Include Africa in G2 Summit
In the midst of an international economic crisis, world leaders are getting ready to discuss major changes to the global financial system. We need to be sure the world’s poorest people have a voice in this process, and one of the best ways to do that is to give the African Union (AU) and/or the African Development Bank a seat at the table so African voices are heard at this critical time.
The first major international meeting on fixing the global economy will be the G20 summit in the United Kingdom in April. The summit’s chair, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, will determine if the African Union and/or the African Development Bank – the leading political and financial organizations on the continent – are represented alongside 19 nations, the European Union, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Please click below to add your name to our petition and join ONE members around the world who are calling on Gordon Brown to include Africa:
www.one.org/international/includeafrica
Petition text:
Dear Prime Minister Gordon Brown,
Please include a representative of the African Union at the upcoming G20 summit.
Only a handful of the most powerful world leaders took part in crafting the post-World War II financial system we use today. At a time when some of the poorest nations in Africa are particularly hard-hit by this crisis, it would be a disaster to exclude them again. In addition to many capable African leaders, there are two organizations that could ably represent the needs of Africans: the African Union and the African Development Bank.
The African Union is a regional political body whose member countries have a combined population of more than 967 million people, representing almost one out of every seven people in the world. The African Development Bank funds poverty-fighting projects across the continent and would bring a unique development perspective. If we hope to have a stable financial system that meets the needs of all of us then their input is crucial.
As it stands today, only one African country – South Africa – is invited to the G20 summit. Gordon Brown has the power to ensure that all of Africa is represented by inviting the African Union and/or the African Development Bank. Please ask him to do so and help make the next global financial system truly global:
www.one.org/international/includeafrica
On reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis:
I’ll double annual foreign assistance from $25b to $50b by 2012. I was a co-sponsor of the Lantos-Hyde Act that authorized $48 billion by 2013 for HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. I support lifting the 33% cap on US contributions to the Global Fund, ensuring at least 4.5 million people are on ARV treatment by 2013, and preventing 12 million new infections.
On eradicating malaria:
I will support the goal of ending deaths from malaria by 2015 by building on the $1billion per year commitment to malaria in the recent PEPFAR reauthorization and dramatically expanding access to mosquito nets that for less than $6 will lower the risk of getting malaria and save lives. I will also expand access to ACTs – at the relatively inexpensive cost of $2 per dose – to treat people who get malaria.
On improving child and maternal health:
I will increase funding for child and maternal health and ensure that increases in other important areas – including HIV/AIDS – do not come at the expense of child health and survival programs. I will expand access to vaccinations, increase research into new vaccines, and expand access to reproductive health programs.
On achieving universal primary education:
Worldwide, an estimated 100 million children – including nearly 60 million girls – are not attending school. By 2010, getting these children into school could cost $10b annually. To meet our share of that sum, I look forward to signing the Education for All Act and will request the funding levels needed to carry it out.
On cutting in half the number of people without clean water or enough food:
More than 1b people lack access to clean water, and that number will increase with the impact of climate change. The US has an obligation to increase access to clean water and sanitation. Through increased funding of up to $1.3b annually and innovative programs like ‘play pumps,’ I will expand access to clean water and sanitation.
On additional commitments to the world’s poor:
I’ll make the Millennium Development Goals American policy. By the end of my first term I expect to see progress to meeting the MDGs, including reducing by half the number of people living on less than a dollar a day and suffering from hunger, and reversing the number of new HIV infections and malaria cases.
Related Posts - There is more than meets the eye about the world food crisisFood protests and riots have swept more than 20 countries in the past few months, including Egypt. On 2...
- ONE Was Present in a Big Way Dear John, ONE members painting the mural with a message ONE was present in a big way at the G20’s meeting of presidents and prime ministers in Pittsburgh. We delivered...
- Ten People Who Could Change The World Ten people who could change the world: it sounds like a bold claim. And hasn't the currency of that word "change" been devalued after a US election during...
- Myanmar: A Day In The Life Of A Cyclone Survivor For people whose lives were wrecked last year by Cyclone Nargis, it can take a long time to pick up the pieces and start looking to the future. But 20-year-old...
- The Future is Being Written Right Now The world, it seems, is reaching a critical juncture in history. Current trends are pointing towards dramatic changes in government and society. Long standing institutions are scrambling to stay afloat...
- Canada assumes the presidency of the G8 for 2010 It’s been a pretty interesting New Year in Ottawa so far. The decision to shut down parliament dominated the headlines, but just 24 hours after that story broke, Canada also...
Related Websites - Top Best 100 Incredibly Useful & Free iPhone Apps [/caption] by Joshua Johnson The best part of the iTunes App Store is that you don’t need to spend a single cent to fill your iPhone with amazing applications. There are tons of developers dishing out quality free applications daily. So in honor of cheapskates everywhere, this article features 100......
- Bush Plans to Host World Summit to Address the Current Credit Crisis The United States President George Bush recently announced his intention to hold a world summit involving leaders from all around the world in order to discuss the global financial crisis in the near future. What he did say however is that any financial reform should absolutely not come at the......
- World Development Indicators - 2010 released [/caption] WASHINGTON, April 20, 2010 — The World Development Indicators (WDI) 2010, released today, gives a statistical progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The WDI database, launched along with the World Bank’s Open Data initiative to provide free data to all users, includes more than 900 indicators documenting......
- The Key to Successful Financial Planning Financial planning at its smallest denominator is essentially what you'd like to have and how you plan to get it. That may be oversimplifying things just a bit, but sometimes when you look at things stripped away of all of their jargon, it's a lot easier to understand it. So,......
- Obama Plans to Put Every Child Online U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has outlined an ambitious plan to give every child in the U.S. access to the Internet and to connect the nation's hospitals with "cutting edge technology." The items are part of his plan to generate or save 2.5 million jobs over to the next two years......
- Weekly Roundup: Who Turned Up the Heat Edition Still a few days away from the first day of summer, but here in the south summer has arrived! Today the temperature is supposed to reach 100 degrees, and it feels much hotter with humidity. I'm always amused when people say, "I can't wait for summer!" I usually say, "I......
Short URL: http://www.internationalnetworknews.com/?p=1376
Posted by John Malloy
on Jan 15 2009. Filed under Collingwood, Owen Sound, Stayner, Thornbury, Wasaga Beach.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
