Bush Outlines Aid to Africa

Let's do our part to make sure the President gets the money he's asking for!

President Bush Discusses United States International Development Agenda
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Washington, D.C.
10:07 A.M. EDT

MRS. BUSH: Thank you, George, for that kind introduction. Thanks to the United States Global Leadership Council for hosting us this morning. Next week, leaders from around the world will gather in Germany to advance goals shared by people of every nation: economic empowerment, education, and good health.

President George W. Bush delivers remarks on the United States International Development Agenda Thursday, May 31, 2007, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Center in Washington, D.C. "We're blessed to live in the world's most prosperous nation," said the President. "And I believe we have a special responsibility to help those who are not as blessed. It is the call to share our prosperity with others, and to reach out to brothers and sisters in need." White House photo by Shealah Craighead The eagerness of children to learn, the desire of individuals to provide for themselves and their families, and the longing of mothers to see their babies grow up healthy are universal. Yet poverty, a lack of education, and disease have kept millions from around the world from fulfilling these fundamental desires. Today the governments and citizens of many countries are working to overcome these crises. And the American people are proud to stand with them.

Through our government, the American people have given billions of dollars to lift the burdens of crushing debt, illiteracy, malaria and HIV/AIDS. At the end of June, I'll travel to the African nations of Senegal, Mozambique, Zambia and Mali to see the results -- some of these results firsthand. I'll visit homes protected by mosquito sprays, and go to clinics supported by the President's Malaria Initiative. There, volunteers distribute mosquito nets so that mothers can sleep knowing that their babies are safe.

I'll visit a pediatric hospital supported by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, where doctors and nurses care for thousands of HIV-positive babies. I'll see new wells installed by the Play Pumps Alliance, which will provide as many as 10 million Africans with clean water. And I'll visit schools supported by our government's African Education Initiative. By supplying textbooks and training hundreds of thousands of teachers, the African Education Initiative gives African children hope for security, prosperity and good health.

These are just some of the things our government is doing around the world that Americans should be proud of. Through our development initiatives, we're helping to build free economies, teach children how to read, and save the lives of millions of men and women -- women like Kunene Tantoh. I first met Kunene two years ago when I visited a Mothers to Mothers center in South Africa. At Mothers centers, which receive PEPFAR seed money, HIV-infected women receive information and support to keep their unborn babies HIV free. When Kunene first arrived at the Mothers clinic, she had just discovered she was pregnant -- and HIV positive. A normal CD4 count, which measures a person's immune cells, is between 500 and 1,500. Kunene's count was 2. It seemed unlikely that she would survive.

President George W. Bush addresses the United States Global Leadership Campaign Thursday, May 31, 2007, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Center in Washington, D.C. "This is a fine organization and it's an important organization," said President Bush. "It's rallying businesses and non-governmental organizations and faith-based and community and civic organizations across our country to advance a noble cause, ensuring that the United States leads the world in spreading hope and opportunity." White House photo by Chris Greenberg But with the treatment Kunene received at the Mothers clinic, she did survive, and delivered a beautiful boy named Baron. He's HIV free. Kunene became a mentor to other mothers, and now she serves as a site coordinator at the largest Mothers facility. Today she and Baron stand as a symbol of hope to everyone living positively with HIV. Kunene and Baron. (Applause.) Kunene also represents the many lives that have been touched and saved by the compassion of the American people.

Now I'm proud to introduce a man of extraordinary compassion. Ladies and gentlemen, my husband, President George W. Bush. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Laura, thanks for that short introduction. (Laughter.) I'm proud to be introduced by my wife. I love her dearly. She's a great First Lady. (Applause.)

And I appreciate the chance to address the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign. This is a fine organization and it's an important organization. It's rallying businesses and non-governmental organizations and faith-based and community and civic organizations across our country to advance a noble cause, ensuring that the United States leads the world in spreading hope and opportunity. It's a big deal, and I appreciate your participation.

It's a big deal because your efforts are needed. Millions suffer from hunger and poverty and disease in this world of ours. Many nations lack the capacity to meet the overwhelming needs of their people. Alleviating this suffering requires bold action from America. It requires America's leadership and requires the action of developed nations, as well.

That's the message I'm going to take with me to Europe next week, when Laura and I go to the G8. At that meeting I will discuss our common responsibility to help struggling nations grow strong and improve the lives of their citizens. And today I'm going to describe some of the initiatives that I will be discussing with world leaders next week to help developing nations build a better future for their people.

Before I do so, I want to thank George Ingram, the President of the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign. I thank the members of my Cabinet who share the same passion I do for helping those less fortunate around the world -- that would include Carlos Gutierrez, Department of Commerce; Secretary Mike Leavitt, Department of Health and Human Services; Secretary Sam Bodman at the Department of Energy; Administrator Steve Johnson of the EPA. Thank you all for coming. Proud to be serving with you.

Mrs. Laura Bush delivers remarks about the United States International Development Agenda Thursday, May 31, 2007, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Center in Washington, D.C. "The eagerness of children to learn, the desire of individuals to provide for themselves and their families, and the longing of mothers to see their babies grow up healthy are universal," said Mrs. Bush. White House photo by Chris Greenberg I am glad that the Acting Director of the U.S. Foreign Assistance and Acting Administrator of USAID is here, Henrietta Fore. Thanks for coming. I appreciate John Danilovich, who is the head of the Millennium Challenge Corporation; Rob Mosbacher, the head of OPIC. I appreciate other members of my administration who joined us today.

I thank the members of the Diplomatic Corps who are here today. I thank the members of the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign.

We are a compassionate nation. When Americans see suffering and know that our country can help stop it, they expect our government to respond. I believe in the timeless truth, and so do a lot of other Americans, to whom much is given, much is required. We're blessed to live in this country. We're blessed to live in the world's most prosperous nation. And I believe we have a special responsibility to help those who are not as blessed. It is the call to share our prosperity with others, and to reach out to brothers and sisters in need.

We help the least fortunate across the world because our conscience demands it. We also recognize that helping struggling nations succeed is in our interest. When America helps lift societies out of poverty we create new markets for goods and services, and new jobs for American workers. Prosperity abroad can be translated to jobs here at home. It's in our interest that we help improve the economies of nations around the world.

When America helps reduce chaos and suffering, we make this country safer, because prosperous nations are less likely to feed resentment and breed violence and export terror. Helping poor nations find the path to success benefits this economy and our security, and it makes us a better country. It helps lift our soul and renews our spirit.

So America is pursuing a clear strategy to bring progress and prosperity to struggling nations all across the world. We're working to increase access to trade and relieve the burden of debt. We're increasing our assistance to the world's poorest countries and using this aid to encourage reform, and strengthen education, and fight the scourge of disease. We'll work with developing nations to find ways to address their energy needs and the challenge of global climate change.

Bringing progress and prosperity to struggling nations requires opening new opportunities for trade. Trade is the best way to help poor countries develop their economies and improve the lives of their people. When I took office, America had free trade agreements with three countries. Today we have free trade agreements in force with 14 countries, most of which are in the developing world. Three weeks ago, my administration and Congress agreed on a new trade policy that will be applied to free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, Panama and South Korea. And I look forward to working with Congress to get all these trade bills passed. These bills are good for our economy.

But it's important for members of Congress and the people of this country to understand free trade is the best way to lift people out of poverty. And so the United States also seeks to open markets to the Doha round of trade negotiations. Doha represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help millions in the developing world rise from poverty and despair. If you're interested in helping the poor people, you ought to be for trade and opening up markets for their goods and services. And the Doha round gives us an opportunity to do just that.

We put forward bold proposals to help conclude a successful Doha round. And at the G8 summit next week, I'm going to urge other nations to do the same. A successful Doha round will benefit all our countries and it's going to transform the world.

I know that trade can transform lives, I've seen it firsthand. Laura and I were recently in Guatemala. We went to a small village and saw what can happen when markets are open for local entrepreneurs. In this case, we met some farmers who for years had struggled to survive, worked hard just to put food on the table for their families by growing corn and beans. That's all they were able to do. It's a hard way to make a living, growing corn and beans. When we negotiated the trade agreement called the CAFTA DR, which opened up new markets for Guatemalan farmers, the entrepreneurial spirit came forth. There are entrepreneurs all over the world, if just given a chance, they can succeed.

Today, the farmers in that village are growing high-value crops, because they have new markets in which to sell their product. The business we met -- the entrepreneur we met now employs a thousand people. Trade will improve lives a lot faster than government aid can. It's in our interest that we open up markets, for our products, and for the products of others. People just want to be given a chance. And the United States will take the lead in making sure those markets are open for people to be able to realize a better life.

Building progress and prosperity to struggling nations requires lifting the burden of debt from the poorest countries. That makes sense. It doesn't take a Ph.D. in economics to figure out, if you're paying a lot of money on interest, you're not having enough money to support your own people. In the past, many poor nations borrowed money, and they couldn't repay the debt. And their interest payments were huge. And, therefore, they didn't have the opportunity to invest in education and health care. So the administration, my administration worked with G8 nations to ease the debt burden. We're not the first administration to figure this out. My predecessor did the same thing, because it's the right policy for the United States of America.

Two years ago at Gleneagles, the G8 nations agreed to support a multilateral debt relief agreement that freed poor countries of up to $60 billion in debt. This year, we built on that progress, when the Inter-American Development Bank approved another debt relief initiative for some of the poorest nations in our neighborhood, in our own hemisphere. This initiative will cancel $3.4 billion owed by five countries: Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua. And that represents more than 12 percent of their combined GDP, an average of nearly $110 for every man, woman, and child in these countries. And this money is now free to help these nations invest in improving their lives of citizens. It makes sense to forgive debt. If you're interested in helping the poor, it makes sense for the developed world to forgive the debt. And that's what the United States will continue to do.

Bringing progress and prosperity to struggling nations requires increased American assistance to countries most in need. Since I took office, we have more than doubled U.S. development spending across the world -- from about $10 billion in 2000, to $23 billion in 2006. It's the largest increase in development assistance since the Marshall Plan.

The first four years of my administration, we doubled our assistance to Africa. At the G8 summit in 2005, I promised our assistance to Africa would double once again by 2010. I made a promise to the people. People expect us to deliver on that promise, and I expect the Congress to help. We must not shortchange these efforts. Congress needs to approve my full funding request for development assistance this year. We need to get the job done. (Applause.)

We're focusing increased American assistance for developing nations on three key goals -- in other words, we have some goals, we're not just going to spend money. We have a reason to spend the money and we expect there to be results when we spend that money -- so do the taxpayers of this country. It's one thing to be compassionate, it's another thing to be accountable for the money.

First, we're going to use our aid to help developing countries build democratic and accountable institutions and strengthen their civil societies. To succeed in the global economy, nations need fair and transparent legal systems; need free markets that unleash the creativity of their citizens; need banking systems that serve people at all income levels; and a business climate that welcomes foreign investment and supports local entrepreneurs.

The United States is helping developing nations build these and other free institutions through what we call the Millennium Challenge Account. Under this program, America makes a compact with developing nations. We give aid, and in return they agree to implement democratic reforms, to fight corruption, to invest in their people -- particularly in health and education -- and to promote economic freedom. Seems like a fair deal, doesn't it -- taxpayers' money from the United States in return for the habits and procedures necessary for a solid society to develop. We don't want to give aid to a country where the leaders steal the money. We expect there to be accountability for U.S. money and that's the principle behind the Millennium Challenge Account. Eleven nations have compacts in place worth nearly $3 billion. And now 14 additional nations are eligible to negotiate compacts with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, headed by Ambassador Danilovich.

Let me give you an example of how this program can make a difference. In Madagascar the leaders of this island nation set a goal in their compact to improve agricultural production. In other words, we work with a nation, they have set the goal; we support their goal. They want their farmers to be able to compete in the global marketplace. We agreed to help by investing in agricultural business centers that work with local farmers. In one village, this initiative helped a group of farmers who were surviving by collecting firewood and producing charcoal. That's how these folks were trying to get ahead. They'd find firewood and make charcoal out of it, and hope they could find a market. It's a tough way to make a living in a modern world.

The business center that the compact established helped the farmers work together to identify a new product, a natural oil used in skin care products. I probably could use some of that myself. (Laughter.) The center helped these farmers develop -- helped them to develop a business plan. They acquired financing to set up a distilling plant. They built relationships with buyers in their nation's capital.

Before America and Madagascar signed our compact, a typical farmer in this village could earn about $5 a week selling charcoal. After two months of bringing the new product to the market, the livelihood of these farmers increased. One farmer was able to raise his income enough to save about $500, money he plans to use for a child's education.

We're going to help encourage African entrepreneurs in other ways, as well. Today, I'm announcing a new project called Africa Financial Sector Initiative. Through this initiative, we'll provide technical assistance to help African nations strengthen their financial markets. The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corps, OPIC, headed by Rob Mosbacher, will work with the financial community to create several new private equity funds that will mobilize up to a billion dollars of additional private investment in Africa.

If you're interested in job creation, there's got to be capital available. It's in our interest that we help provide capital to African entrepreneurs. We want them to find access to capital, and we want them to have access to markets because we want to improve their lives. And when people's lives in countries on the continent of Africa improve, it helps the United States of America. It's what our taxpayers have got to understand. It's in our interest. (Applause.)

All of this will go for naught if people don't have a good education. So the second way we're using our aid is to improve education so that the young in the developing world have the tools they need to realize their God-given potential. Many parents across the world either have no access to education for their children, or simply cannot afford it. It's a fact of life, something the world needs to deal with, particularly those of us who have got some money.

In many nations, girls have even less educational opportunity. It robs them of a chance to satisfy their ambitions or to make use of their talents and skills, and it's really sad, when you think about it. It really is. The question is, does the United States care? Should we do something about it? And the answer is, absolutely. If boys and girls in Africa and other developing nations don't learn how to read, write, and add and subtract, this world is just going to move on without them. And all the aid efforts we'll be trying will go to naught, in my judgment.

And so in 2002, I launched the African Education Initiative to help address the great need. Through this initiative, we have provided about $300 million to expand educational opportunities throughout the continent, and we're going to provide another $300 million by 2010. We will have doubled our commitment. (Applause.)

One young woman who has benefited from this program is a woman named Evelyn Nkadori, from the Masai people of the grasslands of Kenya. In her rural community, girls are rarely offered an education -- just never given a chance. They're expected to care for younger children until they're married themselves at an early age. That was the custom. She had a different vision for her future, and our initiative helped her realize it. Our program helped her complete high school, and now she's attending Chicago State University on a scholarship. She's one of the first -- she is one of the first women from her village ever to receive a college education. She hopes to attend medical school, and then go home and help others.

Evelyn, I appreciate you being here today. I'm honored by your presence. Thank you for your courage. We can't make you want to succeed, but we can help you succeed. Thanks for coming. (Applause.)

And we need to do more, for not only children on the continent of Africa, but poor children throughout the world. And so I'm calling on Congress to fund $525 million over the next five years to make our educational initiatives even more robust. And the goal is to provide basic education for 4 million additional children on the continent of Africa and across the globe.

We've got another interesting idea, and that is to establish new Communities of Opportunity centers in poor nations to provide skills and language training for 100,000 at-risk youth; giving these young people in these countries the skills they need to succeed, we're going to give them keys to a brighter future.

The third way we're using our aid is to fight the scourge of disease in Africa and other parts of the developing world. Epidemics like HIV/AIDS and malaria destroy lives and they decimate families. They also impose a crippling economic burden on societies where so many are struggling to lift their families out of poverty. We've taken action to fight these diseases. We've done so because it's in our nation's interest to do so.

In 2003, my administration launched a new initiative to combat HIV/AIDS -- the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. We pledged $15 billion over five years for AIDS prevention and treatment and care programs in many of the poorest nations on Earth. This level of support was unprecedented. I'm proud to report, on behalf of our citizens, that it remains the largest commitment by any nation ever to combat a single disease. (Applause.)

And the program is working. Three years ago, about 50,000 people on the continent of Africa were receiving antiretroviral drugs for help. Today, over 1.1 million people are receiving lifesaving drugs. And this is a good start. It's a necessary start, and it's a promising start; but we need to do more. So yesterday in the Rose Garden, Kunene and Baron and the good Doc -- and I don't know where the Bishop is -- (laughter) -- anyway, they were standing with me up there when I called on Congress to greatly expand our efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS, by doubling our initial commitment, by dedicating an additional $30 billion to this struggle over the next five years in the year 2009. (Applause.)

And here's the goal: support treatment for nearly 2.5 million people, to prevent more than 12 million new infections, and to provide compassionate care for 12 million people, including 5 million more orphans and vulnerable children. We set the goal for the past initiative, and we met it. And we're going to set the goal for this one, and we're going to meet it. But Congress needs to get that money as quickly as possible so it makes it easier to meet the goal. I proposed this unprecedented investment for a reason -- it's in the world's interest and our nation's interest to save lives. And that's exactly what this program is doing.

We saved a life of a fellow named Robert Ongole. He's with us today. John Robert Ongole -- not yet, not yet, John Robert. (Laughter.) I'm going to make it a little more dramatic than that. (Laughter.) You probably didn't know who I was talking about when is skipped the "John." (Laughter.)

John Robert has a family of two children; he has HIV/AIDS. This disease ravaged his body. His weight dropped to 99 pounds. He developed tuberculosis and other health problems. He and his family felt certain that he would die. Then John Robert began receiving antiretroviral treatment through PEPFAR in Uganda. The treatment restored his strength. He returned to the classroom and he continued being a dad.

John Robert is earning his bachelor's degree in education. He's volunteering to help other people. The American people need to hear what he had to say: "When you talk of PEPFAR, that's my life, because it worked. Because without it, I couldn't have lived. Now I want to save the lives of other people." Thanks for coming, John Robert. (Applause.)

Does it matter to America if John Robert lives? You bet it does. That's why this initiative is an important initiative. That's why it's important Congress continue to spend taxpayers' money to save lives like John Robert's, and Kunene's, and Baron's.

As we increase our commitment to fight HIV/AIDS, we're also continuing an unprecedented commitment to fight against malaria. Malaria takes the lives of about 1 million people a year in the developing world, and the vast majority are under five years old. In some countries, this disease takes even more lives than HIV/AIDS. Every 30 seconds, a mother in Africa loses her child to malaria. It's a tragic disease because it's preventable and treatable. We can do something about it.

In 2005, I announced the President's Malaria Initiative. Through this initiative, we're spending $1.2 billion over five years to fight the disease in 15 targeted African countries. This initiative provides insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor spraying, and life-saving anti-malaria medications. This strategy works. It really isn't all that complicated. It takes money and organization and effort.

In Angola, this initiative helped increase the number of children protected by nets from less than 5 percent to nearly 70 percent. You buy the nets, you educate the people, you get the nets to them, and when they start using them, lives are saved. This initiative has expanded malaria protection for more than 6 million Africans in its first year, and by the end of the second year, in 2007, we expect to reach a total of 30 million people. (Applause.)

At the G8 summit, I'm going to urge our partners to join us in this unprecedented effort to fight these dreaded diseases. America is proud to take the lead. We expect others to join us, as well. If you want to help improve lives on the continent of Africa, and around the world, join with the United States and provide substantial help to fight HIV/AIDS and malaria.

Bringing progress and prosperity to struggling nations requires growing amounts of energy. It's hard to grow your economy if you don't have energy. Yet, producing that energy can create environmental challenges for the world. We need to harness the power of technology to help nations meet their growing energy needs while protecting the environment and addressing the challenge of global climate change.

In recent years, science has deepened our understanding of climate change and opened new possibilities for confronting it. The United States takes this issue seriously. The new initiative I am outlining today will contribute to the important dialogue that will take place in Germany next week. The United States will work with other nations to establish a new framework on greenhouse gas emissions for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

So my proposal is this: By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases. To help develop this goal, the United States will convene a series of meetings of nations that produce most greenhouse gas emissions, including nations with rapidly growing economies like India and China.

In addition to this long-term global goal, each country would establish midterm national targets, and programs that reflect their own mix of energy sources and future energy needs. Over the course of the next 18 months, our nations would bring together industry leaders from different sectors of our economies, such as power generation and alternative fuels and transportation. These leaders will form working groups that will cooperate on ways to share clean energy technology and best practices.

It's important to ensure that we get results, and so we will create a strong and transparent system for measuring each country's performance. This new framework would help our nations fulfill our responsibilities under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. The United States will work with all nations that are part of this convention to adapt to the impacts of climate change, gain access to clean and more energy-efficient technologies, and promote sustainable forestry and agriculture.

The way to meet this challenge of energy and global climate change is through technology, and the United States is in the lead. The world is on the verge of great breakthroughs that will help us become better stewards of the environment. Over the past six years, my administration has spent, along with the Congress, more than $12 billion in research on clean energy technology. We're the world's leader when it comes to figuring out new ways to power our economy and be good stewards of the environment.

We're investing in new technologies to produce electricity in cleaner ways, including solar and wind energy, clean coal technologies. If we can get a breakthrough in clean coal technologies, it's going to help the developing world immeasurably, and at the same time, help protect our environment.

We're spending a lot of money on clean, safe nuclear power. If you're truly interested in cleaning up the environment, or interested in renewable sources of energy, the best way to do so is through safe nuclear power. We're investing in new technologies that transform the way we fuel our cars and trucks. We're expanding the use of hybrid and clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel.

We're spending a lot of your money in figuring out ways to produce ethanol from products other than corn. One of these days, we'll be making fuel to power our automobiles from wood chips, to switchgrasses, to agricultural wastes. I think it makes sense to have our farmers growing energy, so that we don't have to import it from parts of the world where they may not like us too much. And it's good for our environment, as well.

We're pressing on with battery research for plug-in hybrid vehicles that can be powered by electricity from a wall socket, instead of gasoline. We're continuing to research and to advance hydrogen-powered vehicles that emit pure water instead of exhaust fumes; we're taking steps to make sure these technologies reach the market, setting new mandatory fuel standards that require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels by the year 2017. It's a mandatory fuel standard. We want to reduce our gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10 years, which will not only help our national security, it will make us better stewards of the environment. The United States is taking the lead, and that's the message I'm going to take to the G8.

Last week, the Department of Energy announced that in 2006, our carbon emissions decreased by 1.3 percent while our economy grew by 3.3 percent. This experience shows that a strong and growing economy can deliver both a better life for its people and a cleaner environment at the same time.

At the G8 summit, I'm going to encourage world leaders to increase their own investments in research and development. I'm looking forward to working with them. I'm looking forward to discussing ways to encourage more investment in developing nations by making low-cost financing options for clean energy a priority of the international development banks.

We're also going to work to conclude talks with other nations on eliminating tariffs and other barriers to clean energy technologies and services by the end of year. If you are truly committed to helping the environment, nations need to get rid of their tariffs, need to get rid of those barriers that prevent new technologies from coming into their countries. We'll help the world's poorest nations reduce emissions by giving them government-developed technologies at low cost, or in some case, no cost at all.

We have an historic opportunity in the world to extend prosperity to regions that have only known poverty and despair. The United States is in the lead, and we're going to stay in the lead.

The initiatives I've discussed today are making a difference in the lives of millions; our fellow citizens have got to understand that. We're talking about improving lives in a real, tangible way that ought to make our country proud. That's why we've asked these folks to come. It's one thing for the President to be talking about stories; it's another thing for the people to see firsthand what our help has done.

I'm so proud of the United States of America. This initiative shows the good character and the decency of the American people. We are a decent people. We feel responsible for helping those who are less fortunate. And I am proud to be the President of such a good nation. Thanks for coming, and God bless. (Applause.)

END 10:46 A.M. EDT



Fact Sheet: Commitment to International Development

Today, President Bush spoke about the Administration’s commitment to international development. The President discussed expanded education for the world’s poorest children and Africa Financial Sector Initiative, and called on Congress to fully fund his foreign assistance budget request in FY2008.

* President Bush committed to expand assistance for education in the world’s poorest countries. Our investment in disadvantaged children will help foster the development of stable and productive environments where social justice, economic development, and democratic principles thrive.

* President Bush announced the Africa Financial Sector Initiative (AFSI) to strengthen financial markets, mobilize domestic and foreign investment, and help spur job creation and economic growth. This initiative is expected to mobilize up to $1.0 billion in privately-managed investment funds for Africa and provide expert technical assistance specifically tailored to help address structural impediments in Africa’s financial sector.

Expanding education and developing the private sector are two essential long-term investments that can help break the cycle of poverty in the word’s poorest countries.

President Announces Expanded Education for the World’s Poorest Children

Today, President Bush committed to expand assistance for education in the world’s poorest countries. The U.S. will establish a new after-school skills development program, Communities of Opportunity, for young girls and boys. The U.S. will also expand support for other new basic education activities to ensure that children have access to quality schooling. Additional U.S. funding will total $525 million over five years.

* The President will work closely with Congress to implement this new transformational approach to promoting education in poor countries.

* A new Coordinator for Education, based at the U.S. Agency for International Development, will direct a strategic use of resources that builds on America’s current support for basic education, child health, and nutrition overseas. Resources will be targeted to countries that demonstrate a strong commitment -- including Fast Track Initiative endorsed education plans, financial transparency, and increased government spending on education.

* Education promotes progress, reduces poverty, and helps girls and boys become productive and active citizens. It allows women to fully use their talents to build just and innovative societies. Moreover, education offers opportunity and counters the forces of extremism and violence.

A Transformational Approach To Education

The approach will build upon the Administration’s existing efforts by:

* Providing up to 4 million more children with access to quality basic education through comprehensive programs in a select number of initial target countries;

* Giving 100,000 at-risk youth extra training in English, computer skills, science, math and finance, and critical thinking through “Communities of Opportunity”;

* Coordinating with child health interventions -- including school feeding and vaccinations -- in support of broader basic education and training activities; and

* Establishing partnerships in support of targeted interventions with local communities, parents, and the private sector -- including business and non-government organization leaders.

The Africa Financial Sector Initiative Strengthens And Mobilizes Funding And Markets

To strengthen and deepen African capital markets, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) will support the creation of several new private equity funds that may mobilize up to $800 million of additional investment in Africa. This investment will address critical gaps in the sources of financing available to African businesses. The financial community submitted 25 proposals to OPIC for consideration pursuant to its recently completed Africa Capital Markets Call for Proposals. By September 2007, OPIC will select funds to support based on its assessment of developmental impact and potential for success. These dedicated funds will:

* Offer new financial instruments and services to African businesses, such as long-term debt, local currency debt, mezzanine financing, securities underwriting, and corporate bond issuance.

In addition, on June 6, OPIC will issue an innovative call for proposals seeking private equity funds to provide capital to businesses serving important social needs in Africa and contributing to the grass roots development of its private sector. These dedicated funds will:

* Provide capital to businesses in sectors with a high developmental impact, such as water, healthcare, small and medium enterprise development, and education.

* Attract investors that prioritize both financial and social returns.

To date, OPIC has supported four Sub-Saharan Africa investment funds that will mobilize roughly $1.9 billion in private investment over time.

AFSI technical assistance will help to improve financial sector climates with the goal of facilitating increased domestic and international investment. Activities will:

* Strengthen country and regional debt markets by providing up to 10 Treasury Department advisors over the FY08-10 period.

* Launch remittance programs in Nigeria and West Africa through USAID to increase private sector competition, lower the cost of remittance transfers, and bring the un-banked into the formal financial system.

* Provide training through FDIC for banking regulators in order to improve the security and stability of the region’s financial systems.

* Develop payment systems and credit bureaus through USAID to support local retail and commercial banking.

Keeping Pledges On Development

At the Monterrey U.N. Conference for Financing for Development in 2002, the President proposed a 50-percent increase in our core official development assistance over the next three budget years. Starting from a base of $10.0 billion in 2000, the United States surpassed its Monterrey commitment in 2003 when official development assistance levels increased to $16.3 billion.

The 2006 preliminary estimate from the OECD Development Assistance Committee of $22.7 billion in official development assistance is the second highest annual expenditure ever provided by any donor country after the U.S. level of $27.6 billion in 2005. Preliminary 2006 ODA statistics on bilateral U.S. aid show:

* Aid to the Least Developed Countries was a record $5.5 billion.

* Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa increased by $1.4 billion, or 33%, to a record $5.6 billion.

* Aid to Latin America increased from $1.3 billion in 2005 to $1.6 billion

* Aid to South/Central Asia increased to $2.8 billion from $2.6 billion.

At the Gleneagles G8 Summit in 2005, President Bush announced that the United States would double assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2010 to $8.67 billion. The United States is on track to meet that goal with a preliminary estimate of $6.5 billion of bilateral and multilateral assistance in 2006.

In 2002, the President announced the Millennium Challenge Account, devoted to projects in nations that govern justly, invest in their people and encourage economic freedom. Since then, the MCA has put this pledge into practice signing compacts and threshold programs worth over $3 billion.

Make Mother's Day Extra Happy

Use your Mother's Day present to help mothers you've never met! The links below will take you to catalogs which allow you to buy gifts that help others, the purchase of which directly help international aid organizations at work in Africa. All the charities listed in this post have gotten an "A" rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy (charitywatch.org), indicating that over 90% of their budget goes to relief work. In addition to supporting charities (or, in the case of ONE, an advocacy campaign), many of these products are FAIR TRADE or the handiwork of impoverished people. By purchasing from most of these sites, you are "giving" two times over: helping individuals directly and supporting a relief organization.

• A Greater Gift


• CARE: Magazine Subscriptions


• CAREWear


• Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade Chocolate Program


• Catholic Relief Services Map of Fair Trade Coffee Roasters


• Co-op America's National Green Pages


• Doctors of the World Gift Catalog


• Equal Exchange, for the benefit of Lutheran World Relief


• Global Exchange


• Medical Teams International Online Store


• Northwest Medical Teams International E-Cards


• Oxfam America Unwrapped


• Save the Children Gift Shop


• Ten Thousand Villages Gift Shop/Mennonite Central Committee


• The Child Health Site Store - $1 SHIPPING


• The ONE Campaign Store


• UNICEF Cards and E-Cards


• World Neighbors Coffee & WOW! Store

If you have a mom (or wife) who says "It's the thought that counts" and MEANS IT, try one of the choices below. These links also take you to places to buy gifts online which support "A"-rated relief organizations. In the cases below, however, the "gift" is really a personalized donation, which allows you to give the intended recipient of your gift a card stating that you bought school supplies for a classroom, or food rations or courses of AIDS drugs in the name of the recipient. Unlike raw donations, the amounts correlate to a specific usage, making the gift more "tangible" and meaningful.

• Church World Service Gift Catalog


• American Friends Service Committee - Gifts with Heart & Hope


• World Concern Global Gift Guide


• Mercy Corp. - Mercy Kits

Happy Mother's Day!

Blair warns West will suffer if it fails Africa

"The more I look at what is happening in Africa, in some of the worst trouble spots, in Sudan and Somalia and so on, the more I am convinced that if we do not take a responsible and long-term view of Africa and its need to develop and make progress then we will end up ultimately with our own self-interest back in countries like Germany and the UK being damaged as a result of the poverty, the conflict, the mass migration and the spread of terrorism," he told journalists.

by Guy Jackson Tue Apr 24, 3:54 PM ET

BERLIN (AFP) - Prime Minister
Tony Blair warned here on Tuesday that wealthy Western countries would ultimately suffer if they failed to fulfill their pledges to help the development of Africa.

Blair, former UN chief Kofi Annan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in the German capital to discuss the work of the Africa Progress Panel. Chaired by by Annan, it was set up last June to monitor the progress of rich countries in meeting their commitments to Africa.

Leaders of the Group of Eight most industrialised nations pledged at the British-hosted Gleneagles summit two years ago to grant substantial debt relief and double aid to Africa by 2010.

While the debt relief goals have largely been met, most G8 countries are well behind on the aid targets.

Merkel has promised that Africa will be also one of the key themes at this year's G8 summit hosted by Germany.

Blair said debt relief to Africa had totalled around 38 billion dollars (28 billion euros) in recent years and there had been "significant, though not enough, increases in the aid money that has been given."

He said the consequences of failing to help Africa could be dire.

"The more I look at what is happening in Africa, in some of the worst trouble spots, in Sudan and Somalia and so on, the more I am convinced that if we do not take a responsible and long-term view of Africa and its need to develop and make progress then we will end up ultimately with our own self-interest back in countries like Germany and the UK being damaged as a result of the poverty, the conflict, the mass migration and the spread of terrorism," he told journalists.

Blair said it had been shown that "where the help is given it does make a difference.

"There are health service systems and education systems being transformed and changed as a result of the help and commitment that has been given by the international community," he added.

Merkel and Annan said the Africa Progress Panel was seeking to ensure that existing debt targets were met.

"We are not asking for new promises, we are asking for the implementation of what has been promised and I am encouraged by the meeting we've had and by the support we've received from both leaders," Annan said.

The former UN Secretary General said African leaders were increasingly aware that "they have to solve these political conflicts to be able to focus on the economic and social issues."

He pointed to conflicts resolved in Angola, Sierre Leone, Liberia, Burundi, and Eritrea and Ethiopia as proof that Africa could get its own house in order.

Annan said earlier he would be delighted if Blair were to join the panel after he left office this year. Blair is yet to reveal his future plans.

Merkel said it was time for wealthy countries to meet their pledges.

"We don't need more meetings to set targets, we already have the targets. Now we need to make a certain amount of progress.

"The German presidency (of the G8) will take over the impulse of Gleneagles," she said.

The G8 summit takes place on June 6-8 in Heiligendamm and will be attended by the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Welcome, Friends!

Welcome the following families to the ETHIOPIAN ADOPTION BLOGROLL:

Show 'em some love!

April and Zach's Adoption Site

Augusta's Blog

Baby Ash's Adventure

Bringing Baby Home Blog

Ethiopia Mama

Fairy Good Baby

The Adoption of Nicholas

The Brocker Family Journal

The Earley Journey

The Schmidt Family Journey to Rebekkah and Joseph

Love in the Driest Season: A Family Memoir

The ultimate horror, the ultimate tragedy in this world is the needless, senseless death of a child. The opening chapters of LOVE IN THE DRIEST SEASON by Neely Tucker recount dozens of them. The news attests to hundreds of thousands. The effect can be debilitating -- you look at your own children, tossing a ball, watching Scooby-Doo, you project all that they may accomplish with their lives, and wonder, "What did the world miss out on, for lack of a few dollars worth of medicine? An inspiring politician? A brilliant scientist? An artists? A father? A mother? A teacher?"

In a primal, almost simplistic way, you want to help -- do something. So you join "ONE", write Congress, give what amounts to peanuts to your favorite charity, and watch reality chug along it's grim path. Eventually, meaningless compassion can deepen into a feeling of hopelessness, then, into a hardening of all emotions.

This is how we meet Neely Tucker at the beginning of the book. He'd seen children die in Kosovo and hundreds of other "hot spots" around the world, as he reported the news. Then, one day, a tiny hand gripped his finger, and his hardened heart began to melt. This emotional attachment with an abandoned Zimbabwean girl, found by the side of the road, still covered in her mother's blood, ants eating her ear, takes Neely and his wife Vita (and the reader) on an unbelievably epic journey through the dark heart of the AIDS crisis and the re-emergence of one man's soul.

Judging from the adoption world at large (blogs, sites, forums, etc.) LOVE IN THE DRIEST SEASON seems to be the poor cousin to THERE IS NO ME WITHOUT YOU. Without taking anything away from Melissa Faye Green's powerful and pertinent examination of Ethiopia, I'd argue that Neely Tucker's memoir is equally affecting.

Neely is a white man from Mississippi who married a black woman from Detroit, then tried to adopt an African child from post-Colonial Zimbabwe. Issues of race, identity, national origin and adoption weave organically through his narrative -- from the Zimbabweans suspicion of a white man adopting a black girl (for sexual slavery?), to Vita's identification with and alienation from "mother Africa". At times, she is treated apart from her husband, at other times, rejected by the Africans, she feels very "American". Neely's family, who boycotted his marriage to Vita, fiercely love their daughter -- and even reveal family secrets concerning adoption.

Many of these issues have touched my own family, and seeing them refracted in the smaller, more personal moments of this otherwise "big scope" story led me to strongly identify with Neely. His nuanced analysis of his personal history, his loving portrayal of Vita, his honesty about the wear-and-tear their story caused to him, his marriage and his career pulled me through even the starkest chapters.

The thrust of the book, however, is the point/counterpoint of adopting the girl named Chipo, in the face of a country ravaged by AIDS. Adding context to this throughline, we also tag along on Neely's correspondent work. Headlines such as the Rwandan genocide, uprisings in the Congo and the bombing of the embassy in Nairobi all come into focus, allowing readers, perhaps for the first time, to understand the complex political interdependence between all of these troubled post-colonial countries.

Their Kafka-esque nightmare through the Zimbabwean bureaucracy illuminates clearlyand Tpowerfully the full reasons for the AIDS pandemic: the legacy of colonialism, leading to poor, undeveloped countries with large uneducated and impoverished black populations angry and fearful of Western intervention, local sexual mores (including a tradition for "dry sex", a fear of condoms because they "are for prostitutes", a complete unwillingness to admit the disease exists and a system that shuns those who are infected) and, most viciously and tragically, profoundly corrupt and quasi-facist governments which hide and deny the disease for reasons of pure ego and divert healthcare funding into their own purse. The problems are complex, with long histories. In a strange way, the truth does set us free, and the complexity of the problem does leave room for real change. The idea that some of these issues ARE fixable also cracks the door for hope.

In the end, however, life is unfair, and children do die. Cherish the kids we have and honor the memory of those who didn't make it as best we can. It doesn't sound that uplifting, writing it now, but I came away from the book with a better understanding of the world from which our kids come and why that world exists.


A parting note - this is the perfect book for the HUSBANDS out there. His POV and writing style are very guy-friendly. His exploits as a reporter add splashes of action and suspense. Most importantly, Neely's concerns about the adoption and the path he takes to having his heart opened to the idea is very identifiable to men. He struggles openly and honestly with his attempts to balance his marriage, his professional life and the toll of the adoption -- emotionally and financially. The adoption does extract a toll, but in the end, he feels more than recompensed. This book would be a welcome present for all DADS, WAITING DADS or POTENTIAL DADS out there (and might just help tip the scales for RESISTANT COULD-BE DADS as well!)

Ethiopia's First Plumpy'nut Factory Opens

Click on the UNICEF graphic to help end malnutrition!

Until American companies "get on it and become competitive," he said, major manufacturing of the revolutionary food will remain minimal.

(Thanks to "spooky06" for the tip!)

Article by Indrias Getachew, UNICEF

UNICEF correspondent Sabine Dolan reports on Ann M. Veneman's inauguration of Ethiopia's first Plumpy'nut therapeutic food factory.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman inaugurated Ethiopia's first Plumpy'nut therapeutic food factory in Addis Ababa on February 20. The inauguration marks a joint venture between UNICEF, U.S. Fund for UNICEF board member Amy Robbins and the Hilina Enriched Foods Processing center.

Plumpy'nut is a high-protein and high-energy peanut-based paste used for the treatment of severely malnourished children. An estimated one and a half million children in Ethiopia are severely malnourished. At full capacity, Hilina Enriched Foods will produce up to 12 tons of the paste.

"Today as we open the doors of the fourth, and largest, factory in Africa that will produce Plumpy'nut, we are taking a step in the right direction in addressing the issue of malnutrition," said Veneman.

Generous solution

In 2005, Amy Robbins donated $1.3 million to UNICEF to allow the purchase and import of 267 tons of Plumpy'nut to Ethiopia. Formulated by French scientist Andre Briend in 1999, Plumpy'nut has been used to save children's lives in major emergency situations in Darfur, Niger and Malawi.

Plumpy'nut requires no preparation or special supervision so an untrained adult such as a parent can deliver it to a malnourished child at home, allowing governments to reduce the amount of money spent on therapeutic feeding stations. The paste has a two-year shelf life when unopened and stays fresh even after opening.

Though Plumpy'nut is relatively inexpensive and easy to transport, Robbins discovered that huge costs were incurred from its importation and that limited capacity at the French plant made it difficult to ensure timely food supplies from Europe.

To solve the problem, she donated $340,000 towards investment in the needed equipment to manufacture Plumpy'nut within Ethiopia.

Yesterday she visited a mother in South Omo, Ethiopia whose 10-month old baby was struggling with malnutrition but gaining weight by eating Plumpy'nut. "It was impressive because you see your investments, your partnerships are really tangible in the happy, healthy children and that expands to happy mothers and entire communities," said Robbins.

"I am a mother. I have four sons who are living in New York City and I am very disturbed by the fact that my sons have everything and there are so many children in the world who have nothing. And so I thought there was an opportunity to take the business expertise that I gained in New York and bring it here to Ethiopia."

Increased recovery rates

Malnutrition contributes to more than half of all child deaths in Ethiopia. The country's 2005 Demographic and Health Survey shows that 47 percent of Ethiopia's children are stunted, 38 percent underweight and 11 percent wasted.

"Recovery rates for severely under-nourished children have been as high as 90 to 95 percent by using Plumpy'nut as a therapeutic intervention," said Veneman. "Therapeutic foods are also helping AIDS patients who need adequate nutrition to absorb life-prolonging ARV treatment."

The under five mortality rate in Ethiopia has declined to 123 out of every 1,000 live births from peak levels in 1990 when one in every five children died before the age of five.

"Ethiopia has seen improvements in addressing malnutrition yet widespread hunger continues to exact an enormous cost in terms of human suffering and lost potential," said Veneman.

February 23, 2007

I had never heard of Plumpy'nut, but is sounds amazing. Why isn't it better known and better utilized? An article from ABC News may hold the answer:

Peanut Paste Saves Starving African Children
A Peanut-Based Food Paste Has Revolutionized the Treatment of Malnutrition in Africa
By KATE KLONICK

Oct. 1, 2006 — - It seems underwhelming in its plastic silver package, but Plumpy'nut, the peanut-based therapeutic food paste, is more than enough for hundreds of thousands of malnourished children.

Plumpy'nut, generically known as ready to use therapeutic food, or RUTF, is the invention of André Briend, a French pediatric nutritionist currently working with the World Health Organization.

For years, powdered milk laden with vitamins had been a solution to malnutrition. But preparing the milk required hygienic environments and refrigeration, which usually necessitated inpatient treatment, and was costly and time consuming.

Teaming with Michael Golden, an Irish nutritionist, Briend, who then worked for Action Against Hunger, sought to create a take-home, spoil-proof, preparation-free food to treat malnutrition.. In 1999, Plumpy'nut, a thick, edible, pastelike substance containing peanuts, vegetable oil, milk powder, vitamins and minerals, was created.

Each packet -- roughly the size of a cereal bar -- contains 500 calories of perfectly proportioned proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Two packets a day for two weeks are enough to nourish and rehabilitate a starving child.

Plumpy'nut Goes to Africa

Though the product was created almost seven years ago, it became widely used only in 2005 when the relief group Doctors Without Borders introduced it in Africa.

"It went a bit slowly," said Milton Tectonidis, a Doctors Without Borders special nutritionist. "They first came up with the product as an alternative to milk, tested it on inpatients, ran a number of trials ... and found the results were excellent."

By 2003, the group started giving Plumpy'nut to outpatients, said Tectonidis. "We worked with other NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] to test it out. In each case, it treated 1,000 or 2,000 patients, and we took inspiration from them. When we came out with it in 2005, we treated 60,000 in four months."

Since then, several hundred thousand malnourished children have been rehabilitated with Plumpy'nut, which is handed out in weeklong supplies -- a total of 14 packets -- to the mothers of starving children.

Perhaps more important than the number of children who've been helped by the peanut paste are the resources it has freed up in a resource-scarce environment.

"If you calculate the cost with all the staff and the water and the electric and the hygienic processing and construction," said Tectonidis, "it comes out as much more to treat inpatient than out-patient."

Instead, precious medical attention and relief resources can be devoted to the critically ill or those wounded in war.

Problems With Peanuts: Allergies in Africa

While widespread distribution of a peanut-based product like Plumpy'nut could pose a danger to allergy-prone children in the United States, that is not a concern on the African continent.

"Food allergy seems far less common in poor countries than in rich countries," said Briend. "This well-known observation has been explained by different factors, but apparently, crowding and repeated exposure to infections seem to play a role."

The dearth of allergies and asthma in developing nations, and the rapid growth of these ailments in industrialized countries (registered peanut allergies in the United States doubled from 1997-2002), is largely attributed to the hygiene hypothesis, a topic addressed in an April 2002 article in Science magazine called "Allergy, Parasites and the Hygiene Hypothesis."

"The lack of intense infections in industrialized countries, owing to improved hygiene, vaccination and use of antibiotics, may alter the immune system such that it responds inappropriately to innocuous substances," explained the article.

"After several years of using this product," said Briend, "and feeding several hundreds of thousands of severely malnourished patients with it, I never heard of a place where it was a real issue."

Buying the Basics

Recently, another product was developed. EZ Paste, generically known as BP-100, is similar to Plumpy'nut but does not contain peanuts. It does not have a commercial manufacturer.

As of 2006, only one company, the French-based Nutriset, was manufacturing Plumpy'nut and its individual ingredients for self-assembly.

"There should be hundreds of them," said Tectonidis, making products like Plumpy'nut.

But until American companies "get on it and become competitive," he said, major manufacturing of the revolutionary food will remain minimal.

Plumpy'nut costs roughly 25 cents per packet to manufacture, making a two-week supply (the amount usually needed to make a significant difference in malnutrition) costs roughly $7.

But by using peanut and milk surpluses in countries like the United States, where farmers are often paid to destroy their surplus crops, Tectonidis hopes to be able to buy the ingredients for RUTF wholesale, which would cut manufacturing costs in half.

"There could be a program where they get the raw materials for free and distribute it to the people all over the world," he said. "As long as they agree to sell the product without charging for the raw materials, we could get the product down to 10 or 12 cents a package."

The United Nations World Food Program could help such a collaboration, which Tectonidis said is urgently needed. "Young children in poor countries are dropping like flies due to acute malnutrition," he said.

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

Through the Computer, a Connection

I stumbled across this today and was touched:

I think sometimes, when we are caught up in becoming a family, we can unintentionally separate our children's birthplace from our children... This new development -- finding someone intimately connected with their birthplace, someone who understands firsthand the situation there -- well, it's pretty intense.

Read the post at Holding Still: internet magic.

What's a "BOP"?

Oh, those wacky economists at the WORLD BANK (in this case, a branch of said global bank, the private sector INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL GROUP, and their buddies at the "think tank" WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE). They have come up with a fun new acronym for "dirt poor". It's called BOP, and it means... um, well, I'll let them explain:

The 4 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid (BOP)—all those with incomes below $3,000 in local purchasing power—live in relative poverty. Their incomes in current U.S. dollars are less than $3.35 a day in Brazil, $2.11 in China, $1.89 in Ghana, and $1.56 in India.1 Yet together they have substantial purchasing power: the BOP constitutes a $5 trillion global consumer market.

THE WORLD BANK is one of those weird shadowy organizations that is always mentioned, always on the scene. Sometimes seemingly doing good, sometimes evil, sometimes... well, who knows? It's the kind of joint that makes the X-FILES seem almost credible. Although ostensibly a global organization, it is headquartered in Washington, D.C. The US is the biggest shareholder and the Executive Branch usually picks the president (currently former Deputy Secretary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz). Ostensibly, the BANK is there to help ease the third world into the global economy, but is often charged with being an agent of "economic imperialism" -- i.e., making the third world a comfortable place for multinational companies to get cheap resources and labor. As for the WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE, well, anytime anybody mentions "think tank", I'm reaching for my foil-lined hat -- not that I think they're reading my mind, but, y'know, just to be cautious.

One thing that IS clear about the WORLD BANK brand of third-world economic development. It believes wholeheartedly in the free market system -- unfettered capitalism. Money is cool, but sometimes I do think charity has its place. Certainly, Bono's guru, Jeffrey Sachs argued strenuously in The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time that the free market alone could not bring Africa to health or build a coherent infrastructure. Before you label Sachs a "pinko", keep in mind, he also argued that a little sweatshop labor is okay, as it represents an important step onto the bottom rung of the global economic ladder.

Side note, The End of Poverty is an amazing book. If you've already read There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children, you've already exposed yourself to the human, micro dimension of extreme poverty. The End of Poverty is the macro picture: the "whys" and "hows". It is, by turns, hopeful and depressing, in that it provides a roadmap, then explains why, due to political and economic realities, of which the WORLD BANK is part, that roadmap will not be followed.

Back to the BOPS. Here's what the IFC has to say about charity and public works projects vs. free market capitalism:

There are distinct differences between a market-based approach to poverty reduction and more traditional approaches. Traditional approaches often focus on the very poor, proceeding from the assumption that they are unable to help themselves and thus need charity or public assistance. A market-based approach starts from the recognition that being poor does not eliminate commerce and market processes: virtually all poor households trade cash or labor to meet much of their basic
needs. A market-based approach thus focuses on people as consumers and producers and on solutions that can make markets more efficient, competitive, and inclusive—so that the BOP can benefit from them.

Traditional approaches tend to address unmet needs for health care, clean water, or other basic necessities by setting targets for meeting those needs through direct public investments, subsidies, or other handouts. The goals may be worthy, but the results have not been strikingly successful.

Why is this important? Because this is the subtext of our approach to sub-Saharan Africa. This touches on Africa's debt load to the WORLD BANK and other institutions. It is part of the reason that the US decided to go it alone, with its partially redundant USAID organization instead of becoming a partner with the rest of the world with the GLOBAL FUND. This factors into the Ethiopia and Oxfam vs. Starbucks debate , which segues nicely into the larger "free trade" vs. "fair trade" debate.

Most crucially, this "charity" vs. "capitalism" debate is the HUGE philosophical wedge in health care, where both Clinton and Bush put patent protection ahead of human lives, for the benefit of the pharmaceutical companies and at the expense of those crazy BOPS. Thanks to the voluntary wealth-redistribution program of one Mr. Bill Gates and the undeniable sex appeal of Bono, the "charity" side seems to have scored some points, what with the decision to not patent that recently announced malaria medication and all. Maybe there are brighter days for Bops, just ahead.

Who's a BOP in sub-Saharan Africa? According to the report, just about everybody:

Africa has a slightly smaller BOP market, at $429 billion. But the BOP is by far the region’s dominant consumer market, with 71% of purchasing power. It includes 486 million people—95% of the surveyed population.

In plain English, Africa has the least money of anywhere in the world to spend, and 95% of it's people live at the bottom of the pyramid. Elsewhere, it mentions that within the base of that pyramid, more live at the $500 a year range than at the $3,000 a year cut-off. Interestingly, if you inverse the numbers, you'll see that Africa's top 5% has a massively disproportionate 29% of the spending power.

The IFC report does adequately address some of the, granted, self-evident effects of extreme poverty:

• Significant unmet needs. Most people in the BOP have no bank account and no access to modern financial services. Most do not own a phone. Many live in informal settlements, with no formal title to their dwelling. And many lack access to water and sanitation services, electricity, and basic health care.
• Dependence on informal or subsistence livelihoods. Most in the BOP lack good access to markets to sell their labor, handi-crafts, or crops and have no choice but to sell to local employers or to middlemen who exploit them. As subsistence and small-scale farmers and fishermen, they are uniquely vulnerable to destruction
of the natural resources they depend on but are powerless to protect (World Resources Institute and others 2005). In effect, informality and subsistence are poverty traps.
• Impacted by a BOP penalty. Many in the BOP, and perhaps most, pay higher prices for basic goods and services than do wealthier consumers—either in cash or in the effort they must expend to obtain them—and they often receive lower quality as well. This high cost of being poor is widely shared: it is not just the very poor who
often pay more for the transportation to reach a distant hospital or clinic than for the treatment, or who face exorbitant fees for loans or for transfers of remittances from relatives abroad.

The report passionately (well, passionately for an economic briefing) that the multinational companies and various stock markets are kissing off $5 TRILLION unless they can figure out ways to tap into this "BOP" market. Enlightened self-interest or greed, there is definitely a value to figuring out how to eliminate the "high cost of being poor" and bring better food, water, power and medical care to the extremely poor. The key, it seems, is product and marketing innovation.

The fascinating case of "strange bedfellows" is that may of these principles could also work for NGOs and public works programs.

BOP business strategies that work:

• Focusing on the BOP with unique products, unique services, or unique technologies that are appropriate to BOP needs and that require completely reimagining the business, often through significant investment of money and management talent. Examples are found in such sectors as water (point-of-use systems), food (healthier products), finance (microfinance and low-cost remittance systems), housing, and energy.
• Localizing value creation through franchising, through agent strategies that involve building local ecosystems of vendors or suppliers, or by treating the community as the customer, all of which usually involve substantial investment in capacity building
and training. Examples can be seen in health care (franchise and agent-based direct marketing), ICT (local phone entrepreneurs and resellers), food (agent-based distribution systems), water (community-based treatment systems), and energy (mini-hydropower systems).
• Enabling access to goods or services—financially (through single-use or other packaging strategies that lower purchase barriers, prepaid or other innovative business models that achieve the same result, or financing approaches) or physically (through novel distribution strategies or deployment of low-cost technologies).
Examples occur in food, ICT, and consumer products (in packaging goods and services in small unit sizes, or “sachets”) and in health care (such as cross-subsidies and community-based health insurance). And cutting across many sectors are financing strategies that range from microloans to mortgages.
• Unconventional partnering with governments, NGOs, or groups of multiple stakeholders to bring the necessary capabilities to the table. Examples are found in energy, transportation, health care, financial services, and food and consumer goods.

I have not worked in the non-profit arena, or tried to (as the report highlights) become a major telecom in a politically disrupted country. The problems seem huge.

Where do multinational corporations fit into Africa? Where does charity end and economic sustainability take root? Are co-ops and local control the answer, or privatization and work-for-hire in factories and the like for recognizable brands?

Is there a place for industrious Americans with a strong connection to Africa to figure out how to combine spending power and ingenuity to help encourage economic independence and growth?

Just because I'm thinking about these things doesn't mean I have any answers. I don't even know if I have the right questions. I have a respect for the free market, but a concern about the "unfettered" part, as often human suffering is not listed as a column on the annual report.

US Army in Ethiopia: DISCOVERY'S "Our Children's Children's War"

At 9:00 PM, Eastern time - TONIGHT (Sunday, March 11th, 2007), Ted Koppel explores the future of the war on terrorism, in the special "Our Children's Children's War" on Discovery.

When promoting the show on "Meet the Press" this morning, Koppel showed a clip, in which Special Forces were on the ground, training Ethiopian soldiers. He explained that a few weeks later, those forces helped contain the Islamic extremist rebels in Somalia. More interestingly, he mentioned the Army is now focusing on intervening in Africa to a greater extent, doing both humanitarian work and, obviously, offering military training and support. Koppel explains that the Army views this as the future of the war on terrorism -- training and motivating indigenous forces to do the brunt of the fighting against Islamic extremists.

Read and watch more on his DISCOVERY site.

'American Idol' to Aid Poverty Fight in Africa, America

Originally posted on the LA TIMES: QUICK TAKES

written by Greg Braxton, March 10, 2007

"American Idol" will stage a two-night charity event next month to benefit organizations that help children and young people in extreme poverty in America and Africa.

The top-rated Fox series is partnering with the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund for "Idol Gives Back," which will be broadcast April 24 and 25.

The first night will feature the top six "Idol" finalists performing songs that can be considered "life anthems." The second night will bring performances by Gwen Stefani, Josh Groban, Pink, Michael Bublé, Annie Lennox, Il Divo and popular movie character Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen). Viewers that night will also be able to make donations via toll-free lines and the Internet.

The money raised by the two shows will be distributed equally between the U.S. and Africa.

According to other sources, Bono is also planning on taking part in some way. In addition to donations, the show's sponsors will donate amounts dictated by the number of votes received.

Swerl Activist Spotlight: Bono Recognized by the NAACP

Bono used his acceptance speech for the NAACP's Chairman's Award on Friday, March 2 to draw attention to the ongoing health crisis in Africa, encouraging those with strong religious principles to be at the forefront of fighting AIDS, malaria and extreme poverty. He also referred to the NAACP and ONE forming a stronger alliance.

Listen to the end, it's quite inspiring:

Swerl Africa Heath Alert: New Malaria Drug to Save Millions

Malaria Drugs Could Cut Deaths in Africa

By MARIA CHENG
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 1, 2007; 6:13 AM

LONDON -- The first affordable combination anti-malarial drug tailored for children will soon be available across Africa, potentially saving millions of lives, the nonprofit organization and the pharmaceuticals giant who worked to develop it said Thursday.

The new medication, known as ASAQ, combines two of the most effective drugs known to treat malaria, artesunate and amodiaquine.

ASAQ is the result of a $21 million, two-year project by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative and pharmaceutical manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis. To make the drugs available where they are most needed, the new drug is not patented and will be available to anyone who wants to manufacture it.

"This drug will save lives," said Dr. Bernard Pecoul, executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. "The aim of this project was to develop a product as adapted as possible to the malaria situation in Africa."

The drug already has been registered in Morocco, and has been authorized in 10 other African countries.

Every year there are as many as 500 million cases of malaria worldwide with more than 1 million deaths. The disease primarily affects children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa.

If ASAQ and other drugs like it are made widely available, along with other anti-malaria weapons such as bed nets impregnated with insecticide, the number of malaria cases in Africa could be dramatically cut.

Instead of cutting two different pills intended for adults into child-appropriate sizes _ a less-then precise method _ health care workers will now be able to give children a single pill.

The drug comes in four formulations, including versions for infants and children over 13, or adults. ASAQ merges two pills into one, making it easier both to prescribe and to take. Children will need to take one tablet per day for three days.

"Having a fixed-dose combination is a significant advance," said Dr. Chris Hentschel, president and CEO of the Medicines for Malaria Venture. "The fewer pills people have to take, the more chance they will actually take them."

In addition, the problem of resistance developing should be lessened. Experts worry that when patients have multiple pills to take, they may not take all of both sets of pills, which can lead to the development of resistance. But because ASAQ combines two drugs in one, there are fewer concerns about patients taking their full doses.

ASAQ is the first of numerous malaria treatments in the drug development pipeline, which marks a new era in anti-malarials.

"We need a greater diversity of drugs to drive the prices down to affordable levels," said Dr. Sylvia Meek, technical director at the Malaria Consortium.

As a result of new partnerships between public and private sectors, as well as an injection of funds from organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, there is a newfound drive to develop new drugs for Africa, which has previously been seen as unprofitable.

ASAQ is cheaper than other currently available fixed-dose combinations, and will be available at-cost price to countries battling malaria, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations.

The pills cost less than 50 cents for children, and less than $1 for older children and adults. Even at these relatively low costs, however, that may still be too expensive for Africa.

"Only 5 percent of people who need anti-malaria drugs get them," said Dr. Nick White, a malaria expert at Mahidol University, Bangkok. "That's pathetic and we need to do better."

Malaria is one of the top three killer diseases in Africa. It is transmitted to people from mosquitoes and usually causes symptoms including fever, vomiting, headaches, and other flu-like symptoms. If left untreated, the disease can be fatal.

© 2007 The Associated Press