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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.
