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This Sunday, MTV will air the documentary “Summit on the Summit: Kilimanjaro” which features Elizabeth Gore, Jessica Biel, Lupe Fiasco, and others climbing the mountain to raise awareness for the global water crisis.

The ending of the documentary will feature Justin Timberlake who will highlight the UN’s work on the issue. You can read more about the project which airs this Sunday, March 14th at 9/8c here.

You can also read some of Elizabeth Gore’s dispatches from the Summit on the ONE Blog here, here, and here.

Reuters: Drugmakers agree on landmark vaccines deal for poor
Reuters reports that several drug firms have agreed on a landmark deal to supply up to 200 million doses a year of cut-price pneumococcal vaccines to developing nations. The agreement is the first under a new scheme called an Advance Market Commitment (AMC), which provides a guaranteed market for vaccines supplied to poor nations but sets a maximum price that drug makers can expect to receive. According to Reuters, it is likely to pave the way for future deals on recently introduced vaccines against rotavirus and an experimental one against malaria, which combined kill millions in poor countries each year. Said the deputy chief executive officer for the GAVI Alliance (Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization) “It’s very exciting news because they are going to make long-term commitments.”

Huffington Post: The Other Health Care Debate
Director of Public Policy for the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), Chris Collins, argues that while the domestic healthcare debate continues to make headlines, there is a simultaneous struggle going on for increased funding for global health initiatives. In an effort to refute claims that the global AIDS epidemic has “received too large a share of attention in recent years,” the director emphasizes success stories, which point to the need for increased funding for effective international health programs. Said Collins, Congress “should make a down payment on the President’s plan by significantly increasing funding across global health accounts beyond the President’s budget request, and that includes increased investments in addressing the deadliest infectious diseases, like AIDS, where we have a track record of success and growing international need.”

The Washington Post: In Africa, a step backward on human rights (Op-Ed, Archbishop Desmond Tutu)
Archbishop Desmond Tutu argues that the recent violence and proposed legislative action against homosexual men and women in Africa are “terrible backward steps for human rights.” He emphasized that much like “his beloved continent” rose up against Apartheid, they must do the same to ensure that all people are given equal rights, no matter their sexual preferences. According to the Archbishop, many African gay men and women are being forced to live in hiding, which interferes with their access to essential HIV services. Said Tutu, “The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.”

Financial Times: Japan groups creep into Africa
The Financial Times reports that Japan is the latest country to make an “entry into the scramble for resources and economic influence in Africa,” with Japanese trading companies and manufacturers making slow moves into Africa as “they cautiously pursue some of the same goals as China, India and Brazil: capturing oil, minerals and new markets.” According to the Times, aid for agriculture and infrastructure projects has long been Japan’s defining presence in Africa. However, the Times highlights that aid is getting less emphasis than before as attention turns to the private sector and Japan is rethinking its strategy to become more competitive, including encouraging investment through loans from its state-controlled banks.

Exciting news!

Last week, we shared with you a letter signed by ONE and a broad coalition of NGOs, faith groups and others urging support for President Obama’s $58.5 billion request for the International Affairs budget.

Yesterday, we hit over 150 signers! Groups ranging from the NAACP and Sierra Club to the Easter Seals and League of Women Voters have joined together to make sure that our Senators and members of Congress know that “the budget for International Affairs is critical to U.S. foreign policy and our shared future with people and nations around the world.”

Find out more details on the president’s International Affairs Budget here. And see the full list of signers by clicking the “more” link below:

(more…)

Jeremy Cowart—a photographer and ONE supporter—just launched a powerful new website that I wanted to share. It’s called Voices of Haiti—and it features a striking new image every day. As Jeremy explains:

“After the 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti on January 12th of this year, I was deeply moved as most of you were. For days I watched as the television flashed images of gloom and doom… dead bodies, crumbled buildings… It just felt like a heartless display of numbers and statistics. “How were the people feeling?” I wondered. I was tired of hearing endless reports from strangers that just arrived to this devastated nation. So I decided to go to Port-Au-Prince myself and ask them directly. My question was simply “What do you have to say about all this?” This photo essay reveals the many answers to that question.”

You can check out the site here.

Water’s not my favorite beverage, even though I know it’s essential to our lives. It has no taste, no texture, and most importantly for a college student like me, no caffeine. Yet here in the U.S., we can buy watermelon flavored water, filter appliances that make our water taste pure, and even powders or mixes to caffeinate our water. But this is not the case for billions of people around the world. Over 884 million people across the globe don’t even have access to clean water.

Every year, on March 22, the world gathers on World Water Day to raise awareness, present solutions, and demand more commitment from governments to put an end to the world’s water crisis. This year, join me as a host of organizations–including ONE, CARE, Catholic Relief Services and Water.org–celebrate World Water Day in a variety of exciting ways.

On Monday, March 22, don’t miss a conversation in Washington DC with high-level officials from the US government, corporations and NGOs at “Americans Doing Our Part,” an event hosted by Water Advocates and the National Geographic Society. On Tuesday, March 23, help lobby for clean water on World Water Advocacy Day–or spend your lunch break making a stand for sanitation by joining the attempt to create the World’s Longest Toilet Queue. But don’t panic if you can’t make it to D.C. You still can take action wherever you are by writing your Representative or spreading the word on Facebook and Twitter. So please join us in some way. We can only succeed if we act as ONE.

To find out how you can get involved, visit www.waterday.org.

Exciting news! To keep up with the hard work and dedicated service of ONE members across the country, our field team has recently expanded to cover every state in the country.

As we continue to expand, we’ll be holding official ONE member workshops beginning with Atlanta next Thursday, March 18 at 7:00p.m. at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The workshop is free but space is limited, so please RSVP now

The workshop will feature advocacy training activities, experts from ONE and other poverty-fighting groups, and lots of opportunities to meet other ONE members and learn how to be an even more effective advocate for the world’s most vulnerable people. We’ll also have ONE gear for everyone attending.

We’d love for you to join us—just RSVP here!

Here’s a guest post from the International Partnership for Microbicides in honor of International Women’s Day.

This week, in observance of International Women’s Day, global leaders and advocates joined the call for equal rights and equal opportunities for all women. Yet, as we celebrate women’s achievements, we must also remember that many challenges still remain and that women’s empowerment can mean the difference between life and death.

Far too many women are still powerless against the threat of HIV, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where women and girls represent about 60% of HIV infections. AIDS is the leading killer of women of reproductive age worldwide. Current HIV prevention strategies such as condoms, although effective, are not practical for women who cannot persuade their husbands or partners to use them, who want children or who are at risk for violence. Women still lack an effective way to protect themselves against HIV.

Microbicides, a new class of biomedical products in development, would address one of the central gaps in the existing range of HIV prevention options. Female-initiated HIV prevention options, such as microbicides, would help give women greater control over their own health.

At the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM), we develop microbicides based on the same antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) being used successfully to treat HIV/AIDS and to prevent mother-to-child transmission. ARV-based microbicides could revolutionize women’s ability to protect themselves from HIV and could be developed into easy-to-use options, such as monthly vaginal rings and once-daily gels and films.

While women may be at greater risk of HIV, they are not helpless—they just need the right tools to protect their own health and their family’s health.

The greatest achievements in women’s rights have resulted from relentless commitment, persistence and innovation. Facing the growing challenge of HIV/AIDS requires more of the same.

-Dr. Zeda Rosenberg, CEO, International Partnership for Microbicides

UPDATE: Here’s full video of the session. And transcript of Bill Gates’ testimony here. (Bill Clinton’s testimony currently unavailable.)

President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates are about to address the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

You can watch their testimonies live here.

Tomorrow at 8:40 AM EST, ONE’s U.S. Executive Director Sheila Nix will join Cindy McCain on MSNBC’s weekday morning talk show “Morning Joe”. They’ll discuss ONE’s new women’s initiative, Women ONE2ONE and their recent ONE-led women’s trip to Ghana and Sierra Leone.

Tune to MSNBC at 8:40 tomorrow morning to watch live. We’ll post video and transcript after it airs.

On Friday the U.S. Senate passed, by unanimous consent, the Haiti Recovery Act (S.2961), introduced by Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Lugar (R-IN). The bill addresses the long-term needs that are critical to Haiti’s recovery, particularly its governance and public infrastructure. The bill does 2 specific things:

1) It instructs the Treasury Secretary to direct America’s representatives at each of the multi-lateral financial institutions to advocate within institutions:

a. relieving Haiti of its outstanding international debt– currently totaling over $1 billion– as well as any additional debt incurred in the aftermath of the earthquake. It also encourages these institutions to make future financial assistance available to Haiti in the form of grants, rather than loans.

b. the provision of debt service relief for all payments remaining on the date of the enactment of the Act.

2) Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to advocate the creation of an international infrastructure fund for Haiti to invest in electric grids, roads, water, sanitation facilities, and other critical infrastructure projects.

Debt relief and grants to rebuild Haiti’s lost infrastructure are critical to its recovery. We congratulate Senators Dodd and Lugar and the United States Senate for their bi-partisan cooperation to pass this important legislation. Stay tuned for news on the progress of similar legislation in the House.