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Wheel support for the G8
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So we launched Thrive here in the UK last month with a tractor, and handed in our petition with wheelbarrows! 310,626 supporters from ONE, Save the Children and Concern have taken action to ask the G8 to prioritise hunger and food security at this weekend’s G8, and yesterday in London, we presented those voices to Downing Street ahead of the Prime Minister’s departure for the summit.
We met in a pub on Whitehall, and tweeted together during Prime Minister’s Questions, calling on the PM to commit to delivering on these important issues. Then, in what has been a rather rainy few weeks here, the sun shone for us today as we gathered on the steps of Trafalgar Square with 8 wheelbarrows – one for each G8 country – full of nutritious vegetables. We were fortunate to have Alice Klass with us from ASAP Africa in the Eastern Cape, someone who was able to say a few words to the crowd about the many children she’s seen affected by stunting “looking younger than they are” due to a lack of nutritious food.
The G8 have a real chance to act this weekend at Camp David. Let’s hope they’ve heard all our voices and turn the tide, breaking the cycle of hunger and poverty for good. You can see more coverage of the Thrive hand in on our storify page. |
Obama, Bono, G8 leaders… and YOU!
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Clear some space in your schedule this Friday for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, a discussion on new activities to advance global agricultural development, food and nutrition security in Africa.
This event is a dream come true for us here at ONE — we’ve been trying to “plant the seed” in the G8 to put sustainable global agriculture at the top of their agenda at this year’s summit. And now, thanks to this event, President Obama, G8 and African leaders, businesses, international organizations and civil society, Bono and more will have the opportunity to devote time and attention to this topic. Although we can’t be certain it will affect the outcomes of the Summit, we think it’s a great way to kick off the G8. The best part? You’re invited to the event, and you can participate, too. The Chicago Council is livestreaming the day’s panels, discussions and events on their website. Feel free to drop in, leave and come back to the event whenever you wish, all from the comfort of your computer. Panelists and guest speakers will all be on standby, ready to answer your questions on Twitter — so be sure to follow @GlobalAgDev and direct your questions and comments to #globalag.
And again, here’s how you can get involved: - Watch the livestream of the event. It starts at 8 a.m. EDT. You don’t have to watch the whole thing, but make sure you keep it up in a tab on your browser so you can follow along. Find out which events you want to watch by checking out the agenda here. - Follow live blog posts and analysis from Roger Thurow and other hunger experts at the Chicago Council’s Global Food For Thought blog. - Ask questions to the panelists and guest speakers by tweeting at @globalagdev and using hashtag #globalag. They’ll be on the lookout for your questions, so you may get an answer from Josette Sheeran of the World Economic Forum or even Rajiv Shah of USAID! I’ll be following along, too — so remember, you can always tweet at @ONECampaign with any questions you have about the event. See you on Friday! |
Bob Geldof: G8 leaders still capable of ending poverty
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This week Bob Geldof returned to Ethiopia to highlight various issues in the country including food security, in the run up to the G8 Summit due to take place at Camp David this weekend. Bob Geldof has called on the leaders of the G8 to make good on their promises to tackle extreme poverty and hunger. Over 290,000 ONE members have signed our Thrive petition calling on the G8 to support a global plan to ensure 50 million people escape poverty through agriculture and 15 million children no longer endure chronic malnutrition. Plus, this week thousands of ONE members have been sending messages to be written on the road leading to the summit by the ONE street tweet robot. You can watch the full report from ITV here, or as featured on MSNBC below: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy |
ONE Canada – Meet up in Ottawa
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When Ben Leo, Director of Global Policy and Sara Messer, Policy Manager from ONE in Washington DC recently traveled to Ottawa, it seemed like a great chance to have a meet up with some of our ONE members in the Ottawa area. The event drew about 25 local members, many of whom were also members of our partner organization Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB). Ben Leo shared about the exciting campaigns ONE is currently running – The Beginning of the End of AIDS and THRIVE including the online petition to the members of the G8 to keep the world’s most poor and vulnerable at the top of the agenda at the upcoming G8 Summit.
You can sign the petition here: We were very pleased to have Peter Braid MP for Kitchener-Waterloo attend and share with us the role that Canada plays in development programs all over the world as well as to reiterate Canada’s commitment to the issues that we care about at ONE such as global hunger and maternal and infant health. Mr. Braid also told us about his own travels to Africa and how he has seen first hand that Canadian aid works. He affirmed the work that ONE is doing and encouraged us to continue to advocate on behalf of the world’s most poor and vulnerable. It was a great evening connecting with some of our awesome ONE members in Canada. Head over to the new ONE Canada Facebook page and “like us” and follow us on twitter @ONE_in_Canada for the latest from ONE members in Canada! Sarah Stone, ONE Member Waterloo, Ontario |
Poverty doesn’t respect borders. Neither should fighting it.
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Guest blog post from Oxfam’s Dr Katherine Trebeck A journalist asked me the other day whether it is difficult working on UK poverty issues for an organisation that largely focuses on international development. I think he was trying to draw out a newsworthy tension, perhaps a story how Oxfam only operates our domestic programme out of some tokenistic ‘oh we better do something in our own backyard’ mentality. But I disappointed him. You see, the existence of poverty in the UK is linked to the existence of poverty around the world, whether we like it or not and whether we’re aware of it or not. Global trade, supra-national institutions, power imbalances, capital flows, rising food prices, climate change, diasporas, immigration and emigration, companies bigger than states, homogenisation of taste etc . These all point to how none of us can bunker down and pretend we’re not impacted by what happens around the world. We’re more connected than we know. And the way we address poverty in the UK needs to draw on the analysis of the causes of poverty around the world and also solutions to poverty around the world. So rather than a tension, there’s a great advantage in working for an international development organisation in seeking to address poverty in the UK. For example, last year I visited an Oxfam project in South Uist, a island off the north west coast of Scotland. The project was addressing the impact of climate change (something hardly caused by Scotland or the UK acting alone). Travelling with me was Henriette Koubakouenda, an amazing woman from the Congo who now lives in Glasgow. It was amazing the extent to which she felt at home on South Uist, the connections and bonds she felt with the Islanders. She noted similarities between her experience of marginalisation, exclusion and struggle in the Congo and what people on South Uist faced. Of course not identical, but the power of wealth and the lack of voice for those with few resources is something Oxfam sees everywhere we work. In Africa and in the UK.
So, instead of ignoring them, we need to learn from these parallels, recognise the links, the similarities, the common experiences and, utilise good solutions – wherever they originated. In Oxfam’s work in Scotland we’re using approaches that have served Oxfam well in places like Haiti and Ethiopia – supporting women enter markets, creating collective businesses that can pool risk and gain traction in economic transactions, and working to enhance the assets, skills and knowledge that exists in communities. However, the journalist’s question the other day is symptomatic of a growing debate in the UK, a debate carried out in the media at least. Questions are growing louder about the extent to which charity starts at home and if it does, in these tough times, should the UK reconsider how much we spend on our overseas aid? Firstly, compared to our other spending priorities, we don’t spend that much – the UK invested approximately £8.6 billion in overseas aid in 2011, just 0.56% of our Gross National Income. Even with the planned increase to 0.7% in 2013 to meet our international commitments it will mean that less that UK aid will account for just 1.6 pence in every pound of government spending. Just compare that to the trillions bailing out the banks or the £12 billion pounds of edible food that we throw away each year. Secondly, and more importantly perhaps, I can’t see any moral justification for limiting our concern and care and solidarity to those who share the same soil or the same passport. Peter Singer famously confronted his students with the challenge: would they ruin a pair of new shoes to save a drowning child? If so, why don’t more of us donate the cost of a pair of expensive shoes and clothes to those organisations that are helping the global poor? And people know this – the evidence is that ‘the achievement of justice at home sustains justice abroad… Citizens do not see global justice as an either-or issue… relationships of solidarity do not stop at national boundaries. ’ So asking whether we should stop supporting our friends, cousins, partners around the world in order to increase support for those at home is missing the point. It is not a zero-sum game, more a question of mutually beneficial processes. We should invest in creating a more equal UK. But we should also invest in creating a more equal world. Dr Katherine Trebeck works for Oxfam Scotland as the Research and Policy Adviser for UK Poverty, undertaking work focusing on poverty in the UK. |
The Energy Poverty Challenge
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Now imagine if the power went out… No power would make it a tricky to read this wouldn’t it? No power means: no computer, no power to charge your mobile phone, no email, no working fridge, no electric kettle, no evening light… Now imagine the power went out everywhere… homes, offices, street lights, factories, train stations, banks and ATM machines… even hospitals… for 6 months! How are you going to live? How will you store and cook your food? What happens if you get ill? Would you still be able to do your job? How could you earn a living and provide for your family in this world without power? Luckily this is not something that many of us in rich countries need to worry about. But having access to energy is central to almost everything we do. Energy literally powers our lives. However not everyone has access to the energy services you or I might take for granted. Did you know that in 2012 nearly 7 in 10 people living in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity or modern energy sources? That the majority of people in sub-Saharan Africa have to heat their homes and cook on open fires? Due to a lack of access to clean, safe, affordable and reliable energy these people have no decent evening light, limited access to modern communications and inadequate education and health facilities. This energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is limiting poverty reduction, job creation and economic growth. A lack of access to energy stifles people’s potential and their ability to earn a living. It’s a problem that ONE feels passionately about solving. But we need your help to do that… In fact Michael Elliot, ONE’s CEO, is challenging you to help us. At the Fortune Green Brainstorm event in California last month Michael delivered a speech to some of the US’s best technical minds explaining the problem and setting out the challenge. 
So now the challenge is open to you! In the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, and with governments, civil society and the private sector planning to make commitments towards UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s Sustainable Energy for All Initiative to mobilize global action to achieve universal energy access at Rio+20, ONE asks you:
After placing your vote don’t forget that these aren’t the only ideas. Feel free to use the comments page below to make further suggestions and follow the conversation on Twitter via the #MyEnergyIdea and #energy4all hashtags. We need your help to tackle the energy poverty challenge and to help governments provide energy access to the billions of people who do not yet have it. |
How are you reading this right now? On a computer I expect – perhaps you are sitting in an office or library with the lights on?Honouring the commitment to put an end to food insecurity
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This piece is part of a series of blogs by leading NGOs to call attention to a range of issues that should be raised at the G8 summit at Camp David in rural Maryland from May 18 to 19. This was originally published on Huffington Post Impact. If you took the current population of the United States and quadrupled it, you would almost have the number of people living in extreme poverty in the world today. A whopping 20 percent of the world’s population — 1.4 billion people — lives on less than $1.25 a day. Over two-thirds of these extremely poor people do not have enough food to eat, and going to bed hungry is an everyday occurrence.
Food security, hunger and poverty are some of the most overwhelming problems facing the world today. It is undeniable that the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty will not be easily broken, especially since it has been exacerbated in recent years due to external shocks like the global food and economic crisis. Countless parents are unable to feed their families enough nutritious food, leaving children hungry and malnourished. Over a billion people will go to sleep hungry tonight. But don’t despair. Despite these hurdles, we can break this cycle for good, and the G8 must take the necessary steps to put an end to food insecurity once and for all. As the G8 countries prepare to convene at Camp David, agriculture in the developing world is expected to be a big focus. ONE and our 3 million members worldwide are jumping on this opportunity to ask the G8 leaders to remember their L’Aquila commitments and to invest in 30 country-owned plans that can ensure that 50 million people escape poverty through agriculture and 15 million children no longer suffer from chronic malnutrition. At the 2009 L’Aquila G8 Summit, the G8 countries and five other donors responded to the global food crisis and pledged $22 billion in support of agriculture and food security initiatives. The donors promised to deliver the funds within three years, to agree on a set of principles as to how they would spend the money, and remain transparent and accountable on their commitment. Despite the initial enthusiasm and diligence, however, the major donors failed to agree to consistent pledge years or a uniform system for measuring progress for the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI). As of July 2011, donors had disbursed a mere 22 percent of their $22 billion pledges, and in most cases, donors had not taken the Rome Principles to heart. Only 7 of the 40+ L’Aquila Initiative signatories have made pledges to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, GAFSP, the multilateral fund that best embodies the Rome Principles. Just as important as the dollars and cents of the donor’s pledges is how the donors promised to spend those funds, as significant budget constraints in many countries make maximizing the impact of every aid dollar absolutely essential. The Rome Principles call on all donors to design development plans based on the needs of each developing country and to guarantee that all actors are cooperating to achieve sustainable outcomes. The Rome Principle of country ownership calls for investing in country-owned plans, aimed at channeling resources to well-designed and results-based programs and partnerships. Country ownership is of particular importance to us now, and the United States has started to take country ownership seriously as part of its Feed the Future initiative. Unfortunately, most other donors lag behind in developing investment plans that are country-led. With this lapse in mind, ONE has launched Thrive — an ambitious new campaign that calls on each of us to play our part in tackling the root causes of hunger and extreme poverty. You can learn more about the campaign and find out how to get involved at www.one.org. Our recent research has shown that if donors, national governments, and the private sector funded the country agriculture plans of the 30 poor countries that have taken the time to determine what their farmers need to thrive, we could lift 50 million people out of poverty with those 30 plans alone. If we complemented those agriculture plans with nutrition interventions in countries that have demonstrated commitment to nutrition, 15 million fewer young children will suffer from stunting or irreversible developmental damage to their minds, organs and bodies As food prices rise yet again, the barriers to achieving food security and poverty reduction remain more daunting than ever. Supporting country-led initiatives is one of the most proven ways to achieve sustainable development and progress against food insecurity, and I encourage the G8 leaders to remember this as they head to Camp David later this month. Read more G8 news and blogs on HuffPost’s G8 big news page. |
Taking it to the street
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We have been hard at work with some tech wizards to create the ONE Street Tweeter – a clever robot that can print short tweets, tweetetes if you will, (40 characters or less) on road surfaces. Yes – we want to take your messages on the road. Better still, if we print your message we’ll even send a pic of it back to you to share it with your friends. So, what are you waiting for? You guys are more creative than any of those Mad Men types. Just tweet a message in your own words (no more than 40 characters including spaces) to encourage, rouse, and hustle the G8 to act now on hunger and poverty. Tweet your message to @ONEStreetTweet or if you don’t do that sort of thing then you can type your message into the box below.
Let’s hit the road and get heard. |
One of the biggest creative challenges we face is finding ways to adequately express the spirit and strength of our amazing membership — And more than this, to maximize the impact of member voices to push for the positive changes we are all seeking to achieve. Combine this scenario with a message-saturated G8 Summit and you’ll understand why we’ve had to find something extraordinary to do next week… Ahem, cue Tweet the Street…Pomp and poverty
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Yesterday morning in the UK, the Queen’s Speech took place amidst the occasion’s usual pomp. During a lavish ceremony at the Houses of Parliament there were guards, Lords, Earls, maces, Strangers, Black Rod and a whole host of other terms that we rarely hear, some we only just about understand but all are an essential part of the tradition and workings of the “mother of parliaments”.
Image: Parliamentary copyright/ Parliamentary Recording Unit The Speech, which marks the State Opening of Parliament, takes place in May each year and it is the government’s opportunity to set out what legislation it intends to pass in the coming twelve months. Now, whilst the government does not have to include everything it will do in the next twelve months in the speech, if something does make it into the speech it can be taken as a definite notice of intent that that is what the government is going to do. That is why we were hoping that the speech this year would include a promise to legislate on the 0.7% target for international aid. It did not. That isn’t to say that we aren’t pleased with what was there. Whilst the government did not promise legislation they did reaffirm their commitment to meet the target by 2013 in the speech which is good news. Meeting Britain’s aid promise will put 15.9 million children in school and help over 9 million people overcome malnutrition in the next four years. However, it does feel like the government have missed an open goal here. The legislation is ready, it is not a long bill and it was in the manifestos of all three main political parties before the last general election and the coalition agreement. Why wait? There are plenty of people around the world who are probably wondering the same thing. ONE’s report “Small Change/Big Difference” shows the fantastic results that could be achieved if the government keeps its promise to the world’s poorest: better nutrition for 9.6 million people, safe drinking water for 17 million people, 5.8 million safe births saving the lives of 50,000 mothers, the list goes on… The UK has long been a world leader in international development and this would be its opportunity to do so again. If the UK legislates for and meets the 0.7 target it would the first G8 country to do so; a record the government and the British public can be proud of when the Prime Minister welcomes other world leaders to the UK for the G8 in 2013. |
ONE VOTE France is over : the real battle begins
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On March 12th, ONE France launched one of its most ambitious campaigns yet: ONE VOTE 2012. The idea was to take advantage of the presidential election to call to the candidates to revise the current relationship between France and Africa. The campaign covered everything from aid and its efficiency to the duty of transparency of French companies working in Africa. During almost two months, ONE members quizzed the candidates using twitter on the following areas:
ONE France launched a ONE Vote 2012 website featuring a video that starred former presidents of the Republic. When candidates responded to the questions, ONE members could vote on whether they liked or disliked their answers. 
The campaign was a great success. All the candidates answered our questions, with the exception of extreme right leader Marine le Pen. We even received an answer in video to our questions (see the answer of Kader Arif, from elect President François Hollande’s team). Last Sunday, the presidential election ended, and François Hollande was elected President of French Republic. It is thus to him that goes the heavy but necessary duty to revise the link uniting France and the African continent for the coming five years. Within the framework of the ONE VOTE campaign, François Hollande made a commitment towards making the 0.7 % Aid promise. He also declared support for more transparency in the extractive industries in their operations abroad. We hope that the new president will keep to his commitments: he can be inspired by a recent poll that demonstrates that an ambitious development policy is supported by the French people: only 19 % of our fellow countrymen want the French aid for development to be decreased. According to another survey published last month, 74 % of the French people are in favour of a financial transaction tax, which would raise money for development. François Hollande has in his hands the power to raise the French international politics as high as France’s ambitions. And the countries of Africa should be his first strategic allies in this adventure. The new president has the chance to make make the relationship between France and Africa a powerful remedy for the challenges ahead and to open the way to a better future for all. A first opportunity will appear to the new president on May 18th, during the G8 summit. The summit will discuss an initiative to reduce global poverty and hunger. ONE will keep up the fight for a new relation between France and Africa. Thank you all, our members, our Facebook fans and Twitter followers, who signed and shared the petition, who mobilized and made these commitments possible. And please, keep mobilized: let us not give up and let us call on the leaders of the G8, of whom François Hollande is henceforth a member, to break the vicious circle of hunger and poverty by signing the petition! |
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About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
TAGS: Agriculture, Food, NGO Partners, ONE, Partners, Thrive, UK