Later today, President Bush heads to Africa to visit five countries — Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. Here at ONE, we are going to watch this trip closely and try to provide you with unique insight and analysis. We’ll have voices from Africa, from Capitol Hill, and from people on the ground providing aid to the African people.

We will provide policy briefings for each day of the trip. And ONE will be part of the trip, with our team on the ground in Rwanda and Ghana providing their first-hand views of what’s happening. This is an exciting moment. In large part because of the advocacy work done by ONE members and other organizations involved in the fight to save lives, President Bush and the Congress have made major strides.

The number of Africans surviving HIV/AIDS thanks to life-saving medical treatment has increased ten-fold. There are 2.3 million bed nets protecting African children from malaria-carrying mosquitoes. There are more jobs and greater opportunities, especially for women and families to break away from the cycle of brutal, extreme poverty. And there are new governments who are working hard to increase democracy and opportunity for their people in countries like Liberia, where President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has made transparency and accountability a driving force in her government reform plan.

ONE members played a big part in winning the cancellation of Liberia’s debt by the IMF just a few months ago. These are major improvements of which we can all be proud. But none of us should be satisfied. President Bush’s trip to Africa is an opportunity to take a hard look at what still remains to accomplish. Yes, we have achieved a great deal, but 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africans continue to live on less than $2 a day. 200 million people still go hungry each day. 27,000 children under age five die each day from poverty-related illnesses.

While the U.S. and 192 signed onto the Millennium Development Goals, we are falling behind in reaching them. Now is not the time to pat ourselves on the back and take a victory lap; now is the time to roll up our sleeves and redouble our efforts to finally put an end to extreme poverty and global disease.

Our next president must lead the way. A few days ago, we asked you to lend your voice to a new challenge for the candidates, calling on them to visit Africa and see first-hand the opportunities and the challenges that people in those countries face. Already, 40,000 people have signed that petition, and we are not finished yet. In the next few days, we will take these petitions and deliver them to the presidential candidates, and see if they are willing to step up and make fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease a real priority. If you haven’t signed the petition, add your voice today.