For months, ONE members across the country have been writing thousands of THRIVE postcards to the White House asking President Obama to show bold leadership at the G8 summit and support smart agriculture and nutrition programs to help lift 50 million people out of extreme poverty.

Just last week prior to the G8 summit, President Obama announced at a symposium hosted by the Chicago Council, a new global alliance on food security and nutrition to prioritize country driven plans that fight hunger and poverty and continue the L’Aquila promises from 2009:

“After decades in which agriculture and nutrition didn’t always get the attention they deserved, we’ve put the fight against global hunger where it should be—at the forefront of global development.” –President Obama

Following this great commitment, we were lucky enough to get a brief opportunity to thank the President in person but we also wrote more THRIVE postcards to the White House, expressing our thanks.

You can see the video here.

During his speech, President Obama spoke about the power of even one voice and what amazing things can happen when all those voices are combined to make a loud noise. We couldn’t agree more. Keep up the loud noise ONE members!

P.S. Tweet to British Prime Minister David Cameron, next year’s G8 host- to push for more action on hunger and nutrition!

Business Day: No use ignoring diaspora in Africa itself. Until recently, it was fashionable in official circles to decry the brain drain, to criticise those who left and call for financial reparations from countries “poaching” African skills. That changed a few years ago when the African Union (AU) renamed emigrants living abroad as a “diaspora” and called on African governments to stop criticising and to start engaging with their diasporas. (Jonathan Crush)

NY Times: U.S. Human Rights Report Cites Bright Spots, but Also Points to Abuses. After an “especially tumultuous and momentous year” for human rights, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Thursday, the challenge in many Arab countries has shifted from breaking the back of entrenched dictatorships to protecting new freedom during the often chaotic and sometimes violent transitions that follow. (Brian Knowlton)

BBC: Somali al-Shabab militant stronghold Afgoye ‘captured.’ African Union (AU) forces in Somalia say they have captured the strategic town near the capital, Mogadishu, after Islamist militants pulled out. Afgoye was a major stronghold of the al-Shabab group, giving their fighters easy access to the capital.

BBC: Burkina Faso-Mali clashes leave 25 dead. At least 25 people have been killed in days of ethnic clashes over land rights along the Burkina Faso-Mali border, local officials say.

Last week G8 leaders focused on agriculture, and this summer we’re coming up on a flurry of global health events including a child survival Call to Action and the International AIDS Conference. How does GAVI’s work fit into this picture?

First of all, immunization is the most cost-effective health intervention, so in a world of limited resources, we need to make sure we do immunization first to get the most bang for the buck. I see immunization as a cornerstone. What’s important about immunization is that we know we can get out and reach an entire population, so immunization can be a wedge to get into places that are otherwise very difficult to reach. That being said, as a public health person, I try to take a holistic view of the world, and of course you don’t want your child to be fully immunized only to die of starvation or to have HIV, so the challenge is to make sure there’s a basket of interventions that they have access to.

Are you worried that the space will get too crowded this summer in terms of media attention and public engagement for development issues?

I think this issue is difficult, because in a sense we’re swinging from one topic to another, and we know the media has a shorter attention span on these issues. One of the reasons ONE is such a powerful force is because it keeps the drumroll going on these issues even when there aren’t new tidbits of news. It’s very important to stay on message and keep the effort going. The other side of course is the resource side, and in times of great economic crisis, the challenge is to keep the resources flowing from donors for global health. But we also need countries to step up and invest more in their own people, their own social systems. Countries have made public commitments in the past to invest more in their health sector, and that’s critical as we move forward.

In the next few years for GAVI, what are you most excited about? What challenges keep you up at night?

The thing I’m most excited about is that now we have these powerful new vaccines that can make a huge impact in both child mortality and morbidity. Trying to get these vaccines out to everybody is really exciting. We also have a new vaccine against cervical cancer—the leading cancer killer of women in the developing world—and that’s a challenge because the vaccine is given to adolescent girls, but it’s an amazing opportunity because adolescents need targeted health interventions. They need to be educated about contraceptives, HIV transmission, STDs, and safe motherhood, and all of those issues need an opportunity for someone to intervene at a very critical time. If we can form a relationship with communities to deliver vaccines, there’s a great chance to build on it and create a platform for other interventions.
What keeps me up at night is the difficulty and the audacity of what we’re trying to do in the most difficult places of the world—the Somalias, the DRCs, the Afghanistans—and not only roll out a vaccine but also to get really high coverage rates. The challenge, then, is how we build the health systems that allow us to reach the most vulnerable, the most isolated, the most stigmatized.

We got a question for you via twitter from @OrinLevine, who asked how you define success for GAVI in the next 5 years.

The easy answer is that we have a business plan with transparent, measurable targets up on our website, so meeting those targets would be success. But going beyond that, we need to start really getting at the equity issue. We’re not going to solve it in five years, but I hope that we can make real progress on both equity and sustainability. If we can get the resources we need to do more, and also have countries devoting more of their own resources through co-financing to pay for long-term immunization, we’ll be even more successful.

Check back to the ONE blog on Tuesday, where we’ll share part 2 of our interview with Seth. I’ll ask him a few more personal questions about his most memorable travel, why he still considers himself a maverick, and his message for ONE members.

Photo Credit: Credit GAVI/2012/Olivier Asselin

Video from last year’s Summit

Two weeks prior to this year’s G20 Summit in Mexico, the G(irls) 20 Summit will bring together one girl, aged 18-20, from each G20 country, the European Union and the African Union to Distrito Federal, Mexico. The agenda resembles the G20 leaders’ agenda, economic innovation and growth, however, the seats are filled with young women. The delegates participate in panel discussions, attend workshops, and caucus to discuss and promote tangible, callable solutions toward financial prosperity and the economic and political empowerment of girls and women, ending with delegate led press conference and communique that provides blueprint on how the G20 leaders can utilize and engage on the of the best resources in the world — girls and women.

As a longtime advocate for women’s leadership and equality, I am looking forward to hearing the female voices of the next generation and following the summit’s events. A few ways you can get involved:

1. Watch the live stream of the summit here. You can tune in and watch it on May 28, 29 and 31.

2. Follow me at @caithendricks and tweet along as I send summit updates, May 28-29.

3. Join the conversation by tweeting at @Girls20Summit.

4. Grab a number: join the G(irls) 20 Summit by sending a message to G20 leaders that there are 3.5 billion girls and women in the world, and these girls and women need to be empowered because their empowerment leads to healthier families, innovative economies and stable countries.

P.S. Watch this space for my interview with the African Union delegate from Cameroon, Glender Favour.

“We can now study at night at the school and our schoolwork has improved significantly as we no longer have to use paraffin lamps to study and do assignments at night,” says Chipendeke Primary School pupil Madeline Bofu. “When I complete my education, I would like to become a lawyer.” Read her story here.

“Our clinic is now able to treat people at night and store medicines,’’ said William Chanakira, from the Chipendeke Clinic. “The biggest problem we used to face was with women who gave birth at night. They had to provide their own candles or lamps”.

These voices are from villagers from Chipendeke, one of the rural communities in Southern Africa that Practical Action have been working with to develop small scale micro hydro schemes – harnessing water to provide them with energy.

Community workers at the micro hydro scheme

Chipendeke is situated 64km south east of Mutare, a province in eastern Zimbabwe. The micro hydro scheme uses a local stream to power a turbine, providing electricity to the area.

It is owned and operated by the community it serves, with maintenance carried out by trained members of the community. As a result, it provides employment, as well as providing the power to re-energise the entire community.

Much of the community’s income is generated through farming crops such as maize, wheat, potatoes and tomatoes. Introducing electricity in the area has improved the efficiency of the farmers and the quality of their produce. Farmers can now power workshops to repair damaged tools and can also power grinding mills, which vastly increases their productivity and income.

Social life has been greatly enhanced. Communities can now watch TV and listen to the radio, keeping them in touch with the rest of the country, and can recharge their mobile phones.

A clinic with a catchment area of 25,000 people can now sterilize drugs in cold rooms and provide maternity services for expecting mothers, including live saving cesarean births for complicated deliveries.

Mother and son wait for vaccination against TB and pneumonia

The school block, including teachers’ houses, has been electrified, increasing its chances of retaining qualified teachers. Children are now able to study at night.

Local shop owners can refrigerate their products and a number of small business enterprises are emerging, such as peanut butter processing.

Woman with her peanut crop

However, for four out of five families in Africa, access to modern energy is still a pipedream.

There are political, economic, technical and institutional barriers that limit the development and use of renewable energy sources to meet the energy needs of poor, off-grid communities.

Zimbabwe and Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most off track regarding progress on the MDGs, yet the geography and climate make it ideal for renewable energy systems that can provide marginalised people from rural communities with the resources they need to fight their way out of poverty.

Practical Action is a leading NGO an ‘Energy for All by 2030’ initiative working to raise public awareness and political will to make energy access a development priority. You can find out more about Practical Action and their work on ‘Energy for All by 2030’ here and help us achieve this aim by making your point about energy access for all.

Earlier this year, my family and I packed up our bags and moved to the Kenyan coast for six months so that my husband could do research for his Fulbright scholarship. Living in Kenya is not easy, and one of the first things our family had to adapt to was intermittent electricity.

When we first arrived on the coast in January, we would lose power at least once a week, sometimes for 12 or more hours. When the power goes out, Kenyan people say, “Potea!” meaning “lost” in Kiswahili -– and I’ve started to say it, too.

As a result, we’ve learned how to live with unreliable power. If I am using the computer for a homeschooling lesson with my children and the power goes out, we change gears and do something else, like enjoy an impromptu field trip to the beach.

If the power goes out after dark, we’ll use our LED camp lanterns or run the generator a short while before bed. The kids know what to do, too. They usually remember to keep the refrigerator shut while they contemplate what they want to eat. And when I go shopping for the family, I usually buy fresh fish and meat on the day I am going to eat it, so it’s not at risk of being spoiled in the freezer if the power goes out. It is hardest when the electricity goes out at night when we are asleep. The ceiling fans stop spinning and the heat wakes us up.

My experience living in Kenya has inspired me to think a lot about energy, and what we can do to bring it to the poorest places in the world. Here in Kenya, the sun is strong, and harnessing its power seems so logical. Simple things like small portable lights powered by solar energy would go a long way in brightening up the homes of many people, especially for those who don’t have access to electricity. Most of the power in Kenya is generated through hydro-electricity, a source which is highly dependent on rain and water availability. But I think solar power, geothermal and other alternatives should be supported and made accessible. These efforts would go a long way in improving the quality of life in Kenya.

The electricity may be back on in my house in Kenya for now, but for many in Kenya, there will be no electricity.

Do you have an opinion on how to solve the energy poverty challenge? If so, ONE wants to hear from you -– check out our Energy Poverty Challenge blog post to contribute to the discussion and find out more. Or, tweet your ideas to us using the hashtag #energy4all and #myenergyidea.

Amid a flurry of public officials, business and NGO leaders and African heads of state at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs‘ Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, ONE had one of it’s own represented: our cofounder Bono.

Bono just finished up a speech which covered everything from global agriculture to foreign aid to transparency in the mining industry. In the context of the day’s events, his remarks were a call to action to everyone in the room, urging us to work together to help lift 50 million people out of poverty.

“The conversation has changed,” he said. “Aid is smarter. It’s finally dawning on most of us that the continent that contains the most poverty also contains the most wealth… Imagine a place bursting at the seams with gold, copper, oil… undeveloped arable land. Not to mention the human resources.”

Bono praised President Obama’s new alliance to promote agricultural growth in Africa, which was announced earlier today. “If the words of his speech are turned into bold action in partnership with the developing world and the private sector, then today was a real moment,” he said.

He did not shy away from acknowledging the harsh economic realities that many governments face today, bringing up the EU’s 0.7 percent ODA target, which is currently under threat. He also said that international development, like music, can be subject to the whims of fashion. “Hunger was boring, even unsexy, in some quarters,” he said. “But it’s not boring if you live in the Sahel right now.”

It was an inspiring speech overall, but I think he summed it up best with this quote: “The moment we’re all working for is when we make aid history.” We couldn’t agree more.

For the past ten days, I’ve been in Rwanda, Africa. I was honored to be a trainer as part of the launch of the ACE Leaders Project, a program developed by the Institute of International Education Sub-Saharan Regional Office and supported by the Packard Foundation. The project is under the visionary leadership of Cheryl Francisconi who is the director of IIE’s office in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and has vast expertise in developing, designing, and implementing transformative leadership programs for several decades.

The project mobilizes leading women’s organizations and key stakeholders in four countries in Africa – Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda to develop and launch a Women’s Leadership program and network. The organizations have extensive experience delivering leadership programs, especially for young women and experience advocating for women’s issues, including reproductive health. The group will working together over the next three years, meeting regularly face-to-face in the different countries as well as work together online.

In addition to working with Cheryl, I was also honored to work with master trainer Kalyani Menon-Sen, an International expert in Women’s Rights and Gender Equity. My role was to deliver components of the Networked NGO curriculum – sessions on network mapping, challenges assumptions about networked ways of working, as well as training on how to use the online collaboration platform for their together moving forward. My sessions were integrated into the various leadership, visioning process for women’s rights, curriculum development, and evaluation methods modules throughout the week as networked and social media skills were not the main focus.

The design for this project was very different than my accustomed way of designing and delivering the Networked NGO trainings and social media skills. My experience so far has been to develop curriculum – mostly focused on technology that is adapted in different countries by local organizations. This design was a participatory process and was intended to provide an opportunity for deep reflective process. I have read a lot about these methods, but you cannot really under it until you experience it. Needless to say, I learned a lot!

Most of the training days took place in rural Rwanda on Lake Muhazi – which was a beautiful place. Internet connectivity in this very rural area was a challenge – which is why the last few days of the training sessions were held in Kigali so participants could get some hands-on practice.

I modeled a lot of different methods for doing “digital documentation” using a digital camera, a flip camera, PPT, and word documents – that could be loaded on a USB stick for participants to take away with them as well as a private wiki once we had Internet access. This was a incredible opportunity to focus on the documentation side – without feeling rushed to get everything online.

Here’s a few facilitation techniques that I learned from documenting the session.

Cheryl lead two “transfer-in” exercises that are essential for a group to get to know each other and build trust. We gathered in a circle and were asked to pick an object from nature that Cheryl had collected from Lake Muhazi. We were asked to reflect on how the objective represents Women’s Leadership and to find a partner to discuss our observations and get to know each other.

I had an opportunity to meet Ms Kathambi Kinoti from the Young Women’s Leadership Institute in Kenya. She selected an orange flower from the “nadiflame” tree because to her women who are leaders stand out miles away – just like the orange flowers on this tree. She shared examples of women leaders in Kenya. When we came back to the circle, we had to introduce each other and the other person’s object.

The second exercise was done in small groups and a report the whole group answering the questions, “What are your hopes and fears for the program?” I learned later from Cheryl that she has conducted this exercise for many leadership programs throughout Africa and had learned it from her mentor, Birgitt Williams, who is an international expert in holistic leadership and design of participatory programs.

Kalyani lead a session on visioning social transformation for gender equality and women’s rights. The exercise is called “The world we want to see” and is 3-step exercise where participants use pictures, not words in order to push people to think in concrete terms rather than fall back on vague generalisations and familiar jargon. The exercise started with having each organization draw a circle and pictures inside of the circle that represented problems and challenges or major barriers to gender equity in their country. The drawings were placed on the walls and participants got to view them.

The next step was for participants to draw another circle draw another big circle with pictures representing how the world might change for the positive. The two worlds were placed side-by-side and participants were asked to draw arrows and label the interventions. Participants debriefed by walking around. Kalyani lead a session in plenary, making observations on the representations and the key point that organizations working on these issues need to be connected — working in a way that I would describe how networked nonprofits work.

Fish Bowl Exercise

Kalyani also facilitated a participatory curriculum development process using different techniques. The photo above shows the “Fish Bowl” technique. I’ve only observed fish bowls in larger sessions, but this was done for a small group of approximately 20. A table of four people were seated at the table and given the task to brainstorm different concepts for the curriculum. The rest of the group observed, but if they wanted to participate could tap the shoulder of anyone seated and join the table.

I facilitated a session that introduced networks, networking, and the Networked NGO. I facilitated a mini-world cafe session where participants reacted to different statements about the use of social media and networked approaches – that was about challenging assumptions. For many reasons, social media is not at the core for many of these NGOS – and it was important to discuss.

Field Trips and Real World Experience

The training also incorporated “Field Trips” visits to bring the “real world” into the learning. We visited the Genocide Memorial (I’ve written a post about this for tomorrow) and visited with Women Leaders in the Rwanda Parliament. Rwanda leads the world with the highest percentage of women in high level positions. Much as been written about the impact of more women in Parliament. Participants had an opportunity to ask questions and hear directly from Women in the Rwanda Parliament. The meeting and visit to the Genocide Memorial was used as a starting point for a reflective discussion about women’s leadership.

I came away from this training having learned an enormous amount about new ways of delivering training, the African context for using social media and networked approaches, and of course, connecting with some amazing women leaders and their NGOs in the region.

This piece was originally posted on Beth’s Blog.

Last month, I had the privilege of traveling to Uganda. I was leading a team from my church in partnership with some schools in the northern part of Uganda, more specifically Arua and Yumbe.

Being a ONE member and a congressional district leader, I decided to use the opportunity to track down an antiretroviral (ARV) drug distribution center during my time there. I just couldn’t pass up the chance to see with my own eyes the impact of smart and efficient programs we fight for, like PEPFAR and the Global Fund.

After doing some research online, I found that ARVs are distributed to more than 300 locations in Uganda, and our friends on the ground found that the hospital in Yumbe was one of those locations.

Yumbe is a small town located in the northwest corner of Uganda, bordering South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo — and the hospital we visited is the only hospital in the whole of the Yumbe district. The northern part of Uganda has seen decades of violence and civil war, (Joseph Kony and the LRA, etc.), impacting the economy and making development difficult and dangerous. Now this region is trying to catch up with the rest of Uganda, but it is a long process.

The Yumbe Hospital, with only about 100 beds, is only meant to serve the half a million people in Yumbe District. But because it borders the DRC and South Sudan, clients from the whole war-torn region walk through their doors, serving over 1 million people.

As a result, funding and resources are scarce, and while there are many needs and wants, the hospital staff can only do what they can. As an American, it’s hard to fathom how only one hospital (and 22 smaller clinics scattered in the district) can even scratch the surface in caring for a population larger than a city of the size of Seattle, but that’s what they have to deal with. Another huge challenge is the lack of clean water, as the hospital itself does not have running water, something we take for granted on a daily basis.

I had the privilege of speaking to the head doctor, Dr. Mubarak Nasur. He talked about about the hospital’s HIV/AIDS work and the difference they have made with what they have.

Currently, the hospital treats more than 500 people with ARVs, provided with the help of The Global Fund, and another 1,200 people are in care receiving counseling. The hospital has put in place some great procedures in regards to HIV/AIDS testing.

A big focus is put on preventing mother-to-child transmission and therefore every pregnant mother is tested before delivering her baby. Since July of last year, the hospital has delivered 1,576 babies, and of the mothers tested, only 25 were found to be HIV-positive. If found positive, counseling and treatment are initiated right away, and upon going home, the mother is then referred to the nearest clinic.

Testing is also done when a child is admitted to the pediatrics ward. And children admitted to the malnutrition ward are tested for TB in addition to HIV/AIDS. So far this year, four children have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and, of those, one child has since passed away. Unfortunately, many times parents wait too long before seeking help, so early testing is key.

Dr. Nasur shared that there are many challenges in the fight against HIV/AIDS. For example, in the Yumbe district, there are currently only three locations that are dispersing ARVs, which means people might have to travel far to get their monthly regimen. This causes extra challenges in the rainy season when roads might wash out and rivers become impassable, making people unable to make even the monthly trip to receive their ARVs or care.

Another challenge is lack of trained staff. Out of the 14 doctor positions at the hospital, ten are currently vacant; two are administrative, leaving only two doctors to actually provide for patients. This hurts the distribution of ARVs as currently only doctors are allowed to administer ARVs, but Dr. Nasur was encouraged as PEPFAR is working to change that policy on a national level so that nurses would be able to do it as well. This would enable more people to be treated.

However, one of the highlights the doctor shared with me was that, due to the encouragement, support and availability of ARV’s from The Global Fund, Dr. Nasur has requested the Ministry of Health of Uganda to open an additional three ARV distribution clinics in the Yumbe district. This would be an incredible enhancement to the HIV/AIDS fight in Yumbe, enabling more people to be closer to the life-saving medicines and the care and counseling needed.

Several people I spoke with also shared how food security is a vital component in the fight against HIV/AIDS. With poor access to food, people are more vulnerable and less able to fight side effects of HIV/AIDS; they don’t have the energy to walk to the clinics, or time to take off work to get to the clinics, etc. Therefore, programs like Feed the Future make a great complement in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

While the road is still long, seeing men like Dr. Nasur fighting the good fight against HIV/AIDS through the partnership of organizations like PEPFAR and the Global Fund, it gives me hope that we can achieve the “Beginning to the end of AIDS by 2015”. This is not the time to let our guard down, but to stay the course and change the tide of AIDS!

I’m told that writing is therapeutic and right now I am in need of therapy. This blog is to show you the good, the bad and the ugly of my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso and in these next few lines you will read about the ugly. We are sent into an unknown world full of cultural differences and language barriers. That’s why many of us who are animal lovers will adopt a pet.

In my case, I got a puppy and her name was Para. I was told that I should choose her because she was the lightest colored of the litter and I am white. She wasn’t a special breed, just a regular Burkinabe mutt, but I treated her like any American dog lover would. She had Burkinabe and American tendencies and everyone in my community knew that she was more of a child than a dog to me.

A few weeks ago, Para was attacked by another dog. Because she was less than three months old, she had yet to be vaccinated against rabies. Unfortunately, where I live, people do not vaccinate their dogs and there was a 70 percent chance she could be infected. She also had dislocated her hip and possibly broken her leg. She was unable to move and in an incredible amount of pain. In the US, I would have simply taken her to the vet and they would have fixed her right up. But here they neither have the means nor the know-how to do that. So, after serious deliberation, it was decided she should be put down.

The veterinarian contacted a man he knew and then arguably one of the most horrific things I have ever witnessed happened. Two men came to my house. One grabbed Para by the throat and strangled her to death while the other asked me if I wanted to sell her meat, have them simply throw her in the brush somewhere or bury her. I was shocked and appalled. I wanted to burst into tears at that very moment, however, in Burkinabe culture, men do not cry and I could not afford to lose the respect of my community.

When most of us think of gender equality, we think of women’s empowerment. But gender equality also applies to men. In many cultures around the world, including our own, men are seen as weak if they cry. I myself, as a child, was told by a loved one (who later in life apologized for it) that “big boys don’t cry”.

There is a cycle of socialization that begins from birth (i.e. boys in blue and girls in pink) that puts men and women in boxes. These boxes are what are keeping men and women from being completely equal. These boxes are key factors in keeping countries from developing. This cycle of socialization needs to be broken. It needs to be alright for a woman to own property, to hold a job and to play soccer. It needs to be alright for a man to take care of children, do household chores and, when in difficult times, it needs to be alright for a man to cry without anyone thinking any less of him.

As a Peace Corps volunteer, breaking down these gender barriers and helping people step out of the box is a large part of my job. Many of the programs that I am working on focus on gender equality. They expose the problem and help bring people to an understanding of what true equality is and how they can achieve this.

Programs such as Doorways, a USAID initiative that teaches prevention and care for victims of gender based violence in the schools. Another example is Camp G2LOW Burkina Faso (“Guys and Girls Leading Our World”), a summer camp for 7th and 8th graders which, among other subjects, teaches them the importance of gender equality. As a ONE member, bear in mind what you just read and apply to it your life. Then, go out and help change the views of others, in the US and around the world. Through your voice and your actions this vicious cycle can and will be broken, if and only if we all work together.

Make Brandon feel better and send him a nice email to brandon.m.green@gmail.com.