This blog's purpose is to connect in an every widening and deepening manner with others across the globe in support of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals.
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The folks from ONE are again asking everybody to Ask the G20 to go to Africa. Africa must be part of the global economic recovery, and we can help make that happen by asking the G20 to hold an upcoming summit in Africa.
I have already signed and as of this post they have 76,846 which means they reached 76% of their NEW goal of 100,000 signers. This is a reblog of a couple of ONE emails, but hopefully it does some good and arguably the push to have the G20 meeting in Africa can continue after Pittsburgh.
In my job as President of the African Development Bank, I see the potential of Africa every day. But it is necessary that the G20 see that potential, too—and include Africa in their plans for a new global economic foundation.
That is why I support ONE in asking the leaders of the G20 nations to hold an upcoming summit in Africa. Bringing the G20 to Africa would make it impossible to ignore the role Africa must play in any successful global economic recovery. You can click this link to sign ONE's petition and add your voice to this urgent campaign:
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.
The other is mural is in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh, where the G20 – a group made up of the leaders of twenty of the world's most powerful nations.
And trust me, the presidents, prime ministers, and members of the media following them here in Pittsburgh won't be able to miss it. Ask others to add their voices and check out this powerful message-by-mural, and you'll be doing everything possible to tell the G20 to host an upcoming summit in Africa:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I am one of millions watching, blogging over the last few posts, and waiting to see what the G20 would do in London. Thousands of mile away, I have made some slacktivist endeavors to encourage change on a multinational, billions dollar budget, global stage. Hopefully those other fellow millions put together helped make a difference. The EndPoverty2015 campaign, which was one of the impetuses for this blog, provided the following background leading up to the economic summit.
UN MILLENNIUM CAMPAIGN URGES WORLD LEADERS TO PRIORITIZE SOLUTIONS FOR THE POOR AT G-20 MEETING
As world leaders meet in London on 2 April to discuss plans to address the current economic crisis, the Millennium Campaign and our civil society partners are calling on the G20 leaders to prioritise solutions for the poor. The economic crisis threatens to push more than 50 million more people into poverty and reverse achievements made on the Millennium Development Goals.
This crisis, manufactured in rich countries cannot be used as an excuse for rich countries to renege on their aid commitments to poor countries, which are already bearing the brunt of the financial crisis. Read our four policy demands and check out additional background information.
The world's heads of state gathered in London at the G20 summit this week to talk about what to do about the economic crisis. Our own Humanitarian Relief blogger Michael Kleinman was there too as a credentialed blogger, reporting on the meetings, food options, and the treatment of the media (hint: it could be better).
After discussing the state of the planet, the world leaders basically promised to do what they'd already set out to do before: reaffirm foreign aid spending pledges, outline new funding for "social protection," and echo their commitment to address climate change. Not too exciting.
Their focus is on President Obama. I was interested more in the measures proposed by the Group of 20 that would reverse the global downturn and address issues of concern to this blog. Though I have quoted from the news article, the links go directly to the IMF webpages.
“This is the day the world came together to fight against the global recession. Our message today is clear and certain: we believe that global problems require global solutions.” Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister
This is not the same, in my view, as the long term and sustainable solutions proposed by the Millennium Development Goals themselves. It is a quick and necessary fix.
China is expected to contribute $40 billion. Japan and the European Union each pledged $100 billion. The United States has said it will contribute $100 billion, too, though that requires Congressional approval.
So the next action I would expect from Change.org and Avaaz would be to get Congress to fund the $100 billion. What I have to wonder is if we had a world that had fully funded the Millennium Development Goals in a timely manner, would we have found our selves in this mess.
Action on climate change is cheaper than inaction
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Many are afraid that tackling climate change is going to be too costly. But
increasingly, studies are showing action will not just be cheaper than
inacti...
