President Obama sets Right direction for United States Role in Achieving the MDGs

Sphere: Related Content

Four days ago, David Lane, ONE President and CEO, informed me and more than 40,000 other ONE members that we had been successful in petitioning President Obama to deliver on his powerful pledge to present a plan for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) before the upcoming September's United Nation's Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York City. (Excuse for not doing this sooner is that again work got to hectic)

President Obama followed through on his pledge by releasing a new plan spelling out how the United States will work to achieve the United Nations' Eight Goal Millennium Campaign. 1. End Hunger 2. Universal Education 3. Gender Equity 4. Child Health 5. Maternal Health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases 7. Environmental Sustainability 8. Global Partnership by 2015.

The plan, (you can read more about it here) stresses the importance of good governance, promoting economic growth and measurable results.

We should also feel proud to know that our work made a difference, and that the US is taking a real lead on the MDGs. But we can't forget that there's still a lot of hard work to do. We must make sure that the US acts on its new plan to tackle both the MDGs and broader development issues. We must urge other countries to commit to do their part at the September UN Summit. We must continue to let our leaders know that we support these goals and the hope, health, security and opportunity they offer to the world's poorest people.

The actual report is here:

Celebrate, Innovate, and Sustain: Toward 2015 and Beyond

I like the fact that it says "Toward2015 and Beyond" and leading with the word "Celebrate" is intriguing. First thing is to sit down and read it.

Related articles by Zemanta

• From principle to practice: Making the US MDG plan a reality (one.org)
• President Obama is releasing the US's MDG strategy today...but where's the bigger plan? (one.org)
• Breaking: White House releases MDG Plan (one.org)
• US gets a strategy to meet the Millennium Development Goals - please explain (aidwatchers.com)
• UN Foundation Founder and Chairman Ted Turner Calls on Private Citizens to Do Their Part to Help Achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals (prweb.com)
• To Achieve MDGs, Economic Policies Must Help Poor, UNDP Head Says (medicalnewstoday.com)

Help Women Thrive Worldwide and Help the World Thrive

Sphere: Related Content

The petition for the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) sponsored on Change.org by Help Women Thrive World Wide, and supported by a number of other organizations featured in this blog, was signed sometime ago and I had already asked my Senators to support it. Here is a response from Senator Boxer who helped introduce the bill on the Senate side. Senator Boxer and the International Violence Against Women Act (S.2982).

Now further movement has been with the announcement in July that Congressman Dave Reichert (R-WA), described as a moderate, has decided to sponsor H.R.4594 - International Violence Against Women Act of 2010.

This has direct application to Millennium Development Goal No. 3. Gender Equity. You can't speak of equity or empowerment in a world where you are not safe. It also applies to all of the Millennium Development Goals because women will pay such a large part in bringing them about in thousands of villages across the globe.

It is all the more important because it is times of disaster that bring out best in some people but the worst in others. As a post earlier this year stated Women make a difference in Haiti and will make a difference in the new millennium. The threat of violence becomes all the worse during such calamities. The International Rescue Committee has called for support for this reason.

... months after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, many women and girls are still living in makeshift crowded camps in Port-au-Prince. In these teeming and often poorly lit settlements, women face the threat of physical and sexual assault and grapple with dangers posed by active criminal gangs.

Ensure that the United States does not turn a blind eye to violence against women in places like Haiti. Urge your Senator to support the International Violence Against Women Act.

There are however some warnings out there as to how we implement these programs. One of the challenges of implementing the Millennium Development Goals is avoiding having those who pay impose their cultural views. This is a slippery slope either way. Here is an article describing the problems seen with this bill from India. I do not see the author as being anti-woman, as are some who have quoted him. International Violence against Women Act Faces Stiff Opposition From Unexpected Quarter. This is similar to concerns raised in the article Bruce Nussbaum: The New Imperialism. I still support the idea of focusing aid on women and recognizing that worldwide women are without rights and disproportionately burdened by poverty. We also need to look at the organizations such as Amnesty International and USAID and make sure a motivation to do good does not become an excuse to ignore the right of self-determination of others.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Women Thrive Worldwide's 31 Days of Action to End Gender Violence (womensrights.change.org)
• Finance: Getting Women from Micro to Mezzo (businessweek.com)
• Why We Need to Listen to Shirley Sherrod (race.change.org)
• Letters: After Haiti's Quake, Another Form of Horror (nytimes.com)
• Support the International Violence Against Women Act (rushprnews.com)

Fwd: Developing More Top African Women Research Scientists

Sphere: Related Content

These are stories regarding the Millennium Development Goals featured in the IPS Inter Press Service found further down below these posts under Global News Sources.

I am simply making them available. Anybody who wants to can sign up to have them sent directly.

2010/8/6
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Removing Barriers to Trade Charles Mpaka* BLANTYRE, Aug 4 - Cecilia Gondwe waits in the shade of a tree at the Mwanza Border Post between Malawi and Mozambique. Somewhere inside, a clearing agent is completing elaborate paperwork on her behalf. MORE >> ZAMBIA: Election Violence Could Mean Fewer Women Participants Kelvin Kachingwe LUSAKA , Aug 4 - There are growing fears that increasing numbers of women candidates and voters may not participate in the 2011 general elections because of an upsurge in election-related violence. MORE >> DR CONGO: Sticks And Straw Out of Our Schools Badylon K. Bakiman KIKWIT, DR Congo, Aug 3 - Led by the local church, residents of Gungu administrative zone, in the southwestern Democratic Republic of Congo have used their own resources to transform the conditions in which their children study. MORE >> HIV-positive Kenyans Need Tribunal to Address Rights Violations David Njagi NAIROBI, Aug 3 - Nancy Njeri's life changed when she contracted HIV through a gang rape. Not only did the infection traumatise her, she was ostracised by close friends and neighbours whom she had known for almost a decade. She was fired from her job and when she attempted to sell vegetables, people boycotted her stand because of her status. MORE >> SOUTHERN AFRICA: Boost Cross-Border Trade for Food Security Lewis Mwanangombe* LUSAKA, Aug 3 - Small-scale traders on either side of the Mwami Border Post between Zambia and Malawi are key to meeting local demands that larger importers do not. MORE >> Developing More Top African Women Research Scientists Isaiah Esipisu NAIROBI, Aug 2 - In a tiny village near Kisumu city in Kenya, scientific researcher Mary Anyango Oyunga spends most of her time educating women about something they have always done – grow sweet potatoes. MORE >> Q&A: Clean Energy and Cultural Survival in Nicaragua Julio Godoy interviews ANNE-CÉCILE MAILFERT, of blueEnergy France* - PARIS, Aug 1 (Tierramérica) - For the past six years, French and U.S. engineers have been installing solar panels and wind turbines in the southeastern Nicaraguan town of Bluefields, promoting clean energy and development among the region's Rama indigenous peoples. MORE >> BURKINA FASO: Race to Achieve Goals on Sanitation Brahima Ouédraogo OUAGADOUGOU, Jul 31 - The government of Burkina Faso has embarked on the construction of 55,000 latrines each year to improve access to proper sanitation for the population from the present 10 percent to 54 percent by 2015. MORE >> MALAWI: Innovative Campaigning by Women Candidates Claire Ngozo LILONGWE, Jul 30 - You will find Beauty Kasonda on her campaign trail at funerals, weddings, church functions or just about any local gathering in her community. Kasonda does not have the sort of funding her male counterparts have for campaigning in the country's November 2010 elections but she is not letting that stop her. MORE >> POLITICS-GUINEA: Women Amongst Also-Rans in Presidential Elections Saliou Samb CONAKRY, Jul 30 - Celou Dalein Diallo gained a significant advantage over Alpha Condé, his main rival for the Guinean presidency, when a third candidate said he would back Diallo in a second round of voting in August. But what has become of women candidates for high political office in this West African country? MORE >> IPS is partnering with the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) to increase coverage of poverty issues and distribution of poverty related news articles worldwide. The core of this partnership is a three year (2010-2012) EU funded project that focuses on the situation in the Least Developed Countries. This page includes independent IPS news coverage financed by the EU in a project to cover the MDG situation in Least Developed Countries. The contents of this news coverage, including any funded by the European Union, are the sole responsibility of IPS and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.
Read more IPS reporting on Development Deadline 2015 here. Copyright © 2010 IPS - Inter Press Service -- All rights reserved.

	Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Confirm | Forward

Related articles by Zemanta

• Mia Farrow: Educated Children Are the Future of Africa (huffingtonpost.com)
• UN to reduce DR Congo peace force (dailycaller.com)
• Conflict Minerals on the Blogs: Correcting Misperceptions (humanrights.change.org)
• How to counter rape as a weapon of war (guardian.co.uk)