Let No Family Go Hungry But on What Terms

Sphere: Related Content The Stand Up Take Action and the UN MDG Summit are now both over and in my view it was all too little and too much at the same time, but more on that later.The events of the past week have induced me to change the focus with this blog to trying to go a bit deeper and include more relevant information on particular issues,with each post, especially those before Congress.
So while, I will still be responding when someone like Emily V. of Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team urges us to tell Congress to enact a global strategy to reduce world hunger, I will also be examining the issue more closely and raising questions.

Food.- It's one of our most basic needs. But the number of people suffering from chronic hunger is increasing every year. Today, one-sixth of the world's population goes hungry.The Global Food Security Act now before Congress would make it faster and cheaper to feed the more than 1 billion people facing chronic hunger. If passed, this bill would give more flexibility in food emergencies, like buying food locally and regionally, as well as providing social safety net programs for the world's poor. Plus, by developing long-term agricultural projects, it will help women farmers to increase their income and pull their families out of poverty. Tell Congress to pass the Global Food Security Act »

The overall sentiment behind the Care2 request is great but the details, as often is the case with these calls for action, are sparse. This involves a controversial bill S. 384: Global Food Security Act of 2009, which at least in its earlier form, was opposed by a number of organizations, some of which have been supported in this blog.
The Global Food Security Act has recently had a hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. A video of the hearing is provided below.xx
[Some technical information first part starts at 19:38 and second Part starts at 122:20]
Committee on Foreign Relations: concluded a hearing to examine promoting global food security, focusing on the next steps for Congress and the Administration, after receiving testimony from Jacob Lew, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources; Rajiv Shah, Administrator, United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and Global Agricultural Development Initiative Cochairs, Dan Glickman, Washington, DC, and Catherine Bertini, Cortland, New York, both of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

This blog has looked at the issue of Global Food Security before with the post Commitment to Global Food Security Sadly Lacking. All of the Millennium Development Goals, including Millennium Development Goal 1. End Hunger not only need to be attained by 2015, they also need to be sustained after that and that will not happen without a viable global food security program.
The level of disagreement, among those who would be assumed to be on the same side of an issue having to do with feeding the developing world, has a fairly wide range. The specific organizations opposing S.384 back in 2009 and perhaps still so today are a more numerous as well as a more varied crowd. One of the important concepts raised in this argument is balancing Food Security with Food Sovereignty. This is the sticking point with S. 384 from me. It seemingly places Millennium Development Goal 1. End Hunger in opposition with Millennium Development Goal 8. Global Partnership.

Some are opposed because they see the legislation as being in contrast with the principles of their organization. Whether this remains true for the final version of the bill remains to be seen.Many progressive organizations accuse the bill of being written in favor of large industrial agricultural firms, specifically in this case Monsanto.
Some organizations are basically opposed to genetic modification in any form as a means of feeding the world. At this point, I am not, but I will be studying this and the supposed negative effects of the so-called Green Revolution more closely.

Others see the failure of the Green Revolution being a result of political neglect not bad science.
Timothy Geithner and Bill Gates: A New Initiative to Feed the World

We should not be facing this challenge today. In the 1960s and '70s the world understood that agricultural development was an indispensable tool in alleviating hunger, reducing poverty, and driving economic growth. A combination of new, high-yielding crops developed by scientists such as Norman Borlaug and sustained investments from the U.S. and other countries helped save hundreds of millions of people from starvation in India, Mexico and elsewhere. Yet during the past three decades the world's interest in agriculture waned. Donor nations moved on to focus on other issues. The result is that there has been a sharp drop in aid for agriculture. In 1979, nearly 18% of all official development assistance world-wide went to agriculture. In 2008, about 5% did. Timothy Geithner and Bill Gates: A New Initiative to Feed the World - WSJ.com

The truth is that I am very likely relatively more conservative than many of those in the organizations opposing this bill. I do see technology as being an essential tool for meeting the Millennium Development Goals. I also remain an advocate of free enterprise and social enterprise as a means of facing these challenges. This can make for some strange political bedfellows on various issues (in this case Geithner), which means more thinking on my part on the subject.
Even though I may have some issues with Mr. Geithner, I still come down at this point with favoring the bill. My rationale is that CARE Urges Passage of Global Food Security Act; Commends Bipartisan Support in Both Senate and House. Besides the fact that they are making the request for support, their reasons for doing so seems not to be tied to the question of genetic engineering, rather they seem to have more on-the-ground pragmatic concerns related to their own efforts to get food to those most in need.

"Transporting food from the United States to hungry people in developing countries is expensive, slow and unpredictable -- it does not make sense to spend 65 cents of every dollar in food aid on processing and transportation," said Dr. Gayle.

CARE places special emphasis on investing in women and girls' empowerment. Passage of the Global Food Security Act could benefit families and move entire communities out of poverty by providing women farmers access to the necessary tools, skills and financial resources to feed their families and get their crops to local markets. ONE also seems to be supporting the bill as some of the articles cited below indicate.
I have been going back and forth on this issue. Here is some information on the Lugar­Casey
 Global
Food
 Security 
Act
 (S.
384)
 that lists organizations for and against the bill from 2009.
Below is some more information on the organizations that were opposing S.384 in 2009, though some of the links are old it appears until the language in the bill is changed most still do.

• Food First
• Policy Brief: Why the Lugar-Casey Global Food Security Act will Fail to Curb Hunger
• New Food Sovereignty book released by Fernwood Press, Food First Books, and Fahamu

• Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
• Interfaith community response to Feed the Future, the U.S. Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative
• Read more about the MOGC's analysis of Feed the Future in the July-August 2010 issue of NewsNotes.

• National Family Farm Coalition
• Farmer to Farmer Campaign on Genetic Engineering
• U.S. WORKING GROUP ON THE FOOD CRISIS CRITICIZES GLOBAL HARVEST INITIATIVE’S FAILED IDEAS TO FEED THE WORLD

• Union of Concerned Scientists
• UCS calls on Congress to make the bill technology neutral by stripping a provision that appears to mandate research employing genetic engineering.

• Organic Consumers Association
  • US Senate, Bill Gates Give the Planet a Middle Finger for Earth Day

• WHY Hunger Organization
• Human Rights: Foundation for Progress on the MDGs
  

Related articles by Zemanta

• Africa's green revolution will founder without extra global funding | Agnes Kalibata and Joseph Sam Sesay (guardian.co.uk)
• Good 'old Vandana Shiva, has a new link up, turns out she lied about the UN's position on organic farming (losthighwaytimes.com)
• Interview with Phil Bereano: Part I (energybulletin.net)
• Recap: August recess meet 'n greets (one.org)
• ONE Chicago volunteers visit Sen. Durbin's office (one.org)
• A More Productive and Sustainable Agriculture is Needed to Halve Hunger by 2015 (prweb.com basically means press release consider accordingly)
  

No Leadership or Consensus Regarding Climate Change as Nations Meet

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The New York Times now has the same storyline as the China Daily News and that is that the new climate change agreement is in trouble. The problem is that there is neither a consensus nor a leader arising to form the consensus required as called for in this Note from the Secretary-General to Heads of States and Governments on Mobilizing Political Momentum for Copenhagen.

SCIENCE / ENVIRONMENT | September 20, 2009 No Climate Change Leader as Nations Meet
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR: As nations gather for a major summit meeting on climate change, none want to take the lead in fighting for significant international targets.

While virtually all of the largest developed and developing nations have made domestic commitments toward creating more efficient, renewable sources of energy to cut emissions, none want to take the lead in fighting for significant international emissions reduction targets, lest they be accused at home of selling out future jobs and economic growth.

The problem is that there isn't consensus at any geographical level even when there should be common goals.

SOUTH ASIA: Disunity Hovers over a Region Battling Climate Change - IPS ipsnews.net

KATHMANDU, Sep 20 (IPS) - As the Copenhagen Conference on climate change draws nearer, South Asia, which appears poised for severe threats from the impacts of climate change, faces a stiff challenge on two fronts.

For one, South Asia’s member states – home to half the world’s poor – need to convince the developed world to take steps toward the mitigation of future climate-related risks in the region.

For another, divergence of ideas among these countries over some crucial issues arising from the impact of this global concern on the region is a potential stumbling block to training some of the global climate change spotlight on South Asia.

The World Bank World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change demonstrates that this lack of cooperation and lack of consensus will most negatively impact the poorest of countries.

As Neil Bird of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Blog tells, us we still have long way to go on climate change: seven issues to consider from the World Development Report 2010.

Everyone talks about reaching a global deal over a successor to the Kyoto Agreement at Copenhagen, but as the World Bank’s new World Development Report comprehensively outlines there is a long way to go to secure an adequate response to tackling climate change.

The video makes a very important point in it's opening and that is that the World Development Report focuses on the impact of climate change on the developing world's struggle to rise out of poverty.

Our interest in climate changes starts and ends in many ways with our interest in development.

Marianne Fay - Co-director of World Development Report and
Chief Economist, Sustainable Development Network

Related Posts:

• One of the Morally Urgent Questions of Our Moment

• 7th of 8 days: 8 Goals Personal Stories behind the Millennium Development Goals

• 2 Steps Forward, 2 Degrees Back

• Different Paths to Saving the Climate - All Up Hill

• Two Pathways For Having Your Say on Climate Control

Tell the G20 - Go to Africa

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The current economic crisis has dealt a hard blow against the already lackluster efforts to implement the MDGs. We have already dealt with the fact that the Financial Industry Receives 10 Times More Money in 1 year than Poor Countries Receive in 49 Years. It doesn't look any better in the future. A Reuter's story by Laura MacInnis back on July looked at the dialogue between the G8 and the World Bank and determined that 2009 will remain dangerous a year.

The Group of Eight nations should not presume a global economic recovery is near, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a letter to G8 host Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi obtained by Reuters on Monday.

In his letter, Zoellick stressed the July 8-10 summit should also "focus on the plight of the poor in the developing world."

In the year to June 30, the World Bank committed $60 billion in aid to developing nations, much of it for infrastructure projects. Zoellick said wealthy nations should not hold back on further aid commitments in spite of the economic uncertainty.

There has been some signs that things may be staying the same. G-20 Ministers Back Stimulus, but Pay Limits Are Elusive BUSINESS / GLOBAL BUSINESS | September 06, 2009 By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and JULIA WERDIGIER

The world's financial ministers vowed to keep their multi-trillion-dollar stimulus efforts in place, but at a meeting failed to agree on any firm limits on bankers' bonuses.

Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, said members of the G-20 “have to make sure that we finish the job we started.” He added: “There is still a lot of risk, a lot of uncertainty and a lot of obstacles to negotiate.”

So what kind of statement can be made to influence how the world's economic leaders look at the plight and potential of developing countries?

Well the folks from ONE have an idea. When the world's Presidents and Prime Ministers fly to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 24 for the G20 Summit (the latest in a series of high-level talks on the global economy, covering everything from international trade to the rules governing financial markets), ask that the G20 to host an upcoming summit in Africa and put that continent's potential on the political map.

ONE argue that if an African country is picked next to host an upcoming G20 summit, it would bring new attention to the role Africa can and must play in any successful global economic recovery. This blog has no problem supporting that idea having long featured TED Talks Africa, The Next Chapter which proves the point.

Click the link to add your name to our petition

The petition reads:

Dear G20 Leaders,

Please hold an upcoming G20 Summit in Africa, and see for yourselves how its one billion people can be part of the global economic recovery.

David Lane of ONE tells us that,

The Africa I've seen is ready to join the global marketplace and help drive economic growth. And its agricultural resources, if fully developed, could feed the world. In a recent visit to Ethiopia—where malaria deaths have been halved in only two years—I visited the new Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), a first of its kind electronic, international exchange for coffee, grain and other agricultural products. The ECX is entrepreneurialism at its best, helping farmers and traders get fair prices for their goods.

This kind of success is being repeated across Africa. Through smart aid and African-led innovation, poverty and disease are giving way to trade and opportunity. Now, we need the leaders of the G20 nations to go to Africa and see it for themselves.

Tell the G20 that one of their upcoming meetings must be in Africa:

Here is Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin in a 2007 TEDTalk outlining the ambitious vision that became the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX).

Final of 8 days 8 Goals Personal Stories behind the Millennium Development Goals

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This video is the last of an incredible video series on the MDGs provided by the United Nations Millennium Campaign.

We hope that this series has given you a better understanding of not only the issues behind the goals, but more importantly the implications it has for individuals all around the world. We hope you have enjoyed the videos. Stay tuned for an exciting update this week..

The "first" day video is here. The second day video is here. Third day video here. Fourth day video here. Fifth day here. Sixth here. Seventh here.

UN Millennium Campaign Goal 8 Global Partnership

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Somewhat Related Posts:

The Ledger of Human Development - Accounting For Change

Millennium Project on Trade Fair & Free

Obama best for the Globe according to Europe

Refugees Across the Globe - A Millennium Problem

Financial Fears * Global Challenges * Some Potential Answers

Making Hope Last Longer Than Hunger

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Tomorrow is the day to Unite For Hunger and Hope but I will be at work so I am writing tonight. This is a natural for this blog as it involves the first of the Millennium Development Goals 1. End Hunger and on a global level it will involve 8. Global Partnership. While I fully support charitable efforts such as that being put on here by Heifer International, it will be a collective, collaborative, sustained effort by governments, NGOs, change-agent organizations, of us to bring about a lasting change. It cannot be just through well meaning donations during particular times of the year, we have to change how we do things both locally and globally. Others will be able to write far more eloquently about the suffering wrought by hunger than I will. I look for change that can be made manifest.

It is of particular concern to the UN MILLENNIUM CAMPAIGN's to get the G20 to address this need in the current economic crisis, despite the valiant $42.6 million, three-year immediate plan of action by the FAO last year. The FAO or Food & Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, is one of the primary global organizations addressing this issue.

I have written about World Hunger Notes before and will provide a link to the post below, so here are some bullet points.

• The world produces enough food to feed everyone.
  
• Poverty is the principal cause of hunger.
• An estimated 982 million poor people in developing countries who live on $1 a day or less (World Bank, Understanding Poverty, Chen 2004).
  
• Conflict as a cause of hunger and poverty.
  
• Hunger is also a cause of poverty.
  

Another global agency address hunger is the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which provided a plan of actionable objectives in its Challenge of Hunger 2008

Combating the food crisis will require

1. More food aid for poor people;
2. Much greater investments in agriculture - especially the small farm sector;
3. More investment in social protection programs and social sectors - education & health;
4. Reforms to create a fair world trading system;
5. Changes to biofuel policies;
6. Measures to calm global food markets;
7. Better data collection and improved monitoring of the food and nutrition situation;
8. More support for nongovernmental organizations that work on behalf of poor people in developing countries.

All of this has been talked of before and will be talked about again and again. Often repetitive actions are necessary to bring about change. Each time we talk or write maybe one more person listens, but if a thousand small voices speak up that is a thousand more added to the effort to change the world.

What more can be done in the future? Starting on October 16, which is also World Food Day, people will once again be Standing Up To End Poverty. You can join that effort now and start organizing now to make a difference to bring real hope and stamp out hunger for the next millennium and beyond. The growth of the Stand Up Campaign is exponential. From 2006 to 2007 it achieve 46% growth, from 2007 to 2008 62% growth, and now 2008 to 2009 depends upon what happens in 2009. Could we hope for even greater growth of 75% or 80%? That could be 170,000,000 or 190,000,000 or even break 200,000,000. Maybe it is a bit unfair to use this forum to promote another event, but those are inconsequential details of who and when, the important thing is the what - ending hunger.

Related Posts:
FAO not Schwartz part 1 - Global Plan of Action Addresses a Global Challenge Hunger
FAO not Schwartz part 2- Opposing Pathways to Ending World Hunger and Malnutrition
FAO not Schwartz part 3 - A World Tragedy Too Long
Financial Fears * Global Challenges * Some Potential Answers
Blog Action Day Is Today The Struggle Continues
Taking the Measure of Chronic Poverty

The People of the United States Stand Up Speak Out

The Ledger of Human Development - Accounting For Change

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To talk of achieving accurate measurements of aid program inputs and outputs and striving to enhance human development might seem mixing the profane and sacred, but the two arguably must work together to bring about change. There is also the seemingly vast distance between the individuals struggling daily with the challenges dealt with in this blog for survival and the global programmatic policies of world-spanning organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. This expanse is mediated by the interventions of organizations such as ONE, ActionAid, Global Call To Action Against Poverty or Oxfam UK, among many others, which though large still must struggle against the entrenched system of government and financial powers.

One path that developing countries can take is the HIPC Initiative or Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, the major debt relief system launched in the late 1990s by the International Monetary Fund.

The HIPC Initiative is a comprehensive approach to debt reduction for heavily indebted poor countries pursuing IMF- and World Bank-supported adjustment and reform programs. To date, debt reduction packages have been approved for 33 countries, 27 of them in Africa, providing US$49 billion (net present value terms as of the decision point) in debt-service relief over time. Eight additional countries are potentially eligible for HIPC Initiative assistance and may wish to avail themselves of this debt relief.

To be considered for HIPC Initiative assistance, a country must:
(1) Be IDA-only and PRGF-eligible;
(2) Face an unsustainable debt burden, beyond traditionally available debt-relief mechanisms;
(3) Establish a track record of reform and sound policies through IMF- and IDA-supported programs; and
(4) Have developed a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) through a broad-based participatory process.

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are prepared by governments in low-income countries through a participatory process involving domestic stakeholders and external development partners, including the IMF and the World Bank. A PRSP describes the macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programs that a country will pursue over several years to promote broad-based growth and reduce poverty, as well as external financing needs and the associated sources of financing.

diigo tags: prsp, mdg, mdgs, millennium development goals, hipc, development, IMF

The approach of the IMF is not without criticism from all points along the political spectrum, but the need for measurement is widely recognized. While the viability of the measurement of human development can be debated , both in application and precision, it does create a metric by which to test relative effectiveness. It can serve to provide both short term program objectives and longer term policy goals. It can help to create a strategic paradigm through which to organize continuing efforts which will be explored further in the next post.

Related posts: Human Development - The Measurement of Human Endeavors

Millennium Project on Trade Fair & Free

Sphere: Related Content Rav Casley Gera, late of the African Development for the Completely Bloody Ignorant blog, did a post on back on 1/28/08, which is about how late he has been. Rav provides policy suggestions from the U.N. Overview Report A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals section 3. Recommendations for the international system to support country-level processes. (pdf). I am paraphrasing here, as usual you can go to his article for more indepth information.

Rav recognizes what the UN argues in their 2004 report on strategies to meet the Millennium Development Goals that the "the slogan 'trade, not aid' is misguided." (p46). "Trade, not aid" is a common refrain used by conservatives arguing against increasing aid to Africa, but also by an increasing number of social entrepreneurs seeking to move beyond government foreign aid which is not sustainable. The debate is no less intense as two past posts from my other blog indicate. A Question of Nets Malaria and Social Aid A Question of Nets Malaria and Social Aid 2

Trade and aid are not mutually exclusive. Trading with other countries has helped transform Asian developing economies and slashed poverty. It is not the whole story and it is not a choice of either supplying aid to help keep people alive or compelling trade to force developing countries to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. First, you have to have boots.

The report is also explicit in its belief that, "in the long term, free trade is in everyone's best interest", meaning that both free trade and fair trade must be realized to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Putting these two concepts together in the same beaker may be more difficult than combining the concepts of private trade and public aid. Rav provides an example by pointing out that the UN report is at odds with the Commission for Africa, whose own report emphasized poor countries' right to protect their economies (pdf). I won't deny the need for poor countries to protect their economies, which is one of the premises of fair trade, the challenge will be in creating the correct balance, the argument will be on where the point of balance is.

Abolish agricultural subsidies. They are both expensive and harm poor countries by making exports from rich countries cheaper than goods grown at home! (p46). Rich countries are being neither fair nor free in their practice. For the first I will turn to to this Stigliz article from the Ghana Graphic Online and for the second to my favorite Libertarian-light economist Tyler Cowen – Kill the Farm Bill.

Manufactured goods made in poor countries when exported to rich countries face crippling import tariffs that make them too expensive to succeed. Because rich countries have agreed various free-trade initiatives through groupings like the EU, many place higher tariffs on goods from poor countries than on goods from other rich countries.

Barriers placed by developing countries are meant to prevent goods flowing in from rich countries, also act as trade barriers between fellow poor countries - preventing, for example, trade between neighboring African states, which could both help those economies grow, but also help reduce conflict between African states. The UN report calls for a quick reduction to zero of tariffs on imports of nonagricultural goods proposing a deadline of 2025 for the removal of their barriers for developing countries and 2015 for rich countries. (p46-7). Meaning that there is a ten (10) year gap before fair trade and free trade are effectively blended together. Prior to that time they are likely to be an admixture of competing policies and philosophies.

Rav also looks at free trade in services being a controversial idea, "with many arguing that poor countries could be forced to sell off their remaining public services and to remove regulations on things like banking to fulfill the requirements of the World Trade Organization's GATS initiative". UNESCO has raised the issue of education, university quality and mobility in the past. The GATS initiative is another example of a practice I need to learn more about where developing countries struggle with their own economic engines, but developing countries get to write the owner's manual. I am not saying it is necessarily wrong just needs to be studied more. More on that and other issues raised by Rav in another post.

The Darker Side of Biofuel

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Ending hunger is usually the first thing one thinks about when thinking about the Millennium Development Goals. Another important goal is environmental sustainability. What happens when they are put into conflict with each other?

Biofuels: Burning Food? via Allianz Knowledge / Latest Articles on 10/20/08 asks,

Are biofuels responsible for higher food prices and a growing number of hungry people? Terri Raney, senior economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), explains the links between food and fuel.

"Biofuels demand is likely to keep basic food commodity prices 10 to 15 percent higher than they would have been otherwise."

Terri Raney, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre on 10/20/08 introduced us to an even darker side with The Gates of Hell - Jungle takes a look at the lesser known side of the ethanol boom.

My task is to translate, photograph, film and get permission to accompany the Brasilian government's Mobile Group on a rescue mission to release men, women and children being forced to work in sub-human conditions...[by] unscrupulous land owners...since 1995, 30,000 slaves have been freed.

Other earlier posts from my blogs dealing with biofuels have included:

• Good Intentions: Biofuels / Bad Consequences: Worse Than Gasoline And Better As Food?
• Energy And Politics Bio-Fuels And Barack
• Financial Fears * Global Challenges * Some Potential Answers

Tear up the Myanmar junta's insurance

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This blog's latest online action was with the Bloggers Unite campaign in support of refugees. Another group that has had a number of worthwhile campaigns has been Avaaz. Here are some past campaigns supported by this blog Using the Web to take action is Change, Adding your voice to a cause is Change and What the world including me is saying to Obama. Burma has also been a topic for this blog with Refugees Across the Globe - A Millennium Problem, Open Architecture Network - Making a difference with the Web and Triangular Scale and with my other blog, Pathways to New Paradigms Even In A Digital World It Takes Real Heart To Make Change, Revisiting The Past Creating the Future and Burma Burning. Below is the latest action from Avaaz concerning Burma.

Dear friends, Myanmar

Burma is far from the headlines - but we've found a real pressure point, the insurers who prop up the junta's economic interests. Read the email and take action now!

A year after their crackdown, Burma's military dictators remain entrenched, propped up by dealings with Western companies. But the Burmese democracy movement has found a powerful pressure point -- many of the Generals' West-linked business ventures depend on one insurer: Lloyd's of London.[1]

Lloyd's is the world's oldest, most respected insurer, and cares a great deal about its global reputation -- by pointing out Lloyd's blameworthiness as key insurance deals come up for renewal, we can shift their cost-benefit calculations on support to the Burmese regime.

If enough of us email and call key decision-makers at Lloyd's this week, we could shame them into pulling out of this dirty trade, undermining the hardliners and creating pressure for human rights and the release of political prisoners like democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Follow this link to lend a hand to the Burmese people.

Lloyd's of London is the umbrella and overseer for hundreds of specialist insurance syndicates, and it can stop their dirty trade if it so chooses. Already many big global insurers have stopped insuring junta-linked businesses – after Lloyd's, the generals will start to run out of options. We'll ramp up the pressure by alerting the media to our campaign, specialist insurance publications included. Even the British government has begun to ask Lloyd's to cease its business with the Burmese military junta.[2]

If we win, the regime will be thrown onto the back foot, Burma's people will be immensely heartened, and the UN Secretary-General will have a greater chance of securing the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other prisoners this December.[3] Together, our individual small acts are becoming irresistible. We can't forget Burma.

With hope and determination,

Paul, Alice, Iain, Graziela, Ricken, Pascal, Paula, Brett, Veronique, Milena -- the entire Avaaz team

Sources:

1. The Observer: "The baron who holds Burma's purse strings", 2 November 2008

Reinsurance Magazine: Big insurers including Marsh, Swiss Re, AON pull out:

Arab Insurance Group and XL also pull out

2. "Foreign Office warns Lloyd's over Burma"

3. As Ban Ki-Moon prepares to visit, Asia-Europe summit in Beijing calls for release of political prisoners:


ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Sydney and Geneva.

Click here to learn more about Avaaz's largest campaigns.

Obama best for the Globe according to Europe

Sphere: Related Content The following two articles from EurActiv.com are both from before the election, but they still indicate where we now stand in relation with Europe on the global stage. According to the first article, Obama seen as best to deal with global woes, "both Americans and Europeans agree that Barack Obama is better suited than his rival John McCain to addressing global issues such as the financial crisis and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a new study shows ahead of US presidential elections on 4 November."

Quotes: EurActiv.com - Obama seen as best to deal with global woes

• Obama is seen as the better candidate, both by Americans and Europeans, to deal with the financial crisis and its impact on the economy, which both sides cite as the most urgent issues the new US president should address, ahead of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But Americans are far more concerned about their own economy (85%), while Europeans instead worry about the global situation. Read more »

One point of possible contention could be trade and globalization. I still lean towards globalization in my views but with Fair Trade policies enacted. Whether that is actually doable is another matter. It was some of Barack Obama's early perspectivies on Free Trade that sealed my support for him. He did change the rhetoric during the campaign, but as John Glenn of the German Marshall Fund told EurActiv in an interview, Barack Obama is unlikely to convert his protectionist rhetoric into concrete policies.

Quotes: EurActiv.com - Scholar: Obama protectionism mere 'election talk'

• But I think that it would be a mistake to see him as sort of traditional Democrat who is driven by concerns over, say, the vote of trade unions and would be dramatically different because I think that we are really talking about a different person than say, President Clinton, who really shifted the Democratic party in terms of trade. I think this is a difference of degree over a hardened approach to trade rather than a fundamental approach. Read more »

Refugees Across the Globe - A Millennium Problem

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The last few days have been filled with more learning, studying and research (as well as "real" life work) than in actually writing anything in either of my blogs. Today, however, is the 10th of November and I had committed to creating a post on Refugees on behalf of BloggersUnite. Their work is focusing on Refugees Unite. My post is going to tie this issue with that of the Millennium Development Goals.

There is the question of how many in the world are now refugees because the Millennium Goals have not, and in many of those countries more likely to have refugees populations, are not close to being met.

Refugees face all of the problems that the Millennium Development Goals endeavor to address. Those problems are made far worse because these families are without a country. Getting essential help to refugees is at a minimum difficult, because they are in remote and isolated locations often decimated by natural causes or war, and is in many cases dangerous.

I decided that for this post that I would see what was available from the resources I have connected to this blog. My research did find some successes as in this article from IRIN NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees find new life beyond the camps

Thousands of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal have been successfully resettled in seven countries, including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Canada, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

In other news from Business and Human Rights PricewaterhouseCoopers donates $4 million to educate Darfur's refugees. SciDev.Net cites the work of International Organisation for Migration

The IOM was established in 1951 as an intergovernmental organisation to resettle European displaced persons, refugees and migrants.

The news, however, is usually catastrophic as in this International Tribune story Congo refugee camp hit by cholera outbreak. Unlike many migrants in the world today, refugees did not make the choice to leave their homes, it was forced upon them. Sometimes by nature, but all too often by malignant force, IPS writes on the crimes against humanity including refugees by the Myanmar Junta.

An increasing number of refugees have been crossing over to northern Thailand from among the Karen ethnic community, the second largest ethnic group in Burma, or Myanmar. Many of them live in the mountainous Karen State, the territory where South-east Asia's longest --and largely ignored -- separatist conflict is being waged between Burmese troops and the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU).

''Myanmar's troops are overtly targeting civilians; they are actively avoiding KNU military installations. That is why we are describing the attacks as 'crimes against humanity','' says Benjamin Zawacki, South-east Asia researcher for Amnesty International (AI), the global rights lobby. ''The violations are widespread and systematic.''

We must also look to ourselves when blaming others for the blight of refugees. The Overseas Development Institute posted last year on the blight of Iraqi refugees.

The United Nations deals with these problems around the world. Thousands of refugees from Darfur remain along volatile border, Chad: UN distributes aid to refugees left homeless after camp, (more results from www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp), UNRWA: palestine refugees, or What's Going On?: Child Refugees in Tanzania are just a few examples.

There are dozens of more examples that could be found. What is made obvious is that these tragedies are prevalent across the globe and persistent in their nature. Unlike the Millennium Development Goals, which though consisting of 8 goals are seen interrelated and requiring comprehensive action, refugee crises seem to be seen as separate problems. If the world were a human body, the problem of refugees would be analogous to the symptoms of a disease such as cancer, but the challenges of the Millennium Development Goals would be analogous to the underlying disease itself. If you treat only the symptoms you will never address the underlying cause. If the Millennium Goals were now in place so that disasters and war were not as capable of pushing countries beyond the brink of disaster, then would that make the problem of refugees in the world so much easier to prevent and to address.

November 10th, Bloggers Unite for Refugees

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I received the following e-mail from the folks at blogcatalog.

This Nov. 10, all eyes will be on BlogCatalog members and bloggers who participate in Bloggers Unite For Refugees. Will you be one of them?

Ever since we started helping bloggers unite for different causes, we've proven that a little good can go a long way in making the world a better place.

This time, because of our work to increase human rights awareness, many members chose to go one step further to raise awareness for refugees — people who are impacted by these issues. So, on Nov. 10, thousands of bloggers will write about the various challenges faced by the 11 million people who have no country to call home and the 40 million more who have been displaced because of war and natural disasters.

*YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE*

By writing just one post for this cause, you can help raise awareness about refugees and help our partner, Refugees United, connect with local non-government organizations (NGOs) to help refugees in their search for lost loved ones. Their goal is to reunite children with parents, husbands with wives, and family members with friends.

Participating is easy and you can learn more about this event at http://unite.blogcatalog.com. There, you will find action badges, source material for blog posts, and more information about these people who have no country to call home.

With you help, I know we can encourage thousands of more bloggers to get involved and make Bloggers Unite For Refugees as successful as our last event with Amnesty International. It's one of those events that even if we reunite just one family, then we have made an immeasurable impact on the world. Thanks so much for your continued support! We really look forward to reading your posts and the posts of your friends on Nov. 10!

Thanks,
The BlogCatalog Team

-------------------

P.S. We are launching a whole new Bloggers Unite in the coming weeks, make sure to stop by http://www.bloggersunite.org/ and sign up to be notified when it launches!

The site also offers some good resources.

• Learn more about this global problem

  Below are some great links and resouces to help get you started blogging.

  UK Refugee Services
  

  Lutheran Refugee Services
  

  Aotearoa-New Zealand Refugee Services
  

  United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrant Children
  

  Church World Service Immigrant & Refugee Program
  

  Women's Commission for Refugee Women & Children
  

  Additional Links/Resources
  http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/protect?id=3b8265c7a
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statelessness
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/road_to_refuge/default.stm

• On November 10th get the word out and blog about Refugees.

• Spread the love, share your post in the Bloggers Unite Group.

Financial Fears * Global Challenges * Some Potential Answers

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The Center for Global Development on 10/19/08 wrote about an interview of CGD president Nancy Birdsall by National Public Radio regarding the financial crisis' impact on foreign assistance to poor countries - Experts Fear Financial Crisis Will Hurt World's Poor (National Public Radio).

'When a country is hit by a crisis, there will be a decline in aid in the subsequent couple of years," says Nancy Birdsall, who runs the center, which promotes policies to fight poverty. "There has been a return to trend in the past: Sweden's aid flows declined after its banking crisis in the early '90s, and Japan's aid flows declined when it had its problems in the '90s, but they have come back.'

One of the members of End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA, SpongeBob (likely not his real name) introduced me to this report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). A "laundry" list of what the IFPRI is calling for covers a number of the Millennium Development Goals. The report and information on the IFPRI itself is provided below. The challenges raised by the IFPRI are only made greater by the outlook from the Center For Global Development. Even obtaining the most hopeful of outcomes in the American elections could still potentially mean a diminishing of the United State's future role, at least for a time, though it will likely be greater than what exists currently.

• The Challenge of Hunger 2008

  diigo tags: hunger, mdgs, mdg, GHI

  Combating the food crisis will require
  
  1. More food aid for poor people;
  2. Much greater investments in agriculture - especially the small farm sector;
  3. More investment in social protection programs and social sectors - education & health;
  4. Reforms to create a fair world trading system;
  5. Changes to biofuel policies;
  6. Measures to calm global food markets;
  7. Better data collection and improved monitoring of the food and nutrition situation;
  8. More support for nongovernmental organizations that work on behalf of poor people in developing countries.

• The 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI) shows that the world has made slow progress in reducing food insecurity since 1990, with dramatic differences among regions and countries. In the nearly two decades since 1990, some regions — South and Southeast Asia, the Near East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean — have made significant headway in improving food security. Nevertheless, the GHI remains high in South Asia. The GHI is similarly high in Sub-Saharan Africa, where progress has been marginal since 1990.

• About the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

  tags: ifpri, hunger, mdg, mdgs

  • IFPRI's Mission: To Provide Policy Solutions That Reduce Poverty and End Hunger and Malnutrition

    This mission flows from the CGIAR mission: "To achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through scientific research and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries, policy, and natural resources management."

  • Two key premises underlie IFPRI's mission:

    1. Sound and appropriate local, national, and international public policies are essential to achieving sustainable food security and nutritional improvement.
    
    
    2. Research and the dissemination of its results are critical inputs into the process of raising the quality of food policy debate and formulating sound and appropriate policies.

SciDev.Net , found below under Global News Sources, on 10/16/08 provided three essays, published by the same International Food Policy Research Institute, offering if not final answers to the food crisis then insightful perspectives on the global food crisis and how to deal with it.

Joachim von Braun, director-general of IFPRI, discusses high priority policy responses including: expanding emergency responses and humanitarian aid; freezing biofuel production; eradicating export bans and investing in rural infrastructure and agricultural research.

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), discusses WFP activities, including their food-for-assets programme used to train local populations, school feeding for around 20 million children and disaster-preparedness activities including canal-building and river bed restoration. Sheeran calls for more agricultural research and higher investment across the value chain.

Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, discusses the policy implications of high food prices for Africa. Policies are needed, he says, to create sustainable food production driven by advances in productivity rather than by expansion of cultivated area.

Stand Up Take Action Online

Sphere: Related Content One of the objectives of this blog is to use social media to get the word out about the Millennium Development Goals. Just as important is getting the word in. Starr Guzman, the National Campaign Coordinator for the Australian Council for International Development Make Poverty History Campaign, is providing a way for Facebook users to send their participation in Stand Up Take Action in on the Internet. Great, if your one of those who can't tear themselves way from the laptop. Maybe, you will still be worked up over the Blog Action Day post you did two days before.

Starr Guzman wrote on October 10, 2008 at 9:24pm on the Stand Up Take Action Facebook page.

If you can't attend a STAND Up event in your region or can't organise your own, why not stand up online?

Last year over 5,000 people took a stand against poverty via an online stand up. Here's how you can participate this year.

Read the pledge as shown on the Stand up against poverty facebook page (or provided below).

Email us at - mph@acfid.asn.au and let us know how many people are participating in your online action.

Let us know also what region of the world you're in and a postcode.

Once we've received your email, we'll add you via our official and approved online stand up action.

easy!

STAND UP PLEDGE

We are standing now with millions around the world on this symbolic day, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, to show our commitment to the fight against extreme poverty and inequality.

We are standing because we refuse to accept more excuses in a world where 50,000 people die every day as a result of extreme poverty and the gap between rich and poor is getting wider.

We are standing because we want our leaders to honour their promises to meet the Millennium Development Goals – and we ask them to exceed these goals.

We join in solidarity with people from over 100 countries to say:
To the leaders of the wealthy countries – We urge you to keep your promises on poverty – debt cancellation, more and better aid, trade justice and gender equality. To the leaders of poorer countries – make it your first responsibility to save the lives of your poorest citizens. We ask you to tackle inequality, to be accountable to your people, to govern fairly and justly, to fight corruption and to fulfill human rights. Today, and every day, we will stand up and speak out against poverty. We will continue the fight against poverty and inequality and t o hold our leaders to their promises.

We are asking not for charity but for justice. We are millions of voices standing in solidarity to say, no more excuses - end poverty now.

4. Act.

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Blogging Action Day Poverty is next Wednesday October 15, 2008. I am still doing posts on the 6 different ways to make Blogging Day unforgettable that Easton Ellsworth provided in his Action Blog post. Today the word is Act. Yesterday's post featured organizations that had either a vision for a better world or a dream of ending suffering in this world and were taking actions to make that a reality. Today's post features organizations found under
Supporting Millenium Development Goals "In the Trenches" that are taking political/social action to bring about change.

ActionAid

• JOIN TARGET POVERTY

• The issues are complicated, but the facts are simple.

• Decisions by world leaders on trade, corporate accountability, aid, HIV and AIDS are seriously threatening the progress of developing countries.

• As a result, the poorest people – particularly women – are trapped in poverty by global decisions beyond their control.

• Powerful people can end poverty. You can influence them.

• Join target poverty and together we can create a real momentum for change.

  Target poverty and make your mark.

Global Call To Action Against Poverty

• Take Action

• It is down to each and every one of us to work to end the injustices that cause poverty and inequality in the North and South.

• The last few years have been landmarks in the global fight against poverty. In January 2005, the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) was launched at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre and organized three whiteband days, at the G8 (Gleneagles, June), the Millennium Summit (New York, September) and the WTO Ministerial meeting (Hong Kong, December). In 2006, GCAP continued to grow in strength and numbers and millions of people were inspired to take action. 2007 was a vital year for GCAP with further mass mobilisations throughout the year, under the common slogan Stand Up and Speak Out.

• This year, GCAP will continue to mobilise around the world at key moments to demand action to end poverty and inequality.
  

• Join us now!
  

Change.org

• Change.org is an online hub and media network for social issues and collective action.

• 
• Learn about the most urgent causes of our time through our blog network.
• 
• Connect to other people and nonprofits fighting for the causes you're passionate about.
• 
• Take action by joining grassroots campaigns, making personal pledges or fundraising.

The Social Entrepreneurship Movement Business Smarts Meets Compassion

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This weblog is continuously attempting to find a balance between progressive compassion and business wisdom. I maintain the view that both are needed.

On 9/25/08, Dr. Jeff Cornwall of The Entrepreneurial Mind wrote again on The New Nature of the Social Entrepreneurship Movement.

The perspective we are hearing from our social entrepreneurship students is that they want to tackle one social problem at a time. They are not interested in massive solutions to problems, as they believe that all this does is create big, inefficient bureaucracies.

He cites a post that "challenges how we have conceptualized our past approaches to solving social problems in this world. It clearly echoes what we are hearing from our social entrepreneurship students, from the MakeZen's Weblog:

It struck me soon after how peculiar it was the way the question was formulated: would I like to join them to FIGHT against women violence? Why do we use the word "fight" that implies violence to get rid of violence? FIGHT against poverty, injustice, war etc. is something that we normally hear in the news, in the mission statements of some NGOs, and indeed in the life mission of some social entrepreneurs as well. It surely carries a negative energy and it will strengthen the other opposing energy. I believe it more and more that true and LASTING changes can never take place from a negative state of consciousness because ignorance will grow stronger when it is being attacked!

So don't fight against war, poverty and injustice- rather- work for peace, for fairness and let peace flow through all your actions in order to create true changes! It's possible, even in the most despair situation!

The Entrepreneurial Mind also wrote way back on 4/22/08 that Social Ventures Need to Have Market Relevance.

Social entrepreneur Sam Davidson was offered the following advice from Josh Kelly, one of the founders of a fair trade coffee venture called Higher Ground. Three guys began the dream back in 2002. Now they roast over 89,000 pounds a year and provide a unique fundraising and marketing model supporting the work on nonprofits with several unique blends.

It would be moronic to push an issue in the marketplace if you couldn't be competitive with it.

More on Sam's observation at his blog:

That is why, Dr. Cornwall advises, we call them social entrepreneurs -- they need to be effective entrepreneurs if they want to help their particular cause.

It is getting both to work,especially in larger organizations, that can be the challenge.

A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S President

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Nancy Birdsall, editor for Center for Global Development provided on 8/22/08 The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President.

The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President shows how modest changes in U.S. policies could greatly improve the lives of poor people in developing countries, thus fostering greater stability, security, and prosperity globally and at home. Center for Global Development experts offer fresh perspectives and practical advice on trade policy, migration, foreign aid, climate change and more. In an introductory essay, CGD President Nancy Birdsall explains why and how the next U.S. president must lead in the creation of a better, safer world.

Center for Global Development on 8/22/08 also provided The White House and the World Policy Briefs:

These Global Development Policy Briefs present the key facts and recommendations drawn from chapters of The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President.

The following briefs are available now:

• Healthy Foreign Policy: Bringing Coherence to the Global Health Agenda By Ruth Levine
• Global Warming: An Opportunity for Greatness By David Wheeler
• Power and Roads for Africa: What the United States Can Do By Vijaya Ramachandran
• Don't Close the Golden Door: Making Immigration Policy Work for Development By Michael Clemens
• U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century By Sheila Herrling and Steve Radelet

For the next U.S. president, effective development policy is not only the right thing to do, it is crucial to the future well-being of the American people. [The] new CGD volume, The White House and the World, offers practical suggestions.