ONE believes that the U.S. should enact a comprehensive package that includes fair trade, debt cancellation, fighting corruption, and directing additional resources for basic needs such as education, health, clean water, food, shelter, and care for orphans, would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries. Therefore, ONE supports efforts rooted in building strong, widespread support for a bold, new initiative to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
Budget and Appropriations: ONE is asking for no less than the full $39.8 billion for the FY08 International Affairs Budget to help put all children in school, provide access to clean water, and save lives by fighting HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
The Education for All Act: The Education for All Act (EFA) is designed to help provide universal basic education for all children throughout the world by 2015. Today, 77 million children, most of whom are girls, do not have the opportunity to attend primary school.
The Child Act: Child Health Investment for Long-Term Development (CHILD) Act would extend life-saving interventions in developing countries by doubling current funding for child survival and maternal health programs.
The Jubilee Act: Debt cancellation will free up desperately needed resources for impoverished nations to fight HIV/AIDS, fund education, and provide clean water.
The Growth Act: The Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to Thrive Act proposes changes to U.S. international assistance and trade programs to prioritize the economic opportunities of women living in poverty worldwide.
Farm Bill Reauthorization: As ONE, we are asking our leaders to make trade work for the world’s poor by imposing limitations on trade-distorting subsidies in the upcoming Farm Bill reauthorization.
Budget and Appropriations ONE is asking for no less than the full $39.8 billion for the FY08 International Affairs Budget. Currently the international assistance only represents 1.2% of the U.S. federal budget which is 17% less than what the U.S. spent during the height of the Cold War. Right now, over one billion people live in extreme poverty and every 15 seconds a child dies from water-related diseases. In 2007, ONE will take every opportunity push for amendments, legislation, letters that aims to increase lifesaving poverty-focused development assistance so that America can lead the world in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease.
Education for All Education for All Act (EFA) is designed to provide universal basic education for all children throughout the world by 2015. Currently, 77 million children, most of whom are girls, do not have the opportunity to attend primary school. Although progress has been made in the past decade, the goal of universal education remains a distant one given the shortage of resources available. EFA will significantly increase the availability of resources for global education and provide those resources to countries with strong national plans to educate their children. The bill will increase funding for basic education and establish a process to develop a comprehensive global strategy to reach the goal of universal education, while coordinating the efforts of the United States government. By making universal basic education a major goal of U.S. foreign policy, the world and the nation will be stronger and safer. In April, ONE will push for the re-introduction of the Education for All Act.
Child Act Child Health Investment for Long-Term Development (CHILD) Act would extend life-saving interventions in developing countries by doubling current funding for child survival and maternal health programs, requiring an integrated U.S. strategy for improving child and maternal health, and establishing guidelines for child survival programs. This legislation offers millions more children the chance to grow up to celebrate their fifth birthday because it provides vitamin A, vaccines and antibiotics that can make a difference between life and death for children in poor countries. During the month of May, ONE will seek to boost bipartisan co-sponsorship of Child Act.
Jubilee Act Debt cancellation will free up desperately needed resources for impoverished nations to fight HIV/AIDS, fund education, and provide clean water. Tanzania has used its savings from debt relief to increase education spending and eliminate school fees. Almost overnight, an estimated 1.6 million children enrolled in school. ONE supports the JUBILEE Act which will extend bilateral and multilateral debt cancellation to all impoverished countries that require it to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) without imposing harmful economic conditions so they can invest their own resources in development and break the cycle of extreme poverty. To build political momentum, the ONE will work to increase co-sponsorship for the bill and will assist the Jubilee Network in securing a Congressional hearing on the JUBILEE ACT in the fall of 2007.
Growth Act ONE supports the Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to Thrive Act (GROWTH Act) which is legislation that proposes important change to U.S. international assistance and trade programs to prioritize the economic opportunities of women living in poverty worldwide. Investing in women is one of the surest routes to end poverty in the developing world. The innovative provisions of the GROWTH Act remove a range of barriers that prevent women from participating in their countries’ economies. If passed, it would make U.S. policy a driver of positive change for women around the world.
Farm Bill Reauthorization ONE believes that fair trade is an essential element to helping others lift themselves out of poverty. Towards that end, ONE supports changes in the U. S. Farm Bill to allow small scale farmers in developing countries to sell their crops and feed their families by imposing limitations on trade-distorting subsidies. ONE will work with the Churches, Bread for the World, and Oxfam in building political support to reform the commodity title within the U.S. Farm Bill which is responsible for significant distortions of international trade.
