Nearly 690 million people are undernourished, according to a recent report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and this figure has been rising steadily since 2014. In 2019, close to 750 million were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest rate of malnutrition, affecting 22% of the population, or 239 million people. While food insecurity is a complex problem that requires a range of policy interventions, one way to tackle...
Less than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic started, AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Moderna have created safe and effective vaccines against the virus, and some nations have begun vaccinating their citizens. Although this is great news and a major scientific achievement, the work isn’t done, and we’re seeing some signs that this accomplishment could be undermined by a failure to get the vaccine everywhere. The pandemic won’t end with just a vaccine, but when there is global access to it and...
The National Assembly recently approved the 2021 budget proposal submitted by the federal government of Nigeria. As the nation grapples with the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic, here’s what you need to know about Nigeria’s government priorities and allocations: The 2021 budget is higher by 26% from last year’s budget (N13.6 trillion vs N10.8 trillion). There was an increase in debt service allocation. In fact, debt servicing is almost 3 times more than total allocation to education...
Amadou Mahtar Ba, a member of the Africa Policy Advisory Board of ONE, is sharing why debt relief is crucial for Africa to recover from COVID-19. The economic and health costs to Africa as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented by any measure. With the death toll rising above 50,000 and more than two million confirmed infections so far, the continent has many reasons to be worried. So far, COVID-19 lockdowns have triggered the first continent-wide recession in 25...
This year, in the face of a global pandemic, the fight against global poverty and inequality became tougher, but more important than ever. Our tireless activists fought for fair deals on debt, vaccine access, aid budgets, and more. Hundreds of thousands of global activists signed petitions, completed surveys, tweeted at or sent emails to politicians, attended briefing calls, shared messages of solidarity, or danced to our anthem “Stand Together.” Here’s a quick look at some of what ONE and our activists...
Megan Gieske is a storyteller and photographer based in Cape Town, South Africa. In South Africa, women are at risk. South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence against women and girls in the world, and a femicide rate that is five times the global average, with an estimated 12.1 in 100,000 victims each year. South Africa’s gender-based violence statistics (GBV) are equal to a country at war. South Africa held its yearly 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence,...
ONE Champion in Nigeria, Bushrah Temitope Balogun, is sharing how youth entrepreneurship in Africa marks the beginning of a new era. Africa will account for 80 per cent of the projected 4 billion increase in the global population by 2100. The accompanying increase in its working-age population creates a window of opportunity, which if properly harnessed can translate into higher growth and can yield significant economic growth potential. As reported in a publication by Praullo Dummond, Vimal Thakoor and Shu...
To celebrate Africa Youth Month, ONE Champion Felix Brian Onyango is sharing how leaders in Africa can capitalize on youth power and opportunities. Effects from COVID-19 are further removing young leaders from opportunities to engage in meaningful COVID-19 response mechanisms and decisions due to social distancing and stay at home orders. According to Ashley Law, a youth specialist with International Foundation for Electoral systems, in her publication,“How to boost youth political participation during COVID-19” published in May this year, we...
In 2020, global health has gone from a fringe issue to the forefront of people’s mind, all thanks to COVID-19. The last time the entire world came close to being as focused on a pandemic threat was over two decades ago, when HIV/AIDS was killing almost 4,000 people every day and new infections doubled year after year. Since then, the global response to AIDS has become a success story, and AIDS-related deaths have been cut by more than half. Today,...
With Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca all announcing this month that their vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are proving to be highly effective in clinical trials, the world is closer to finding a safe and effective vaccine to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic will not end with a vaccine, but when everyone, everywhere has equal access to it. That’s why we launched our Vaccine Access Test in September. The Test provides the framework to answer one important question: Are the...