Blog Contributor:
Malaka Gharib
Malaka is editor of the ONE Blog and writes about a variety of topics on ONE's core issues. Before joining ONE, she was a producer at Al Jazeera English and contributed to the network’s coverage of the 2008 US presidential election and the War on Gaza. She was also a social media strategist at Virilion, a digital media agency, and a daily blogger for political humor website Wonkette.
May 18th, 2012 4:38 PM UTC
By Malaka Gharib
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When we heard that global leaders would be convening at the Chicago Council’s global agriculture event in Washington today, the first thing we thought was: We gotta take a advantage of this big moment!
In addition to printing YOUR messages to the G8 down Pennsylvania Ave. with our ONE Street Tweeter, we wrangled 20 ONE members and staffers to hold up giant signs around the Freedom Plaza, near the Reagan Building, where the Chicago Council event was being held. As world leaders entered the complex, they couldn’t miss our message fragmented out and displayed on 16 huge, bright green and black posters:
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May 18th, 2012 3:45 PM UTC
By Malaka Gharib
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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.
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May 18th, 2012 11:45 AM UTC
By Malaka Gharib
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UPDATED, May 18, 2:43 p.m.:
President Obama just gave a really important speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, which outlined a new alliance against global hunger and next steps to help improve food security around the world. We wanted him to put this issue on the agenda at the G8, and boy, did he do that in a bold way!
Check out this great quote:
“This weekend at the G-8 we’ll be representing many of the largest economies in the world. We face urgent challenges—creating jobs, addressing the situation in Europe, and sustaining the global economic recovery. But even as we deal with these issues, I felt it was important to also focus on the urgent challenge that confronts some one billion men, women and children around the world every day—the injustice of chronic hunger and the need for long-term food security.”
The United States’ New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition will work closely with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, President John Atta-Mills of Ghana, and President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete with the help of African Union Chair Boni Yayi, President of Benin, to help solve the continent’s hunger crisis. These leaders have vowed to make food security a priority for their countries and beyond, and will specifically work to promote agricultural growth and raise 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years.
The best part of the New Alliance is that it truly puts the power in the hands of African governments, allowing donor countries and the private sector to align their assistance with individual country plans.
“There is no reason why Africa should not be feeding itself,” he said.
President Obama said that as long as he is in power, the US will remain a global leader in development, with the fight against global hunger at the forefront. Here’s another great quote from his speech on that note:
“As President, I consider this a moral imperative. As the wealthiest nation on earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition—and to partner with others. So we take pride in the fact that—because of smart investments in nutrition, agriculture and safety nets—millions of people in Kenya and Ethiopia did not need emergency aid in the recent drought. Still, when tens of thousands of children die from the agony of starvation, as in Somalia, that’s unacceptable. It’s an outrage.”
Keep an eye on the ONE Blog for more analysis on his speech from our policy experts over the next few days. In the mean time, join us in thanking President Obama for putting global food security at the top of his G8 Summit agenda by sending him a thank you message via Tweet or Facebook Status:
TWITTER: .@WhiteHouse, thank you for putting food security at the top of your #G8 agenda @ONECampaign #letsthrive #globalag
FACEBOOK STATUS:
@The White House
Dear President Obama,
Thank you for your support on global agriculture through the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. We look forward to following the progress of the Alliance in helping to raise 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years.
Sincerely,
NAME, ONE member
Read more about President Obama’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition here, and his full remarks from today’s speechhere. And be sure to read our press release here.
Photo credit: @DerekYach via Twitter
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May 17th, 2012 1:52 PM UTC
By Malaka Gharib
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We just came back from delivering 170,000 petition signatures and 7,500 postcards — from Americans who want to see global agriculture at the top of President Obama’s agenda at this weekend’s G8 Summit — to USAID Administrator Raj Shah a couple of hours ago. USAID is one of the biggest planners around the White House’s strategy on food security and global agriculture at this year’s G8 Summit, and they’re also the main implementers for these programs on the ground — so we’re glad to have our petition and postcards in their hands.
Here are some photos of our big delivery today, from start to finish:
On the walk to USAID’s building, we spotted our ONE Street Tweet messages on Pennsylvania Avenue. Dr. Shah also participated in the action yesterday, tweeting “#G8 working to end #Africa hunger @USAID.”
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May 17th, 2012 10:18 AM UTC
By Malaka Gharib
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In just a few minutes, a few ONE staffers will be delivering your petition signatures and postcards to President Obama to USAID Administrator Raj Shah. Nearly 7,500 US ONE members wrote a heartfelt message to the President (urging him to make agriculture a priority at the G8) on our special postcards embedded with carrot seeds — which is pretty incredible, if you ask me!
But before we leave the office, I just wanted to highlight a few of our favorite postcards from our huge pile here at the ONE office. Some of them will make you laugh!
Direct. We like it!
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May 16th, 2012 3:26 PM UTC
By Malaka Gharib
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It’s been about two and a half months since ONE delivered 143,863 petition signatures to the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), urging them to stand up to Big Oil by releasing a corruption-fighting rule… and we’ve heard crickets.
However today, Oxfam America, our Publish What You Pay Coalition partner is turning up the heat in a big way. They’ve filed a lawsuit against the SEC for unlawfully delaying the issuance of a strong final rule that would require disclosure of payments to from oil, gas and mining companies to the US and foreign governments. The final rule was due on April 17, 2011.
This was a follow up to Oxfam’s letter of April 16, 2012, asking the SEC to issue a final rule within 30 days or face litigation. And that deadline just expired as of today.
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