Wondering how great an impact agricultural programs can have on the world’s poorest people? Take a look at Donata Kuchawo’s story to find out more, and make sure there are many more stories like hers by urging Congress to fully fund Feed the Future.
Another report from Malawi. On Sunday, we had an amazing visit to the Chitsanzo Milk Bulking Group (MBG), a USAID-funded, public-private partnership project with Land O’Lakes and General Mills that supports local dairy farmers in the rural area of Dedze.
In 2007, Land O’Lakes started working with the farmers to provide an initial investment of milking cows and a cooling tank. Their pass-on process requires farmers to give the first female calf born to another farmer (on a lengthy waiting list) as a form of loan repayment for the initial cow. Every day, members of the MBG deliver by bicycle 30 to 40 liters of fresh raw milk per day, and have it tested and placed in large cooling tanks where it is stored and picked up about every other day by Lilongwe Dairies Limited, which purchases the milk and processes it about 63 km away in Lilongwe.
Getting Smart on Aid: There are also deeper questions about how best to make an impact — even about how to do something as simple as get more kids in school. Greg Mortenson and a number of other education organizations mostly build schools. That seems pretty straightforward. If we want to get more kids in school around the world, what could make more sense than building schools? How about deworming kids? (The New York Times, Nick Kristof)
Africa: Obama Administration Wants Africa Trade Act Extended to 2025 — The Obama administration wants to reauthorize the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which is set to expire in 2015, through 2025, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson says, citing the measure’s success in enhancing trade levels between the United States and the African continent. (AllAfrica.com)
With yams, mosquito nets: Nigeria adapts Sesame Street — A yam-loving muppet and another who’s HIV positive romp about a set filled with an old drum of oil, a raffia basket and a heap of ubiquitous hot red peppers. Welcome to Sesame Street, Nigerian style. (AFP)
As an Insecticide Makes a Comeback, Uganda Must Weigh Its Costs – Growing up as a child here along the muggy, isolated plains of northern Uganda, life was not easy. Faced with unrelenting malaria, which threatened both lives and livelihoods, Uganda’s government teamed up with the United States to use chemical insecticide sprays — including DDT — to try to eliminate the disease.
This past weekend, ONE’s No Child Born with HIV Campaign was featured in a USA Today Special Report on Investing in Women and Girls (PDF) in conjunction with International Women’s Day today. The report was distributed in 1.5 million hard copies of USA Today and will be available at this week’s CARE Conference in Washington D.C.
This piece could not have been more timely, as Congress is debating drastic budget cuts which will hurt efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the developing world. With the proposed $450 million cuts to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, approximately 58,000 HIV-positive pregnant women will not have access to the low-cost, effective treatment to prevent transmitting the virus to their babies and an estimated 20,000 babies will be born with HIV that would not have if funding is maintained.
Here’s an excerpt:
A Preventable Tragedy
In the developed world, mother to child HIV/AIDS transmission is rare, and very few children die because of it. In America, for example, fewer than 200 infants are infected with HIV annually, and approximately nine children between the ages of 0 and four die from the disease. …
Progress has been made since the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund first tackled the problem in 2002. Since then, the number of Africans on HIV/AIDS medication has grown from 50,000 to four million.
But Hunter says that despite American generosity and leadership, it will take a combination of country-driven programs, international investment and community participation to finally end mother to child transmission.
“Our goal is for no child to be born with HIV by 2015. We have the tools and know the treatments; we just need the resources to get them to the people.”
During a listening and learning trip to Malawi, ONE staffer Kim Hunter witnessed the power of US partnership projects on smallholder farmers in Africa.
As we learn more about the important role of agriculture in fighting hunger, a key challenge facing many smallholder farmers is earning enough money to go beyond feeding their families and enable parents to send their kids to school and purchase school books. In Malawi, there is a real need for more dairy producers, because otherwise, milk must be imported from other countries, which increases the cost. Producing milk gives smallholder farmers a steady income as well as a vital source of nutrients and protein that contributes to a healthier diet.
I saw this effort firsthand at the Chitsanzo Milk Bulking Group (MBG). It began in 2007 as part of a USAID-funded public-private partnership project with Land O’Lakes and General Mills to support local dairy farmers in the rural area of Dedze and expand dairy production in Malawi. With farmers biking with 30- to 40-liter jugs of fresh raw milk to sell daily, the Bulking Group — which began as an initial investment of milking cows and a single cooling tank – has grown. In fact, MBG has raised enough money to purchase a second cooling tank to increase production.
Another report from Malawi. On Sunday, we had an amazing visit to the Chitsanzo Milk Bulking Group (MBG), a USAID-funded, public-private partnership project with Land O’Lakes and General Mills that supports local dairy farmers in the rural area of Dedze.
In 2007, Land O’Lakes started working with the farmers to provide an initial investment of milking cows and a cooling tank. Their pass-on process requires farmers to give the first female calf born to another farmer (on a lengthy waiting list) as a form of loan repayment for the initial cow. Every day, members of the MBG deliver by bicycle 30 to 40 liters of fresh raw milk per day, and have it tested and placed in large cooling tanks where it is stored and picked up about every other day by Lilongwe Dairies Limited, which purchases the milk and processes it about 63 km away in Lilongwe.
Today, we made some site visits in Blantyre, Malawi to learn more about the country’s efforts in education, the challenges facing small-to-medium size businesses and a public-private partnership that produces a nutritious peanut butter paste to combat malnutrition.
We began our day at Nsoni Primary and Secondary Schools. The secondary school was recently renovated as part of a joint project by the Ministry of Education and the African Development Fund to improve infrastructure, including classrooms, libraries, water and sanitation, teacher homes and power supply. Managed by Malawi’s Ministry of Education, the project covers 60 schools, or 10 percent of Malawi’s 600 secondary schools.
Yesterday, ONE hosted a panel discussion at the World Food Prize Symposium about the crucial role that everyday Americans can play in promoting efforts to support poor farmers and help them break free from the cycle of poverty. The session was insightful and showed just how vital our voices are in making sure that our elected officials understand that agriculture is a key tool to end hunger and promote sustainable pathways out of extreme poverty.
Sheila Nix moderates our panel discussion at the World Food Prize
Sheila Nix, ONE’s U.S. executive director, was a fantastic moderator. She engaged each of the panelists on the importance of advocacy and the challenges we face. Sheila described how she saw firsthand “the catalytic effect of agriculture in Africa and the enormous impact that very simple, low cost solutions and investments in women can have on a community.”
Right now, some of the world's biggest oil companies are fighting to keep some of their deals with foreign governments secret. Let's tell big oil we won't be bullied.
Cuts to poverty-fighting programs won't balance the budget, but they will set back progress on Canada's development priorities and risk jeopardizing existing investments.
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.
