Yesterday, May 30, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the Millennium Villages project (MVP) in Mwandama, Malawi. While there he had the opportunity to meet with local community members first hand and to see and hear about how they are pursuing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a very practical day-to-day reality. On the occasion of his visit, Mr. Ban was also presented with the first major scientific report on progress after three years of MVP activity, in a publication entitled . . . [more]
Earlier this month the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced more than $5 million in grants to help ten universities establish cross-disciplinary Master's in Development Practice (MDP) degree programs in eight countries around the world. These add to the $10 million in grants that the foundation allocated last year to seed MDP programs in a dozen universities around the world. This new global academic network now includes more than 20 schools across 15 countries and five continents.
There are several noteworthy lessons and trends to glean from this initiative. One is that private foundations still have an extraordinary capacity . . . [more]
This week the New York Times profiled the early results of the Millennium Villages in Sauri, Kenya. The article by Jeffrey Gettleman highlights the community's remarkable progress in food security, education, health, and income-generation. Crucially, these integrated gains towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been achieved through a very modest budget, with only $60 per person of total annual project expenditures and the same amount of community, government and partner expenditures.
But one of the most important lessons of the Millennium Villages project is that the gains are taking place far beyond the first program site in Sauri. . . . [more]
Along with a number of partners, my main objective at Davos last week was to help ensure the global challenges of extreme poverty and the Millennium Development Goals received as much practical attention as possible.
There were a number of highlights. One was Bill and Melinda Gates' extraordinary Friday announcement of $10 billion to support vaccine research and implementation over the next 10 years. This comes on the 10th anniversary of the launch of GAVI (the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations), which has produced remarkable breakthroughs in child health and international aid mechanism design since its launch at . . . [more]
Editor's Note: The following originally appeared on The Huffington Post on January 28th, 2010
By Johann O. Koss, CEO and President of Right to Play & John W. McArthur, CEO of Millennium Promise
Government leaders cannot solve global challenges on their own any more. In today's much flatter world, it is everyday people --and, critically, their personal networks--who have the potential to be the world's big new problem solvers. Haiti's post-earthquake emergency has vividly displayed the need for coordinated best efforts from non-profits, companies, individuals, online communities, governments and the UN system. The same mindset of partnership, urgency, and "all hands . . . [more]
This has been a terrific week for Millennium Promise, for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and – most importantly – for the hopes of communities and families living in extreme poverty around the world. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama gave his first address to the United Nations General Assembly. In conveying his administration's vision leading up to the major MDG-focused international summit scheduled for September 2010, he eloquently described the challenged current state of our global community:
Far too many people in . . . [more]
Last week's G8 Summit underscored the extent to which leaders around the world are straining to manage a flood of concurrent crises. Amidst the news flashes from Kabul, Pyongyang and Tehran, the global undertow of economic, social and environment challenges is equally if not more profound. The economic crisis is pushing unemployment to forgotten heights in the rich countries while at least 50 million more people in developing countries are sliding below the dollar-a-day threshold of extreme poverty.
Our global coping mechanisms are on a brink. The World Food Program is slashing emergency humanitarian programs amidst a reported $5 billion budget . . . [more]
Posted by John McArthur | Jul 1, 2009 |
Education
In a posting on the Global Brief blog, Millennium Promise CEO John McArthur writes about two promising educational programs which focus on developing young leaders who can help build a brighter future for those in extreme poverty.
Two events yesterday prompted me to feel encouraged about progress in the education of future socially minded leaders around the world. One was the privilege of having dinner with Fred Swaniker, co-founder of the African Leadership Academy, and two extremely impressive students from its first class. The other was the announcement of grants to launch new Master’s . . . [more]
Recent public debates have re-focused public attention on Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic development over the past few decades. Many pundits are driving this with rhetoric suggesting there has been a long-term decline in living standards throughout . . . [more]
Ms. Dambisa Moyo's recent Huffington Post article exposes the confusions that underlie her slashing attacks on aid. Most importantly, she seems to believe that sub-Saharan Africa was economically prosperous and then was pushed into poverty by aid. She makes the following statement: "No surprise, then, that Africa is on the whole worse off today than it was 40 years ago. For example in the 1970's less than 10 percent of Africa's population lived in dire poverty -- today over 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africa lives on less than US$2 a day."
Let's parse that statement for a moment. World . . . [more]
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