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!
Last week was an unofficial women’s week in the UK with a string of events starting with International Women’s Day on the Monday, the launch of ONE’s Women ONE2ONE campaign, and ending with Mothering Sunday (Mothers Day here in the UK).
On Friday I joined a gathering outside the Houses of Parliament in London to take part in the ‘Minute for Mothers’ event organised by our friends at Save the Children. The idea was to bring people together to remember the women and babies who unnecessarily lose their lives every day.
Everyone was given a tag to write a personalised message of support, which was then attached to a white rose and added to the display.
The singer and campaigner Annie Lennox spoke at the event, which also included a moving minute’s silence in memory of the women who die in childbirth every minute of every day, and for the 2 million babies who die on their first day of life every year.
Afterwards, just as the rain started (it’s Britain after all) we headed into the House of Commons for a mum’s cafe run by the online forum Mumsnet. Following some lovely tea and biscuits served by the Mumsnet folk dressed in brightly coloured dresses and aprons, we listened to moving speeches, which literally brought a tear to my eye.
Annie Lennox spoke passionately about the fact that HIV has become the leading cause of death and disease among women of reproductive age worldwide. Whilst Gareth Thomas MP, Minister of State in the Department for International Development talked about his trip to Sierra Leone and what he saw there, urging people to continue to advocate strongly on this important issue. Jasmine Whitbread, CEO of Save the Children in the UK closed the event, highlighting her recent visit to Niger and northern Nigeria where she saw firsthand the benefits of informal groups and networks of women supporting each other and passing on advice, particularly in the more remote rural areas.
It was a powerful end to a week of events focussing on the situation that many women today find themselves in around the world. But it also showed that when women have access to education, health services, economic opportunities and political process, they, their children, their communities and their countries reap the benefits.
P.S. It’s not too late to take part. Send a virtual flower, which will be delivered to the party leaders in the UK.
Alexander Woollcombe from the ONE UK office reports on a significant development:
Good news but there’s more to do
ONE volunteer Jennifer and staffer Tamar at the door of 10 Downing Street with the petition.
These are stormy times in Westminster – but the commitment to help those who most need it remains. And as the UK general election next year approaches it is more important than ever that our politicians understand they are being watched, and need to keep their promises.
Last week we asked ONE supporters to sign up to our petition to “prioritise legislation that makes the UK’s commitment of 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) as development assistance by 2013 legally binding”.
Yesterday ONE supporters Tamar, Jennifer and I delivered our petition to a friendly policeman who opened the black door of Gordon Brown’s house at 10 Downing Street. He promised to pass it on to the Prime Minister “at once”, which was nice of him.
Then the Queen, in her speech to open the new parliamentary session, announced, “draft legislation” to do exactly what we asked. So we won!
It’s a technical thing to ask for, but aid to developing countries is more useful if those receiving it know it is coming and can plan accordingly. It’s also a brave thing for the British Government to announce when the country is still in the grips of recession.
The UK first promised to spend 0.7% GNI on aid nearly 40 years ago. But it hasn’t ever happened. Now all the main political parties have committed to do it by 2013. Gordon Brown announced in September he would propose legislation on this, but it wasn’t a certainty that this promise would make it into the Queen’s Speech.
We didn’t get everything that we wanted however; the Queen announced “draft legislation”, meaning it is very unlikely to become law before the general election, while we want this to happen as soon as possible. But with the help of ONE supporters, and everyone else who cares about Africa and development, we’ll keep the pressure on the Government. There’s a lot of work to do to make aid better but every step in the right direction is a step worth noting. Thanks to everyone who signed the petition.
As Bono said today “the proposal to make the 0.7% pledge legally binding is not just a great announcement, it is transformative of real lives, by a government that has led the world in keeping its promises to the world’s poorest people. The next step is making sure this becomes law as soon as possible, in 2010”.
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
David Cole from ONE’s UK office writes about the country’s party conferences and the launch of their ONE Vote campaign (very similar to what we did in the US around the 2008 presidential election. The launch was also a chance to celebrate 1GOAL, which you can read more about here.
Last week ONE was at the Labour Party conference, where we held an event to launch our ONE Vote campaign as well as celebrating 1GOAL and the fact that the football World Cup will be held in Africa for the first time ever next year.
We were lucky to be joined by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who spoke about the issues. Two footballers also spoke, South African captain Aaron Mokoena and John Utaka, who plays for Nigeria and Portsmouth. They were followed by Glenys Kinnock, Minister for Europe, and Douglas Alexander, the Minister for International Development.
The ONE team is now in Manchester for the Conservative Party Conference, which started earlier this week, and we’re getting ready to host a reception this evening. We’ll be blogging more about the event soon so please stay tuned.
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