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More than one billion people around the world live on less than $1 per day. Securing their basic necessities like clean water, food, education and health care, requires financial assistance from external sources delivered efficiently and effectively. The United States has a long tradition of helping people help themselves. By contributing our share – roughly an additional 1% of the federal budget – in partnership with other nations, we can:

• Put 77 million children, most of whom are girls, in school
• Provide access to clean water to 450 million people
• Prevent more than 5.4 million young children from dying each year from poverty-related illnesses  
• Save 16,000 lives a day by fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Directing an additional ONE percent of the 2010 estimated budget -- about $29 billion -- will allow for longer-term sustainable growth while fighting the corruption that wastes precious resources.  ONE believes the value of international assistance depends not only on funding levels, but also on the quality of assistance.

Development assistance to poor countries produces results

• In 2002, only 50,000 HIV positive Africans had access to antiretroviral medicines. Today, an additional 1.2 million people around the world, most in Africa, are receiving treatment thanks to the Global Fund and PEPFAR alone.
• The U.S. is a lead donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. In 2006, the Fund provided insecticide-treated bed nets to more than 18 million families, an increase of 135 percent over 2005.  The bed nets will prevent families from contracting malaria from nocturnal mosquito bites. 
• Nicaragua effectively utilized $3.5 million in Education for All Fast Track Initiative’s Catalytic Funds to send an additional 70,000 six year-olds to school, modernize teacher training facilities, and increase the number of children receiving a daily meal in school from 200,000 in 2004 to 800,000 in 2005.
• The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) is an innovative new U.S. program that channels assistance to countries with a record of good governance, investing in their people, and economic growth. Countries design compacts around their needs and have already witnessed poverty reduction and economic growth. In Madagascar, a $100 million compact helped farmers make a living by signing almost 400 land titles, provided technical assistance to 2,000 farmers and small enterprises, and trained 225 farmers to use microfinance credit.

America has a long tradition of global leadership

U.S. development assistance funding began a general downward trend in the 1950s and hit an all-time low in the mid 1990s.  We are spending 17% less on International Affairs than at the height of the Cold War.  Yet the global challenges we face today are far more complex. The International Affairs Budget represents only 1.2% of the entire federal budget, that’s 1.2% to fund essential development and humanitarian programs that foster economic prosperity around the world, strengthen our national security, and reinforce our commitment to humanitarian values.

America has a long tradition of global leadership. We have many resources to share with our global neighbors. ONE is asking for an additional 1% for poverty-focused development assistance so that America can help win the war against the indignities of poverty. For the first time, we have the technology and effective, affordable solutions to end extreme poverty.

We have the opportunity to make a difference now

Every year President Bush submits his budget request to Congress. Congress ultimately determines how much the U.S. government will spend the following year.  Currently, Congress is debating the fiscal year 2008 budget which means right now there is an opportunity to move closer to our goal.

ONE is asking Congress to fully fund the International Affairs Budget for Fiscal Year 2008.