In order to protect developing countries from being taken advantage of by financial predators, ONE UK is urging their members to call on UK courts to extend the vulture law to the island of Jersey. In this blog post, ONE UK campaigner Claire Hazelgrove explains why vulture funds are just plain wrong.
Campaigners like you have fought against the unfair debts that crippled some of the world’s poorest countries. We rightly celebrated when debt relief helped lift some of this burden.
Now that progress is under threat.
Vulture funds make money by buying up old debt against developing countries, and using the courts to sue them for it in order to reap massive profits. That’s just wrong.
The problem is, that while the vulture funds law brought in the UK last year finally stopped this activity happening here, this doesn’t currently extend to Jersey.
Sir John Holmes, the former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, shares his analysis of what lies ahead for South Sudan.
The results of the referendum in South Sudan confirm that 2011 will see the birth of a new state in Africa. Rejoicing in the south has been unconfined, as people see the goal they have long dreamed of coming to reality after so many years of suffering and war. The Government in Khartoum have said they will accept the result. They should be taken at their word and held to it, whatever our doubts about their long-term intentions. Elsewhere in Africa, there is concern about the breaking of the convention against changing colonial boundaries, but a warm welcome for the new state nevertheless.
I have been to Juba several times over the last four years, and talked to many southern leaders and ordinary people. I share their sense of achievement. The question now is whether fears of South Sudan as a failing or even already failed state at birth are likely to be realized or whether the enthusiasm and commitment we see now can be turned into a new drive for progress and development. So, what are the opportunities and the challenges?
Please welcome Laura Yu to the ONE Blog. She’ll be interning with ONE’s Policy Team this summer and contributing regularly:
Andrew Mitchell, the newly-elected UK Secretary of State for International Development, gave his first overseas speech last Friday at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. There, he outlined the coalition government’s plan for international development, which would “put women front and center” of the development agenda.
Noting that development assistance is one of only two protected areas of the UK budget, Mitchell reaffirmed the coalition government’s commitment to allocating 0.7% of the UK’s gross national income (GNI) to foreign aid by 2013. He also promised the UK would continue to keep aid untied from commercial interests and urged the U.S. to follow suit. The government’s new development agenda will emphasize value for money, accountability, and transparency, with a strong focus outputs and results.
The UK development agenda will also have a major influence on the country’s approach to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While progress on the MDGs has certainly been made, the MDGs concerning maternal health and child mortality are most off-track. Mitchell likened the plight of women dying from pregnancy-related causes in Nigeria to a jumbo jet crashing week in and week out in the same place. He called for more innovative approaches to improving maternal and child health, including cash incentives to promote women’s health and education, and using mobile phones for emergency referrals. In discussing family planning and safe abortion, Mitchell stressed the importance of empowering women to make informed decisions on their own lives. The present is the perfect time to address maternal health head-on Mitchell said, as “we have within our grasp a golden opportunity, a perfect moment when we have the technology and the political will—if not to eradicate maternal mortality—then to reduce it significantly.”
Mitchell concluded his speech looking forward towards the MDG Summit in September, calling on world leaders to arrive at the summit ready to fulfill their aid commitments, make new and ambitious pledges, and sign the Secretary-General’s Action Plan on women and children’s health. While he acknowledged the financial crisis, Mitchell maintained that nations should continue to focus on development, not only because of the moral imperative, but also because development is “the best return on investment you’ll find.” As the summit approaches, nations have the opportunity to show they are not indifferent to the suffering of the world’s poorest, especially women and children.
The Today Show ran this segment this morning on the UK’s Prince William and Prince Harry visit to Lesotho as part of a 6-day tour of the continent. Check it out:
You may have been following all of the developments around the UK’s election during the last 2 weeks. ONE’s Alexander Woollcombe offers his perspective from across the pond:
After several gripping days of negotiations, we finally have a new Government in the UK, which is a coalition of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.
“…the major political parties do have major differences but we are agreed on this: Britain has a moral responsibility to help the world’s poorest people. This is about the kind of country we want to be”.
ONE is glad to see the inclusion in the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition agreement that “the target of spending 0.7% of GNI on overseas aid will also remain in place”. We will be asking that the commitment in each party’s manifesto to introduce legislation to make this promise legally binding, including a timeline for reaching 0.7 by 2013, be included in the new Government’s Queen’s Speech.
ONE also congratulates Andrew Mitchell on his appointment as Secretary of State for International Development and looks forward to working with him and his team in the future.
Over the last 13 years the previous Labour Government, and particularly former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, led the world in raising the fight against extreme poverty up the political agenda. This achievement should be built on by the new Government – by improving aid effectiveness and transparency; strengthening governance and accountability; making progress in international trade and climate change negotiations and keeping our aid promises to the world’s poor.
Last week, David Cole from ONE’s UK Office wrote about ONE’s UK general election campaign. Today Alexander Woolcombe has a bit more on what ONE is doing to get their leaders “On the Record”:
This week in London we officially unveiled the ‘On the record’ responses from the political parties in the UK as part of our ONE Vote 2010 campaign.
The leaders of Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also recorded a personal video message, which together with their written answers gives the public a chance to compare and contrast each party’s plans ahead of next week’s leaders’ debate on foreign affairs:
ONE Vote 2010 is about raising the profile of international development in the election campaign and beyond. Getting our leaders ‘On the Record’ allows the electorate to hold them accountable for what they’ve promised, whoever wins the election.
Weldon Kennedy, Campaigns Manager here in the UK, was involved in the award winning ONE Vote ’08 campaign in the US and spoke at the launch:
“Candidates were talking about our issues, going ‘On the Record’, taking positions. This had never happened before. It helped make candidates realise this is an issue voters really care and made a real difference in helping put development at the forefront of the election debate”.
ONE Vote ‘08 had Obama, Clinton and McCain we have Brown, Cameron and Clegg – the political context may be different but we hope that ONE Vote 2010 will have a similar impact here in the UK. Regardless of who wins the election next month, we need to be sure that development is at the heart of the UK’s international policies, and that the next British government continues our proud tradition of global leadership in the fight against extreme poverty.
With just 4 weeks to go before polling day it’s a busy time here for the ONE team in the UK. If you want to get involved there’s a lot you can do:
On Tuesday morning the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, went to Buckingham Palace in London to ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament formally kicking off the UK General Election campaign.
The election will take place on 6 May and promises to be one of the closest races in years. Regardless of who wins, we want to be sure the British government continues the UK’s tradition of global leadership on international development.
Prior to the election being called ONE launched ONE Vote 2010 to make sure the fight against extreme poverty gets the attention it deserves during the election campaign.
ONE Vote 2010 follows in the footsteps of the ONE Vote ’08 campaign in the US, which both President Obama and Senator McCain supported, along with much of the Senate and Congress. One Vote 08 helped make a real difference in US development policy and we hope ONE Vote 2010 will have a similar impact here in the UK.
Our first step was to get the major UK political parties to go “On the Record” about their plans for fighting extreme poverty. We asked them 6 questions to clarify their intentions, and to try and get the philosophy behind their policies.
On Wednesday afternoon, we delivered our On the Record petition to Downing Street. And the great news is that we’ve now received responses from the 3 parties that are most likely to form the next government, together with other parties across the country.
But that’s just the beginning. In the coming weeks the ONE team in London, together with ONE members around the country will be urging parties and candidates across the political spectrum to join us and vote against extreme poverty.
We’ll update you soon as election day draws nearer!
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.
