Based in Johannesburg, Sipho is in charge of overseeing ONE's presence and work in Africa. Sipho comes to ONE with more than 18 years of international development experience, working for multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, the UN and IFAD in Rome. Before coming to ONE, she worked for the African Development Bank, where she managed the bank's largest multi-sector portfolio.
Today, ONE launches its most ambitious campaign yet -– Thrive: Food, Farming, Future. In Africa, this follows our pilot campaign “Hungry No More,” which culminated in a petition delivered on March 2, 2012 in Dar es Salaam to Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete, signed by more than 16,000 ONE members on the continent.
Millions of people die from hunger on the continent every year. In 2011, more than 30,000 children died in just three months due to the famine in the Horn of Africa alone. Millions more continue to be locked in the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty. This year a staggering 178 million young children in the world will be stunted as a result of poor nutrition, their bodies and brains never fully recovering. The numbers are staggering.
As our Hungry No More campaign continues, famed musician and trumpeter Hugh Masekela joins us in calling on African leaders to focus investments in their agricultural sectors, which will contribute to growing their economies and reducing extreme poverty.
Hugh’s support couldn’t come at a better time as the African Union Summit begins this week with our Heads of State in Addis Ababa. Now’s the perfect opportunity to continue our campaign and press our leaders to take action. We’ll be presenting your petition and signatures at the AU later this week!
This piece was originally published on ONE’s Africa Blog.
Beyond being a season for being merry, this is also traditionally a season for giving. As we wind down the year, we at ONE in Africa are asking you to give a thought to the 13.3 million people in the Horn of Africa, who still face extreme hunger. If this thought leaves you unsettled, you’re exactly the person who should join ONE in Africa today together with our partners, the National Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition in Nigeria and the Agricultural Non State Actors Forum in Tanzania, as we launch our Hungry No More campaign in Africa.
I’m delighted to announce that Groupe de Reflexion et d’action, Femme Democratie et Developpment (GF2D), from Togo are the 2011 winners of the fourth annual ONE Africa Award.
The ONE Africa Award celebrates and bolsters innovative Africa-led, Africa-driven advocacy efforts to help advance one or more of the Millennium Development Goals, the world’s blueprint to fighting extreme poverty and disease. The goals specifically address critical issues to development, such as; halving extreme poverty; halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria and providing universal primary education.
GF2D helps women in exercising their right to participate in decision making processes of their country.
One of GF2D’s tools is the use of paralegals who are trained in Togolese laws by GF2D and empowered to communicate messages to communities about women’s rights, engage in mediations related to marriage, inheritance and children, and offer referral assistance for issues that need to be handled in court. Many of their paralegals are everyday women – traders, seamstresses, mothers, whose lives have been changed because of their paralegal training and some of them have gone on to seek local political positions. These women and men have become well-respected members of their societies because of their knowledge of Togolese laws and their ability to convey the rights of women to their peers in simple messages. GF2D has been integral to the increase in the number of female political office holders in Togo today.
As winners of this year’s ONE Africa Award GF2D receive $100000 in prize money.
As the award was announcement here in Johansburg, Léontine, GF2D’s General Secretary said:
“We dedicate the 2011 ONE Award to all Togolese women whose bravery and dynamism are well known. We want to recognize the silent majority of those who suffer from violence, discrimination and low incomes gained from their hard efforts. The announcement of the award was greeted with a great joy at the “House of women” by all the members and staff of GF2D.
This award represents the recognition for over 20 years of efforts to realize a vision where: women know their rights and fully benefit from them:
Togolese women, freed from the constraints and socio-cultural burdens imosed on them, contribute to the development of their society
equal participation of men and women exists in the political, social and economic decision making processes
a genuine partnership exists between men and women in the management of their families, public and private institutions
We receive this award as an encouragement to persevere in defending the cause of women. We thank ONE whose mission is to recognize, reward and support the important work of African civil society organizations towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “
Previous award winners include Nigeria’s Development Communications Network (Devcoms) and Kenya’s Slums Information Development and Resources Centres (SIDAREC) and SEND West Africa.
We are here today to celebrate Africa’s unsung heroes and to play our part on changing the stereotype narrative on Africa. We don’t deny that there are challenges that exist, but, we also need to highlight the successes, the determination and the ingenuous creativity of the African people despite these challenges.
I’m sure you will join me in congratulating GF2D and our runners ups, and thanking them for the amazing work they are doing across the continent. We wish them every success in the future!
Is it possible that the success Africa has had, in managing and treating HIV/AIDS, reduced the sting of the HIV pandemic on the continent? The fact is, according to UNAIDS’ latest report, there are more people living with HIV today than there were 10 years ago. Approximately 34 million people live with HIV today, up 17 percent from 2001. In parallel, deaths from AIDS-related illnesses have decreased by 21 percent since 2005.
Liberian elections. Photo courtesy of United Nations in Liberia
Liberians defied the rains this week and turned out in the thousands to participate in the country’s second election since it emerged from a 14-year civil war in 2003.
This year’s elections are historic for Liberia, as they are the first Liberia-controlled elections. They are being described world over as a test of Liberia’s fragile democracy. The 2005 election was managed by the United Nations.
For the first time in our lifetime, a wide range of African artists and global celebrities with a passion for Africa, have united in a call for action to break the recurring incidence of famine and extreme hunger in the Horn of Africa.
In an open letter addressed to African and world leaders, 58 artists are appealing for the implementation of a three-part plan to beat the famine in the Horn of Africa and invest in long-term solutions to avoid future food crises.This prominent group of African voices together command an audience of more than 7 million people on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
This letter is published just before two crucial meetings: the G20 finance ministers meeting in Washington DC this Friday, and a Ministerial Mini-Summit on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York this Saturday. ONE is campaigning to ensure that top of the agenda at both of these meetings are two key issues: ending the current famine and avoiding future famines .
ONE’s members support these efforts, too. Nearly 220,000 supporters have signed a petition calling on leaders to urgently provide the full funding that the UN has identified as needed for the Horn of Africa crisis, and to keep their promises to deliver the long-term solutions which could prevent crises like this from happening again.
This is just the beginning of relentless campaigning on hunger and famine, and shining a spotlight on the opportunities of agriculture development in Africa, which ONE will be pushing throughout the next few months. Specifically, over the coming days and weeks, ONE will be advocating for three key promises from African and world leaders:
Fill the remaining financing gap for emergency assistance to help people in the Horn of Africa
Invest in longer-term agriculture and food security to stop the cycle of extreme hunger
Encourage a prominent and formal role for civil society in the peace-seeking process to stop the cycle of instability in the region
This will be tough given the state of finances of many economies. But what could be more important than preventing future famines and ending hunger and its causes?
That’s why we at ONE are working with advocacy partners on a charter to end extreme hunger. This charter, along with the African artist letter, and ONE’s petition, will be presented to the gathering of leaders coordinated by the UN on Saturday.
80% of Africans depend on subsistence agriculture to ensure their families have something to eat. Investing in agricultural productivity in Africa gives Africans a real chance to lift themselves out of poverty. This is a cause worth fighting for!
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