party conference season, I thought it was about time we filled you in on last week’s Conservative Party Conference in Manchester and the successful reception we hosted there.
As with the reception we held at the Labour Party conference the week before, ONE’s Oliver Buston said a few words of welcome and showed a video message from Archbishop Desmond Tutu in which he praised the progress that has been achieved so far in Africa. We were then privileged to have two footballers at our event – South African footballer Quinton Fortune and World Cup winner Marcel Desailly. They spoke about the importance of education and the 1GOAL campaign, which aims to ensure that the lasting legacy of next year’s football World Cup is that every child can be learning in school by 2015. The Shadow International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell MP, also spoke outlining policies contained in the Conservative Green Paper. People seemed really interested in ONE and our issues and there was a positive atmosphere in the room.
As a way of linking our reception events with the World Cup, we proposed a ‘2010 Africa Dream Team’ of MPs. So, for the party conferences, we created a set of 10 football stickers to collect and the opportunity to ‘join the team’ as the 11th player. Everyone was given a blank sticker album and, just like being back in the school playground, a flurry of swapsies was necessary to harvest the complete 10. The stickers even featured in The Sun, the Telegraph and the Guardian newspapers here.
At the receptions, people could join in and become the goalkeeper of the Africa Dream Team by having their face photographed, speedily photoshopped onto a football player’s body, and then printed out onto their very own sticker. It was hard work but worth it as people seemed to really get a kick out of them!
All in all the receptions were great successes. But in the coming weeks and months we will want to hear much more detail about what all the parties are committing to in their manifestos. Stay tuned…
-Jessica Gomez-Duran
The sticker album produced for the Labour Party Conference
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Sep 30th, 2009 2:33 PM UTC
By Jessica.Gomez.Duran
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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.
You can read the full transcript of his speech here.
-Jessica Gomez-Duran
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Sep 11th, 2009 11:39 AM UTC
By Jessica.Gomez.Duran
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A few days ago, the Freakonomics blog on the New York Times website profiled three highly driven and motivated Africans who are demonstrating the huge potential for a thriving business sector across the African continent: a venture capitalist and founder of a technology incubator in Uganda, the cofounder of an HIV/AIDS organisation in Northern Uganda, and a Senegalese entrepreneur and founder of a successful beverage company.
On a similar vein, here is an interesting article about the huge difference better internet will make in Africa. Fibre-optic cables should help to provide more reliable and speedy internet connections and not only will this technological revolution enhance communication but it is likely encourage social and economic growth across Africa.
-Jessica Gomez-Duran
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Jul 10th, 2009 9:09 AM UTC
By Jessica.Gomez.Duran
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 Yesterday, ONE’s own Eloise Todd got a chance to ask Prime Minister Berlusconi a question- in Italian- during a press conference at the G8 Summit in Italy. It was a great moment. You can check out the video here (about 2/3 of the way through). Transcript below!
Question to Prime Minister Berlusconi:
I was present when Bob Geldof interviewed you last week. You said ‘I’m sorry for not having kept my promises’. What will you do this week to reverse the aid cut of €411m and what additional funds will you give on top of this to the G8 initiative on agriculture?
Prime Minister Berlusconi’s response (summary):
We were responsible for creating the Global Fund in Genoa in 2001, which has so far saved the lives of 4 million people. Because of the current economic crisis it is harder to balance our budget, and we know we are late in our payments to the global fund. But by the end of the year we will pay the 130m we owe as well as the 30m extra requested by the fund to cover shortfalls. We recommitted to our aid promises and tomorrow we will present an agriculture initiative and Italy will play its part.
The ONE verdict? Well, he clearly didn’t answer the question. But we remain hopeful there’s a rabbit in the hat from Italy which means they will pledge more than the 411m they cut. At least the question showed the Prime Minister, and the audience, that we are watching and we will not give up. And hopefully a few of the folks watching the live broadcast on Italian TV will also be curious to find out when he really gives an answer to those questions.
As we enter into Day 3 of the G8 Summit, we’ll have more from on the ground soon!
-Jessica Gomez-Duran
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Jul 9th, 2009 1:42 PM UTC
By Jessica.Gomez.Duran
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President Obama has just spoken at a press conference at the G8 summit in Italy. He was followed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. They were talking about climate change. An update from the ground of what was said is coming right up!
-Jessica Gomez-Duran
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Jul 8th, 2009 1:07 PM UTC
By Jessica.Gomez.Duran
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We’ve heard that there might be a communique coming out in the next half an hour or so. This is expected to cover the world economy, climate and development Keep checking back as we’ll update you on what’s happening.
-Jessica Gomez-Duran
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Jul 7th, 2009 5:42 PM UTC
By Jessica.Gomez.Duran
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We’ve arrived! A team of us from ONE are now in L’Aquila, Italy for this year’s G8 Summit.
The journalists, NGOs and others have all started arriving, with the 3 day summit officially starting tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning ONE are holding a joint press briefing with Oxfam, which will cover Africa, development and food security issues in relation to the G8.
We’ll be writing a bit more over the coming days so keep checking back!
-Jessica Gomez-Duran
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