In letter, ONE urges President Obama to engage Americans on new Global Goals and put accountability measures in place for ensuring success

WASHINGTON – In a letter sent to the White House on Friday, the ONE Campaign — a global advocacy organization of seven million people working to end extreme poverty — urged President Obama to publicly embrace the historic new Global Goals for Sustainable Development during his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly two weeks from today. ONE also recommended the White House designate an inter-agency coordinator to ensure that the United States leads on implementation of the Global Goals, and to create a report card that would allow Americans to monitor progress toward the Goals.

“As an expression of global solidarity and serious intent, we hope you will reflect the importance of the birth of the Global Goals in your speech at the U.N. General Assembly later this month, and through all the opportunities to lead that you have at your disposal,” ONE’s U.S. executive director, Tom Hart, wrote. “Specifically, we hope you will: endorse and promote these goals to the American public; commit to implementing these goals through an open national process of consultation; and create a mechanism to report regularly on progress and shortfalls, using high-quality open data.

The adoption of 17 ambitious new Global Goals during a special U.N. summit on September 25 will be a landmark moment in the decades-long fight to end extreme poverty. The Global Goals are a blueprint for a world without extreme poverty, where nobody lives in hunger or dies of a preventable disease. These Goals, which have a target of 2030, were negotiated by 193 nations over several years, and will build on the significant progress made under the Millennium Development Goals.

To help ensure the Global Goals’ success and maximize the effectiveness of development efforts, the ONE Campaign is working with the United States and other national governments, as well as non-profit and corporate leaders, on the development of a voluntary open-data partnership. In its letter, ONE urged President Obama to take further steps to monitor the United States’ contributions in support of global development efforts.

“If we are serious about ending extreme poverty, we need robust, up-to-date information that allows citizens, governments and businesses to plan better, helps generate real-time data to predict food crises and pinpoints disease outbreaks,” Hart wrote. “Further enabling Americans to monitor progress – through a report card containing open accessible data about progress and shortfalls – will maximize accountability for delivery. These report cards must contain comprehensive data that is regularly updated all the way through to ultimate sustainable development outcomes.”

ONE is sending similar letters to heads of government in Europe and Africa.

The full text of ONE’s letter of President Obama is below.

September 10, 2015
[Transmitted September 11, 2015]

Dear President Obama:

Whether it’s the refugee crisis, Ebola, the increasing number of complex emergencies, or the threat of what Bono calls the “three extremes” – extreme poverty, extreme climate and extreme ideology – the world is only getting more complex. And so the world needs more long-term strategies, collectively implemented, to mitigate that complexity and seize the opportunity we have before us to do as Nelson Mandela implored and be “the great generation” to “make poverty history.”

Fortunately, we have together engaged in a successful effort to design a new set of Global Goals for Sustainable Development, goals that mirror the complexity of our world and help us achieve Mandela’s vision. They are not perfect, but for good reason: they have resulted from a process designed to maximize global support through widespread consultation – and in this interdependent world, saving the planet and the people on it is not the task of one leader or nation. To get there, we must all work together as one.

As an expression of global solidarity and serious intent, we hope you will reflect the importance of the birth of the Global Goals in your speech at the U.N. General Assembly later this month, and through all the opportunities to lead that you have at your disposal. Specifically, we hope you will: endorse and promote these goals to the American public; commit to implementing these goals through an open national process of consultation; and create a mechanism to report regularly on progress and shortfalls, using high-quality open data.

Promote: We deeply appreciate the level of support and attention you have given to the goal of eliminating extreme poverty. Your continued leadership and promotion is needed to ensure these new goals are known and implemented. Please consider actually signing the Global Goals document personally. We will add this with the signatures of other world leaders to compile a historic document recording this moment. Please also consider sharing the signing moment on social media.

Commit: You ask you to appoint an individual and/or committee that will manage an urgent national process to ensure the United States is leading in implementation of the goals. Please ensure this process results in a multi-year implementation plan with an annual accountability moment.

Report: Alongside the U.S. government and other partners, ONE cohosted the Harnessing the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development event at the U.N. Financing for Development Summit in Addis Ababa in July. Secretary Jack Lew’s presence at the event sent an important signal that if we are serious about ending extreme poverty, we need robust, up-to-date information that allows citizens, governments and businesses to plan better, helps generate real-time data to predict food crises and pinpoints disease outbreaks.

Further enabling Americans to monitor progress – through a report card containing open accessible data about progress and shortfalls – will maximize accountability for delivery. These report cards must contain comprehensive data that is regularly updated all the way through to ultimate sustainable development outcomes. Please work with other countries so an open global system of national report cards can be developed, allowing citizens from the local, national, and global levels to “follow the money” and monitor progress. This will facilitate an effective global accountability framework and help citizens hold us all accountable for delivery.

In New York, a blueprint for the future of the world – outlined in an historic document – will literally be in your hands. We are grateful for your efforts to see these goals turn into reality.

Thank you,

Tom Hart
North American Executive Director
ONE