Bulletins
MDG Advocate Quarterly Update - July 2013
(This summary covers the period March – June 2013)
Highlights of MDG Advocate collaborative work
Secretary-General joins MDG Advocate co-Chairs at UN Headquarters
for 1000 day MDG Momentum rally
In April, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, along with Special Adviser for the MDGs, Jeffrey Sachs, as well as Ambassadors Gary Quinlan of Australia and Eugene-Richard Gasana of Rwanda, representing the co-Chairs from their respective countries of the MDG Advocacy Group, welcomed in the final 1000 days of the MDGs at a ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York. The Group reflected on MDG accomplishments and encouraged accelerated progress in the 1,000 days to the end of 2015 – the target date for achieving the eight anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Joint statement to mark final 1000 days of MDGs by Advocates
To mark the final 1000 days of the MDG Advocates Mukesh Ambani, Stine Bosse, Ray Chambers, Dho Young-shim, Philippe Douste-Blazy, Julio Frenk, Bob Geldof, Graça Machel, Jeffrey Sachs, Marina Silva, Ted Turner, and Muhammad Yunus issued a joint statement to a wide audience, urging the world to accelerate action on issues such as hunger, access to education, improved sanitation, maternal health, and gender equality, using previous MDG accomplishments to keep the momentum going. The statement was shared broadly on social media and featured in numerous publications around the globe.
1 Million Community Health Workers Update
The 1 Million Community Health Workers Campaign, which aims to train, equip and deploy one million health care workers by the end of 2015 to reach millions of underserved people in sub-Saharan Africa, was launched by MDG Advocate Jeffrey Sachs, and co-Chair President Paul Kagame on April 15th. The Tanzanian government hosted the first multi-country planning workshop of the campaign that outlined plans to scale-up the initiative. On May 24th, GlaxoSmithKline donated $750,000 to help create an “Operations Room” that will serve as a central database for the initiative.
Highlights from Individual MDG Advocate’s Activities and Plans
Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser through The Educate A Child (EAC) program, has already found school places for over 600,000 childrenEAC has recently helped UNICEF to keep in school a quarter of a million Syrian children affected by the conflict. EAC is working to help millions more children gain access to schooling in the coming years. The program is currently exploring programs in new priority countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.
Ray Chambers is the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Malaria and Financing the Health MDGs. In his work with Bridge Funds he has been exploring options for guarantees or bridge financing, which would allow for commodities to be ordered and manufactured before the funding is completely available. Two successful examples of this practice have been in Zambia (through Pledge Guarantee for Health) and now in Sierra Leone (through the US Fund for UNICEF). Ray Chambers is also working with a wide range of donors to coordinate an infusion of additional ‘booster’ funding, hoping to secure $1.05 billion. Funds will be direct to the highest-burden countries over the next 30 months to generate the momentum necessary to carry MDGs 4 and 5 to completion.
Ted Turner continues to engage in high-level polio advocacy strategy. As Chairman of the UN Foundation Board and in his capacity as an MDG Advocate, he voted for his top post-2015 development priorities on MY World, the UN Global Survey for a Better World, and placed a full-page ad in The Economist asking others to vote at myworld2015.org (The Economist, March 23-29, 2013). Ted Turner supported and served on the Leadership Council of the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The UN Foundation submitted a paper on “Partnership Lessons Learned” to the High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda,
Jeffrey Sachs is the Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on the MDGs and Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), which mobilizes expertise across sectors to tackle development challenges. In June 2013, the SDSN delivered its report to the UN SG, “An Action Agenda for Sustainable Development.” Under his leadership Columbia University is designing an online class on “Challenges of Sustainable Development,” which will launch in January 2014. Under Jeffrey Sachs’ direction, the Millennium Villages Project is a joint venture between the Earth Institute and the NGO Millennium Promise. Recently, the Government of Rwanda announced it will also work in partnership with the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) to scale-up key aspects of the MVP approach to the national level. In Senegal, Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye has declared that the MVP model is the right one for Senegal, and called its extension across the country.
Julio Frenk is an Advocate for the MDGs focused on health. In addition to serving at the Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, this June Dr. Frenk oversaw the Ministerial Health Leaders’ Forum, which advises African, Southeast Asian, and Latin American public health ministers on how they can become more effective leaders. In April, 2013, Dr. Frenk was involved with the release of the Integrated Global Action Plan for Prevention for the Prevention of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD).
Bob Geldof is an Advocate for sub-Saharan Africa development, with a focus on promoting transparency and accountability. In May, Sir Geldof’s 8 Miles African Private Equity Fund, a fund dedicated to financing exclusively African endeavours, made its first investment. The firm invested in a start-up that seeks to improve African food security by building commodity exchanges throughout the continent. He has successfully advocated for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the passing of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and was part of a long campaign for the UK to meet the target of spending 0.7% of GNI.
Philippe Douste-Blazy is an Advocate and pioneer in the field of Innovative Finance. In June, Professor Douste-Blazy was re-elected by the UNITAID Executive Board to serve as Board Chair for a three-year-term. UNITAID’s goals include increasing access to better and more affordable products for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis (MDG 6).
Mukesh Ambani, as chairman of the Reliance Foundation, is engaging in high-level nutrition and health advocacy. Among the Foundation’s many initiatives is a newly started decade-long campaign to end childhood malnutrition and under-nourishment in India.
Hiromasa Yonekura is a strong advocate for private sector engagement in MDG achievement. He was instrumental in organizing the Fifth Toyko International Conference for African Development, where many public private partnerships were forged in the areas of infrastructure, education and global health. He works closely with fellow Advocates Ray Chambers and Julio Frenk on the Harvard Malaria Initiative (HMI) and continues his support for education in Africa - 13 school buildings completed in 9 countries; 3 projects in Mozambique, Ethiopia and Malawi are under construction.
Dho Young-shim is an Advocate for education with her “Thank You Small Library Initiative”, which provides educational tools and capacity building globally. As of June 2013 a total of 131 UN MDG Thank You Small Libraries have been built in 17 countries. She is also working actively to promote Sustainable Tourism in Millennium Villages throughout Africa with Jeffrey Sachs, where new pilot projects have been launched in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Stine Bosse is an advocate for children’s health and education. Through her efforts with the ChildFund Alliance and BORNEfonden, Ms. Bosse has greatly supported a global campaign called Free from Violence to take children out of conflict zones and into situations where they can lead productive lives.
Muhammad Yunus is an Advocate for using social business to lift millions out of poverty through his Yunis Social Business (YSB) global initiatives. The Nobel laureate has continued to tackle extreme inequality through social business incubator funds and advocacy campaigns. YSB currently operates incubator funds in Haiti, Albania and Colombia. It is in the process of setting up funds in Tunisia, Uganda and Brazil. In March, Professor Yunus and the African Development Bank launched the first social business in Uganda, with more African initiatives on the horizon. In response to the recent Savar tragedy in April, Professor Yunus initiated a global advocacy campaign to gain support for an international minimum wage.
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Past Summaries and Quarterly Updates
MDG Advocate Quarterly Update March 2013 : Summary and Full report
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