Vanity Fair – winds of change

Look! Can you see? The shape-shifters are at work in the landscape of our lives.

In my youth, extreme and desperate poverty was common throughout Africa, Asia and Central/South America. I thought it would always be like that. I also thought that the Berlin Wall would endure like the Great Wall of China or Hadrian’s Wall.

I got on with my life, raising my kids. The next time I looked, the Berlin Wall came down and I discovered that most Asian and Central/South American countries were well on the way to lifting themselves out of extreme poverty. That left only Africa. And world leaders are taking it on!

I see the power that is being leveraged into helping African countries…. leaders like Tony Blair are REALLY pushing this, philanthropists like Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett are on board, and influential economists like Jeffrey Sachs are driving international policy (e.g. Millennium Development Goals). Celebrity entertainers are leveraging their fame to focus attention on the needs and possibilities of change in Africa.

The winds of change are blowing through our lives.

Jeffrey Sachs at Ruhiira, a Millennium Village in Uganda

The latest (July 2007) issue of Vanity Fair has a special feature on Africa with 20 covers of Annie Liebowitz photos of Americans who are active in Africa. This issue has real information as well as goodies like Youssou N'Dour's personal playlist that you can download from the iTunes Music Store for $US9.99 which goes to the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The hundreds of supporters of the School of St Jude part of this wave of change. We are making history. We are working together on a radical transformation that will transform the world our children live in.



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Nothing better to do

The Global Philanthropy Forum is one of those high-powered organisations that supports the international philanthropic community. It matches grantmakers to vehicles for overseas giving, and addresses international issues of concern.

At their recent Forum, President Clinton was one of the inspirational speakers. He closed his remarks with this thought:

Who needs to be involved in changing the world? You do. After all, you don't have anything better to do.

As he had spoken of the "unequal, unstable and unsustainable" nature of our world and exhorted us to consider the powerful contributions all of us can make toward building "integrated communities with empowered people," his final words rang clear.

I have also been listening to Jeffrey Sachs who is giving the Reith Lectures for the BBC. Transcripts, webstreaming and MP3 downloads are available here.

In the first lecture, Sachs points out that this year the US will spend $650billion on defence, compared with $4billion on assistance to poor African countries. He suggests that climate change is already causing famine and war, and he notes that throughout history, when people have to choose between starving or raiding their neighbours, they always choose to raid the neighbours.

He notes that while peace-keeping is part of the solution, a deeper part of the solution is to address the systemic factors that cause starvation. In the news today there are reports that the tussle between subsistence farmers and nomad grazers in Darfur is spilling over into Chad. Dozens of villages have been destroyed. Libya is stationing troops along their border in a bid to prevent raiders moving into that country too.

I wonder what would happen if the US directed a large chunk of its defence budget to providing basic resources as a foundation for sustainable living for Africa's most vulnerable people?

All in all, I’m glad to offer my assistance to a project like the School of St Jude, which gives free education to bright children from the poorest families. I really don’t have anything better to do.

A day in the life of four women

8 March 2007 - Imagine that your main dream is finding enough food to feed your children every day and your hopes focus on returning to the home from which you were forced to flee. To mark International Women's Day, four African women tell us about their thoughts and their daily lives.

This World Food Programme website features a day in the life of four African women. It gives a wonderful parallel with the four women I profiled in my last post to this blog.

Fatime Gassi's husband and child were slaughtered by Arab militia when they attacked her village in Chad

I encourage you to read these short accounts of these four women. We need to open our eyes and allow ourselves to see what the lives of others are like. When we stay busy with our own immediate concerns, we become blind to larger perspectives.

One of the women, Veronique Begimana from Burundi, says:

But without food or money it’s difficult to have hope for the future. Things don’t change very much for us. Life isn’t beautiful.

The School of St Jude in northern Tanzania serves the children of the poorest people, to provide them with quality education and give them hope for the future. Your contribution will help.




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Does international aid make a difference?

There is an entrenched view in some quarters that all the millions of dollars given to poor countries in the past 50 years have made no difference to poverty because the money is wasted, misused or syphoned off by corrupt officials. Those who hold this view have good reason to give nothing and so the continuing cycle of poverty persists.

Students from poor families at St Judes donate to those in greater need

In contrast with this helpless worldview, others have been active in finding ways to ensure that international aid is directed towards reducing poverty. As a result, we see campaigns like the Millennium Development Goals, the End of Poverty, Red, and so forth.

The big shift that has come about from this 'what can we do about it' approach, is that Official Development Aid (ODA) is increasingly tied to performance on poverty reduction.

I have blogged here and here about some specific consequences for Tanzania. Today I read that Bangladesh is being held to account by a group of donor countries on its tardiness in implementing its Poverty Reduction Strategy.

The Local Consultative Group, a platform of the country's bilateral and multilateral donors, has made it clear that unless the government moves forward on implementating the Poverty Reduction Strategy, the donor community will not commit to assisting future programs and projects.

The donor groups have advised the government to hold the Poverty Reduction Strategy Implementation Forum without delay in order to ensure the flow of aid.

This new approach to official aid by the world community should give hope to private donors who support projects like the School of St Judes. Offical aid is important in improving good governance and infrastructure on a country-wide basis. This means that the kids who are getting a great education at the School of St Jude will grow up in a community with better economic prospects and better services.

So, if you get a chance, you can encourage your government to direct its official aid towards the alleviation of extreme poverty in the world's poorest countries. Recently, I wrote to all 150 MPs in the Australian House of Representatives. My own representative, Brendan Nelson, sent a poorly-researched reply that avoided the key points and presented a mix of lies and misrepresentation. I think I will have to reply. No wonder we are constantly disappointed and cynical about our politicians – most of them play the game of defending fixed positions instead of facing issues and presenting useful strategies for moving forward.

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Millennium Development Goals

Part of the fanfare for the new millennium was the United Nations announcement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There are eight broad goals and 18 specific targets. Each target is expressed in unequivocal terms that are easy to measure – the whole world can see when targets are not being met.

Goal 1, Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, has two specific targets –

• Target 1. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day
• Target 2. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

As we are now halfway to the target year of 2015, it is time to look at what progress is being made. This graph shows the overall picture for Tanzania.


It is clear that, while progress has been made since 1990, at the current rate the 2015 targets won’t be met.

The UN reports that in terms of progress regarding the specific MDGs, by 2004 Tanzania had achieved targets in

• Primary school net enrollment (MDG 2 Universal Primary Education)
• Equity in primary education (MDG 3 Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women)
• Access to safe water (MDG 7 Ensure Environmental Sustainability).

• Tanzania is also on track to meeting female ratio targets in secondary schools (MDG 3) and other targets for MDGs 2 and 7. Furthermore, preliminary data from the Demographic Health Survey (2004/5) show a trend from 147 to 112 per 1,000 live births. Steep decline in under-five child mortality rates from 1999. While still preliminary, this is indeed very impressive and if such trends are maintained then Tanzania is also on track to achieve MDG 4 (Reduce Child Mortality).

So, it is fantastic that some of these early steps are being achieved. These are just the first steps on a long, hard journey. While overall primary school enrolment targets have been met, this has happened at the cost of ridiculously high class sizes in schools with untrained teachers and few books.

The next step is to keep building more classrooms, keep training more teachers and keep buying more books, equipment and computers for all the new students.

The School of St Jude is making a big contribution towards the MDGs because it gives the poorest children access to a well-equipped school, class sizes of 30 and teachers that get ongoing training to improve their skills. This is possible thanks to the many contributions made by hundreds of supporters world-wide. With your help, we can see the end of extreme poverty in our lifetimes.



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Fifth African Population Conference

From the Arusha Times

Arusha has been picked to host the Fifth African Population Conference scheduled to be held late this year.

The meeting is being held against the backdrop of the burden of hunger, malaria, HIV/AIDS that is slowing development in the continent.

Prominent researchers, policy makers, program managers, international development partners, and other key stakeholders from different African countries are expected to attend the meeting.

'Hunger and widespread poverty are serious challenges facing Africa,' said the Tanzanian Vice-President, Dr. Ali Shein Mohamed, when opening a preparatory forum in Dar es Salaam for the forthcoming meeting.

Tanzania HIV/AIDS indicators survey conducted between 2003 and 2004, shows that 7 per cent of the adults aged 15 to 49 years, on the mainland, were infected with HIV.

Infection rate among women, according to the latest statistics, is higher, standing at 8 per cent compared to men, 6 per cent.

He described rapid urbanization as another development challenge derailing fast economic growth in African countries.

The problem led to the creation of a segment of urban poor, living in informal settlements that lack basic amenities. Emerging evidence shows that the urban poor face health, economic, and social disadvantage compared to other sub-groups.

In Tanzania, population living in urban areas increased from 5 per cent in 1967 to 13 per cent in 1978, and from 21 per cent in 1988 to 27 per cent in 2002.

The vice president has also launched the 2006 country’s population policy to direct development of other policies, strategies and programs to enhance development sustainability and reduce poverty.

The policy, which has been revised, also targets to increase and improve availability and accessibility of high quality social services, attainment of gender equity, equality, women empowerment, social justice and development for all, and harmonious interrelationships between population, resource utilisation and the environment.

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The Tanzanian government is setting policy directions that will support economic development and a culture of fairness and justice. This is another step towards better governance.

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On the buses!

The School of St Jude is situated down a dirt road in the village of Moshono which is 5km along another dirt road from Arusha. Children come to school each day along the rough dirt roads from Arusha and the surrounding villages of this beautiful but very poor district. Most people are subsistence farmers who make barely enough to feed their families. Malaria, HIV/AIDS and other diseases take a heavy toll on these families and many children are orphaned.

A year or two after the School opened, it became evident that many children were walking for several hours to get to school. So, the School bought two battered old buses and rejuvenated them.


As the school has grown, the two buses have grown to a fleet of 18. Like everything else at the school, the funding for buses is provided by sponsors and donors. For $500 pa you can sponsor a bus and contribute to the costs of running them.

An important donation came from Rotary District 9640 (in Queensland) in April 2006. Using a multi-district Matching Grant, they were able to provide the School with two new buses, an assortment of spare springs and tyres, and a motor vehicle maintenance course to be run at the School.

Here is Gemma receiving the grant money - surprised but delighted.

Gemma Sisia, Heather + Ian Yarker, Ailsa Hay

The buses at the school provide vital transport that makes school attendance possible for many children. Even with the over-crowded buses, many children have a long walk home after the bus drops them. These buses don’t offer Western-standard transport, but they do give bright children from the poorest households an opportunity to get their foot on the first rung of the ladder of opportunity. Guaranteed!

A development project in an impoverished African country that is well-run, economical and successful in reaching the poor - something you will want to support!

Millenium Villages Project

Wow! We know that Gemma Sisia thinks big. We know that Jeffrey Sachs thinks big. But how big is big? ‘Don’t ask little of me’ certainly applies to these people!

Gemma is growing the school at a rapid rate and has the long term aim of reproducing the hugely successful formula across Tanzania and East Africa. Jeffrey has identified the key factors that maintain the cycle of extreme poverty. He has established a project that will break this cycle in a five-year timeframe for the cost of US$110 per person per year. He believes that after five years of help (sufficient to leverage the threshold effect) poor villages can function sustainably without sinking back into extreme poverty.

Millenium Village, Bonsaaso, in Ghana

To put his ideas into practice, he has established the Millenium Villages Project which is run under the auspices of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. Millenium Villages started in 2004 with the Sauri village of 5,000 people in Kenya. In the first year, food production quadrupled with the help of fertiliser and new seed varieties, the health clinic re-opened and a midday meal was provided at the three primary schools.

To extend the Millenium Villages project, Sachs drew on his formidable support network to found Millenium Promise. In the first year, 2005, Millenium Promise raised US$100 million and now Millenium Villages is working in 78 villages in 10 African countries.

Sachs is a very persuasive man. He has the evidence to support his views and the heart to care.

There are many questions to answer about what happens next to these villages in the complexities of a whole economy, but there can be little doubt that this on-the-spot assistance to the poorest of villages will make a life-and-death difference to the 500,000 people who won’t have to watch one in four of their children die before the age of five.

Gemma Sisia and Jeffrey Sachs are both people to watch. They have big hearts and big goals. You, like George Soros who gave US$50 million to Millenium Promise, can help by giving money, encouraging others to give, and lobbying your government to meet its promise to lift foreign aid to 0.7% of GDP.

Ours can be the last human generation to know extreme poverty.