We wanted to share this video taken in Kenya this week of anti-corruption campaign and ONE advisor John Githongo. I found his words moving, and tried my best to transcribe them below.

“Hi, I’m John Githongo. I’m Chief Executive of Inuka Kenya. Also head of
Twaweza Kenya.

When people ask me what we’re doing, at the end of day, I mean there’s lots of stuff we’re doing, but at the end of the day what we’re creating is a social movement of people, especially young people, who believe in the concept of “ni sissy.”

Ni sisi is the Swahili words for “it is us.”

It is us who owns our problems and it is us who will come up with the solutions.

There are many ways of doing that. We have culture platforms. We partner with the private sector. We use media, information technology. There are a whole range of ways this can be applied.

But at the end of the day the critical element is people. That is the most valuable asset that we have in a country like Kenya. Despite the difficulties that we had in 2007 2008 after the elections.

A network that brings people together for themselves to improve their own conditions and their own relationships with each other.

Dignity comes before development — and that’s about relationships.

Therefor you may find a situation where people seem to be poor, who are living under challenging circumstances, but they are comfortable in their own skin.

And it is in that kind of context that development, in the traditional sense, happens most easily.”

More about John Githongo, written by my colleague Morgana, below:

In 2002 the newly appointed President Kibaki appointed John Githongo as Permanent Secretary for Ethics and Governance in the Office of the President, where he was known as the “anti-corruption czar.” Eighteen months after Githongo entered office, he began to discover considerable instances of corruption. As Githongo tried to probe further, government ministers prevented his investigations. Without support from the President and his administration, Githongo resigned from his post in 2005. He then went into self-imposed exile in the UK, without any explanation for his abrupt departure. When he left, he took with him potentially explosive documents that revealed the corruption schemes in the government. Githongo compiled the documents into a dossier which was leaked to the press in early 2006. This dossier contained evidence of a series of government procurement deals with non-existent companies, which effectively robbed Kenya of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Michela Wrong, a British author and former foreign correspondent who housed Githongo during part of his exile, chronicled Githongo’s fight against corruption in her book, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower. Githongo, who is on ONE’s Advisory Board, has since returned from exile, but travels extensively to continue to monitor, investigate, and spread awareness about government corruption.

Mr. Githongo’s new organization, Inuka (“get up” in Swahili) Trust, aims to recapture the powerful moment of hope felt by all Kenyans in 2003 and convert it into lasting change created by and for Kenyans. Inuka works to affirm individuals as African and global citizens and empower Kenyans to use information, express their views and – importantly – take initiative aimed at improving their lives and holding governments accountable.

On Wednesday, March 17th, Githongo took us to visit Nyawira Kazi — a self-organized local community group of 20 people who have come together to help the vulnerable in their community. Led by charismatic leadership with no external help, Nyawira Kazi finds the gaps that exist in their local community and work towards closing them. Right now this means their focus is on caring for the orphans left behind by the political violence by providing a nursery and feeding program for children who would otherwise go without meals.

Lauren is still out in the field working, but sent us back this report:

We greeted and thanked President Obama on his way into the event – and then got a chance to talk to him on his way out. We asked him to remember the world’s poorest and he said, “absolutely,” looked at all of our ONE shirts, took a ONE band and joked about his collection.

Emily Daher : “Thank you for supporting the world’s poorest!”
President Obama: “Absolutely. Thank you — I have like 15 of these!”

ONE members all across the country (we just caught up with him in Nevada last month) have thanked the president for requesting a robust international affairs budge and asked the administration to continue their efforts to fight extreme poverty and strengthen our national security.

An awesome way to end this Friday. Go ONE!

It couldn’t be simpler. Go to oneweekforwater.org and sign up to donate your Facebook and Twitter status for World Water Week. When you donate your online status, ONE and Water.org will post updates on your Facebook and/or Twitter pages, change your profile picture and even update your background to raise awareness about water and sanitation.

Don’t miss the chance join thousands in celebrating clean, safe water all next week. Head to oneweekforwater.org and sign up today!

The Economist: Crumbs from the BRICs-man’s table
According to the Economist, emerging world powers – including Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) – are starting to become viable players in the international aid game and are jumping on the “once-in-a-generation chance to win friends and influence people.” A new study by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) found that emerging countries are increasingly affecting the growth prospects of poorer ones. Deborah Brautigam, author of a new book on China’s role in Africa, says the BRICs’ emergence as aid donors is as important for poor countries as was the fall of the Berlin Wall for eastern Europe. However, the Economist maintains that “just as that event did not solve the region’s problems at a stroke, so it is in Africa now. The search for good government goes on.”

Inter Press Service (IPS): Bad Water More Deadly Than War
As the UN gears up for World Water Day next week, Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon warns that more people die from unsafe water than all forms of violence, including war. A study released Monday by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, found that while the world is on track to meet or even exceed the drinking-water target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the UN’s sanitation targets are still lagging far behind. Said one clean water advocate, “This water and sanitation crisis is holding back improvements across all other MDGs, including education and maternal and child health, and affecting not only human development but also, crucially, economic growth.”

The Economist: When feeding the hungry is political
The Economist explores the history of the increasingly controversial World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations initiative started in 1962, which has “since grown into the behemoth of the aid business, envied and disliked in almost equal measure by many of its smaller peers.” While the WFP says it feeds people in more than 70 countries, the Economist highlights the recent queries as to “whether it always fulfills the high ideals of its humanitarian mandate.” According to the magazine, the WFP gets most of its fierce criticism from its operations in Africa, where the main complaint is that food aid creates a dependency culture among the poor.

The Telegraph: Sudanese guinea worm on the point of eradication. What next?
The Carter Center, founded by the former US president Jimmy Carter, may be on the point of exterminating the Guinea worm in Sudan, which leads the Telegraph to explore other diseases that are “on their way out” in the developing world. According to the paper, while scientists are making headway on treatment for malaria and polio, neglected tropical diseases that affect millions worldwide are still a long way off from becoming the success story of Guinea worm. However, Sandy Cairncross, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, maintains that the end of Guinea worm is significant because it helps to persuade people to live healthier lives. Said Cairnscross, “Prevention involves behavior change, which is challenging to achieve; but when people have found once that following health workers’ advice leads to elimination of an entire disease, they’ll be more ready to follow it the next time.

The Guardian: Drug-resistant TB spreading globally, warns WHO
Strains of tuberculosis that are resistant to the normal drug treatments are spreading across the globe, according to the latest report from the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO estimates that 440,000 people worldwide had multi-drug-resistant forms of the disease (MDR-TB) in 2008 and that a third of them died. The report warns that drug-resistant TB is a huge challenge, saying that “Countries face enormous hurdles in accelerating access to diagnostic and treatment services for drug-resistant TB, and previous efforts to address this epidemic have clearly been insufficient.”

Reuters: Anti-malaria funding must be tripled: campaigners
Funding to combat malaria must be more than tripled if the mosquito-borne disease which kills nearly a million people a year is to be fought effectively, health campaigners said on Thursday. Presenting a report covering the past decade, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership said a jump in financing had helped to contain the disease but more needed to be done. Said Michel Kazatchkine, director of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, “Financing has a very swift impact. In some countries, the number of malaria cases had fallen 50 percent over the past two years.” One of Roll Back Malaria’s aims is to distribute more insecticide-treated mosquito nets and replace old ones — a cheap, simple and effective way to prevent the disease.

He writes:

The visit to Senegal provided me an opportunity to discuss this issue with policymakers in the national and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, academics who are studying the phenomenon, and leaders of local communities that have been affected by displacements. The team was also able to examine first-hand the impact of environmental and climate changes at very local levels, including among fishing, herding and agricultural communities. For example, we met with the leaders of a fishing community in Camberene (near Dakar), which has experienced both an inflow and outflow of migrants.

The local imam opened the meeting with a prayer and told us the story of the founding of the community by a religious man — a history that continues to influence the community’s generally welcoming attitude toward incoming migrants, including those leaving farming communities in northern Senegal because of desertification. The community members lamented the loss of their beaches to coastal erosion, the rising sea water temperatures, and the slow decline of fishing as a sustainable livelihood. Some of the women said that it is good for young men to migrate abroad, but others lamented that migration isn’t a long-term solution for the community and that the financial crisis has taught them that they cannot always count on remittances.

We also met with a community in Lebar Boye in northern Senegal where the land has become too salinated to farm because of the decreased amount of fresh water, accentuated by a dam that was built to prevent flooding. As a result, most of their children were now working in urban centers. Some farming continued in the Senegal River Valley despite the drought conditions because of a government-funded irrigation system. At one of the farms, we met two young men from Guinea Bissau who travel north to work during the dry season and then head back to Guinea Bissau during their community’s farming season. Climate change and the consequences are not bound by national boundaries.

Full piece here.

The 2010 World Water Day coalition will be hosting an event called “Uniting for Safe Water and Sanitation” at the National Geographic Society building in DC. Among the speakers will be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero, Representative Earl Blumenauer, and others. The even takes place on March 22, and you can read more about it here.

That is the task that has me today in Washington, D.C. In addition to my roles as a board member of ONE and CEO of CARE, I have spent the last ten months serving as co-chair of the CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health Policy, along with Admiral William Fallon. This afternoon, we’re releasing our final report, a bipartisan document with clear, feasible recommendations for a long-term, strategic U.S. approach to global health.

The Final Report of the CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health Policy can be found here.

Signing the final report are twenty-five opinion leaders from diverse backgrounds in business, finance, Congress, media, philanthropy, government, and public health, who have come together to affirm the importance of global health and offer a pragmatic plan: to maintain our commitment to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria; to prioritize the health of women and children; to strengthen prevention and preparedness for health emergencies; to improve the U.S. government’s organization and coordination; and to bolster the achievements of multilateral institutions.

Although we believe it marks a significant step, we do not claim that our report has every answer to the world’s health problems. From the beginning, the Commission process has been a conversation, which we have taken from Washington, D.C., to California, North Carolina, Kenya, and over the internet. Please continue that conversation by reading the report and offering your feedback at smartglobalhealth.org.

I had lunch with Professor Kevin Brooks of North Dakota State University and Joseph Makeer, a graduate of NDSU and a former lost boy of southern Sudan. He is the author of a book which inspired “Soul, American Heart”, a documentary and now organization that helps orphans in his homeland. We talked about the need for people to hear stories like his and know they can do something by being an advocate for fully funded smart aid to go to the world’s poorest people. His stories were inspiring and motivating, he truly is living proof just like the campaign!

I also had the privilege of meeting with Richard Hanson, the President of ND State University. I explained how students on his campus are working with the ONE Campus Challenge to raise awareness and advocating for change. He is a fairly new president and was enthusiastic to learn about the happenings of passionate students at NDSU.

In addition to many others I had some great meetings with local faith leaders who are interested in bringing ONE Sabbath into their congregations. I even got to attend a meeting for the Hunger and Justice Committee of the ELCA Eastern ND Synod, who is planning some great things in the near future.

Seems like everywhere I went in Fargo I made friends! People in North Dakota have big hearts, sharp minds and the friendliest personalities I have ever met! I hope to see many of these passionate people again at the ONE Fargo Workshop on March 27th!

Can’t wait to get back up north in a couple weeks!

Thanks to a new campaign sponsored by Rotary International, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF, polio in Africa may soon be a thing of the past. The campaign is called Kick Polio Out of Africa and its aim is to raise awareness about the debilitating disease using a sport (soccer) and an event (World Cup 2010) that Africa loves.

The campaign was officially kicked off in Cape Town, South Africa with a soccer ball signed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The ball is now traveling through 22 polio-affected countries in Africa, stopping just this week in Nairobi, Kenya.

Keep an eye on the ball as it makes its way across Africa here.

Worth a read when you have a minute:

In most developing countries and most least-developed countries, women often have lower social statuses and have lower accessibility to social/political affairs participation than do men. The same is true in the context of international climate change negotiations, where women’s efforts are often downplayed, and women’s opinions are underweighted. Attention on international climate change negotiations and their agendas is not focused on climate-vulnerable women in the developing world. To reach gender equality and gender justice in terms of climate change issues, the harmonious role many women play in managing natural resources with minimal ecological footprint needs to be recognized and valued more. In order to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts, it is critical for the international community, through women empowerment, to involve women’s participation and reinforce women’s capabilities in the face of climate change disasters.