Yesterday afternoon, President Bush ordered $200 million in emergency food aid to help alleviate food shortages around the developing world. The money will come from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, a reserve account for emergency food aid needs.

From a Reuters’ piece: “White House spokeswoman Dana Perino had said Bush, who was briefed about the food crisis during a cabinet meeting earlier on Monday, was “very concerned” and asked senior aides to look into ways the United States could help ease shortages. Washington provided more than $2.1 billion in international food aid in fiscal 2007. Perino had said the administration was sticking to its proposal to buy more of the food used in assistance programs from suppliers closer to needy countries, which would cut transportation costs. U.S. agricultural interests have resisted the idea…. At the United Nations on Monday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said rapidly worsening food shortages around the world had “reached emergency proportions.” “We need not only short-term emergency measures to meet urgent critical needs and avert starvation in many regions across the world but also a significant increase in long-term productivity in food grain production,” Ban said.

We are at the half-way point in the great global campaign to address the unacceptable divide between rich and poor. The 2000 Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – agreed by 189 Governments from the North and South - have provided a global framework to measure the world’s progress to reduce poverty by the year 2015. It is unique for 2 reasons. First because it has specific measurable goals and second because it is about a 15 year campaign. Campaigns come and go and it is difficult to keep sustained attention over a long period of time.

The MDGs help keep attention going and growing. The High Level Event on MDGs in September, called by the UN Secretary-General is another opportunity to reinvigorate the commitments of every country. Where do we stand on the MDGs? Some progress has been made. 15 years ago one in three people lived on less than a dollar a day. We are now at one in five. More children have enrolled in primary education and child mortality has declined globally. The tuberculosis epidemic appears to be on the verge of decline and key interventions to control malaria have been expanded. But this is not enough. We have only 7 and a half years left and one billion people still live in extreme poverty. More than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water. About 2 billion people have no regular access to reliable energy services. 6,000 people die of AIDS each day. 750 million adults cannot read. And one of the most striking statistics is that the odds that a woman will die from complications in pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa are 1 in 16 over the course of her lifetime, compared to 1 in 3,800 in the developed world. And those who carry almost zero responsibility for climate change are bearing the brunt of its effects, while the gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening.

After a long two years and five months in prison, the two Ethiopian anti-poverty campaigners Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie were released from prison this afternoon.

  “We are thrilled that Daniel and Netsanet have finally been released from prison. It has been a long wait for them and their families, but finally freedom and justice is theirs. The release is a testament to Daniel and Netsanet’s contributions to human rights and poverty eradication in Ethiopia, Africa and around the world, and is a vindication of civil society efforts to confront injustice.” said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and Co-Chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), speaking from outside Kaliti Prison in Addis Ababa upon their release.

Compassion has flooded the hallways of Libertyville High School in Illinois. I and my fellow students are taking action for the fight against disease and poverty and today, on March 19, our school will become the first official “ONE High School” at the same time Libertyville becomes an official “ONE City.” Next month, we’re organizing a massive community benefit concert that will take place on April 18, 2008 at the high school’s field house.

Just like the roots of the ONE Campaign, this started as just a few students’ idea and has grown into a movement. What inspires me the most is how quick more students are to join. Our group continues to grow and we’ve already signed up more than 580 new members in just two days of tabling. Between our school and town, the Libertyville community is truly taking on to the idea that we all can come together as ONE community to change the world.

We decided to go audio for this edition of Technology Tuesday.  I spoke by phone with Development Seed's co-Founder and Strategist Eric Gundersen about the various ways open source web products are helping NGOs of all sizes. Eric is a specialist in helping organizations working in international development adapt and take advantage of the new opportunities presented by ever expanding web access and mobile technology. Eric spoke to me from DrupalCon, a massive gathering of people from around the world who are utlizing the Drupal Content Management System.  Download or listen to the interview here.

The United Progressive Alliance, the ruling coalition of the Government of India has announced the annual budget.

The budget, which outlines government spending priorities from 2008 to 2009, has sparked a heated debate in India. Analysts have raised concerns over the increase in the overall government spending, particularly for high provisions of social expenditure and the debt relief programme for small farmers, which accounts for US$ 15 billion, or 1.3 percent of GDP.

Meanwhile, others claim that the increased spending in the social sector is simply a populist strategy to attract voters in the next national elections in May 2009. Furthermore, the government's cornerstone policy of containing the fiscal deficit is contingent on expanded revenues resulting from a projected growth of 8.8 percent for the fiscal year. However, unstable financial markets and high commodity prices could possibly undermine these projections and pose challenges to the government's fiscal position.

The role of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in development can be contentious. Some consider faith in itself unempirical or irrational and thus unintelligent. Some think faith groups base their programs and policies on feelings rather than facts. Others worry that FBOs do not respect peoples' local beliefs and customs; they shudder at the thought of someone demanding conversion in exchange for life-saving medicine. And since President Bush, who went on a five-country tour of Africa last week, made supporting FBOs a pillar of his support for African and other assistance efforts, many fear that condom distribution has taken a back seat to abstinence-only education (even though PEPFAR, the U.S. president's AIDS program, is one of the largest distributors of condoms in the world).

The bottom line is: FBOs are doing a lot in developing countries to meet the needs of the poor, and they will continue to do so for decades to come. If we think understanding country context is important, and of course we do, then we need to understand and know what FBOs and churches and faith communities are doing and how far their reach extends. And we could always stand to learn more from people working in developing countries, both because it enriches our work, and because it can go a long way toward healing the deep divide between Washington and people on the ground, between the secular policy wonks and the Christians, Muslims, Jews and others delivering assistance in developing countries.

George W. Bush’s trip to Africa is likely to be crowded out of the headlines by the presidential campaign. Too bad. President Bush’s bold program to fight AIDS has been, arguably, the most successful initiative of his administration in solving problems and improving America’s image overseas.

The candidates who wish to succeed him – as well as Congress which decides how taxpayer money is invested - would do well to take note. Under Bush, the United States has taken a leadership role in the global fight against AIDS, greatly increasing funding for AIDS prevention and care. But PEPFAR hasn’t just thrown money at the problem; it has empowered communities and private organizations to find local solutions.

In Zambia, World Vision works with a consortium of aid organizations to mobilize and support 120 community - and faith-based organizations. To date, PEPFAR has committed $57 million to the program. But this public funding is being leveraged to attract an equal amount of private aid. Churches and businesses throughout the U.S. have provided Caregiver Kits, containing basic supplies needed by 15,000 Zambian volunteers who are looking after adults and children affected by AIDS.

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.

Nairobi, 15th – 21st FEBRUARY, 2007:- Someone very important will be visiting Africa, specifically 5 countries including Tanzania, Rwanda, Benin, Ghana and Liberia. He is the President of the United States of America. The hassles of hosting a US president are bad enough. His people take over your whole country and make our normally inefficient states go into over drive and our egregious First Ladies and their husbands go into overkill to show their hospitality. We never knew many of them could bend their knees until they were leading cleaning troops across the capitals in preparation for Clinton’s visit in 1998 from Kampala to Accra!

I could not forget seeing resident Museveni being a perfect gentleman with a spread umbrella for Mrs Clinton! In Accra, Jerry Rawlings and Mrs Rawlings went out of their ways for a few hours of stop over. But with Bush it is not just the ridiculous security and obsequious protocol laid on by our Presidents that concerns me. African hospitality knows no bounds. Remember some of our chiefs and Kings were so friendly that they parted with ancestral lands and carted away able bodied young men and women for as little as mirrors, umbrellas and walking sticks! Whatever our rational concerns though, the officials in the five ‘chosen’ countries will be beside themselves to give him a reception he will never forget. To them, it is a major diplomatic and political coup for the President of the US to be visiting their countries. It shows their “ungrateful” citizens how very important these leaders are.