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Column: Success Stories
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Reflecting on our success
 

 

 

We all want to see the end of extreme poverty. But how do you tackle it? As our colleague (and resident nomad!) d’Arcy likes to say, you can tackle this massive issue the same way you eat an elephant: one bite at a time.

We’re thrilled to share the news that we’re one bite closer to ending extreme poverty! Last week the global community came together and pledged US$4 billion to completely wipe out polio – a disease that affects some of our world’s most vulnerable children, pulling them and their families deeper into poverty.

Our Global Campaign Manager, Michael, was lucky enough to attend the Global Vaccine Summit in Abu Dhabi last week, and watched in astonishment as governments including Canada and the UK joined Bill Gates and other philanthropists in making substantial funding commitments for a new plan to wipe out all polio, everywhere, by 2018. While that’s exciting news in its own right, what made it even more special was the knowledge that our supporters  (i.e. you)  had played an incredibly important role in securing these commitments – particularly from the Canadian and British governments.

 

How we did it

At the Global Poverty Project, we know that, in democratic societies at least, governments represent their constituents and act according to their wishes. As Bono says, “we can’t blame the politicians because we have to give them permission to spend what is in the end our money.” So we work to increase the number and effectiveness of ordinary citizens taking action to influence key decision-makers to do more to end extreme poverty and diseases like polio.

So when we heard that the global partnership working to end polio had come up with a new plan to eradicate this disease within the next six years, we knew that we needed to mobilise large numbers of people in some of the world’s wealthiest countries – namely, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States – to convince their governments to help fund this new plan.

To do this, we took a four-pronged approach: media, events, public action and direct advocacy.

 

Media

What better way to reach large numbers of people, including regular citizens and politicians, than to get the extraordinary story of polio eradication out in the media? We wrote op-eds, hosted newsworthy events (see below) and built relationships with key journalists, leading to more than 100 media clippings including coverage by the BBC, the Islam Channel, Embassy Magazine, the Independent on Sunday, the Sydney Morning Herald, Radio NZ National and the Diplomatic Courier. We worked in close collaboration with other organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UN Foundation and Rotary International to ensure a steady stream of “surround sound” around this issue, encouraging more people to join the campaign and encouraging governments to take this issue seriously.

 

Events

 

Events kill many birds with one stone. They are an ideal platform for interacting with decision-makers and loyal supporters, while giving you a chance to secure media and public interest.

We hosted a variety of events across all of our target countries with at least one being held in each parliament/Congress, from the United States to New Zealand, with key leaders invited to attend. We engaged the Pakistani diaspora in Canada, mobilised grassroots support in the British Secretary of State for International Development’s electorate, and were able to secure, for the first time, a public statement of bipartisan support in Australia.

 

Public action

First we asked folks to sign the petition either on our website or through Global Citizen - and 40,000 people in 150 countries did!

This gave us a clear measure to demonstrate the breadth of public support for polio eradication; but we knew we also needed to show the depth. So we asked those who had signed the petition to take further actions, either to get their friends, family and followers to join the campaign or to demonstrate to world leaders the level of their support.

The response was incredible. Our supporters tweeted, posted on Facebook, wrote emails, penned letters, made phone calls and even met with their elected representatives to personally encourage them to take up the case. Together we helped build a global movement in support of eradicating this cruel virus.

 

Direct advocacy

We had a lot of meetings with government decision-makers. And almost every time we went, we took along the petition to demonstrate that there were 40,000 people behind us. Michael and Akram Azimi, the Young Australian of the Year and ambassador for this campaign, met with more than 25 members of parliament, including the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, in Australia alone.

We asked the government officials we met with to show their support for the campaign in concrete and tangible ways. Whether they were diplomats, bureaucrats, cabinet ministers or legislators, we asked them to express their support through tweeting, speaking in parliamentary debates, writing to their party leader and, ultimately, supporting an increase in funding from their respective governments.

 

 

What next?

Last week saw a historic moment – with more than 70% of the funding needed to end polio funded, up front, by the global community. But there’s still US$1.5 billion needed to completely wipe out this disease. We know that, without 100% in funding being fully committed, we are placing this unique opportunity at risk.

Funding shortfalls have plagued polio eradication efforts for too long, causing children to miss out on the vital protection of the polio vaccine and creating the ideal conditions for mass outbreaks. We have a narrow window of opportunity to wipe out this disease, right now, otherwise it will return with a vengeance, and paralyse more than 200,000 children a year.

At last week’s Global Vaccine Summit, Bill Gates was asked where he hoped the remaining funds would come from. He responded by singling out three countries in particular: Australia, Japan and the United States.

We don’t as yet have a presence in Japan, but we are determined to convince the Australian and American governments to pay for their fair share. So we need to keep up the momentum and continue to press the case in coming months. We mustn’t give up when we’re so close! In fact, if you have five minutes, why not show your continued support right now by taking the time to contact key decision-makers in the US and Australia.

 

Australia: Tweet @BobJCarr @JuliaGillard @AusAID

United States: Send Senator Harkin an email

 

Learn more about how the campaign succeeded in Canada and the UK and sign our petition here to convince others to fund the plan to end polio.
Posted by Michael Sheldrick and Lauren O'Connor, The End of Polio campaign in What Can I Do?, Polio for column Success Stories on May 2nd, 07:05
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An extraordinary journey
 

Here at GPP, we love seeing examples of individuals pushing forward to make a difference in their society. So when we heard about an innovative gaming company in Kenya, we felt we had to share their story.

University of Games is made up of an extraordinary group of people – Brian "Binary" Kinyua the programmer, Herbert Mbuthi the artist, Joseph Kariuki the project manager and Blaise "ST€@LT#" Kinyua the marketer.
 

“We started as hobbyists developing games, wallpapers, and themes for Nokia in 2010. At that time we were still at university. It made sense to us to combine a passion that we have had since we were little kids-games- and the skills we had acquired from education- business, technology and art. As we continued with our new found love we inevitably gained a lot of experience and in 2012, we decided we should formalise it by registering the company.”

In 2011, the Kenya government together with the World Bank came up with a facility known as the "Tandaa" Grant to support young "techpreneurs" across the country. University of Games successfully became a recipient of the the grant and their journey set off. They have recently been able to release 'Election Thief', their first game. It's not only a game, but serves to reinforce the importance of a fair voting process- and it addresses many of the sensitive issues surrounding the idea of democracy in developing countries. University of Games seek to engage with such sensitive issues from a new angle – using games – to raise the profile of the issues amongst their own society. The success they have achieved is resultant from their combined effort as a team and also support from families and friends.

How did the Tandaa Grant help you to get where you are today?

Young companies need capital and advice when starting and that is what we got from the Tandaa Grant - capital and entrepreneurship training. The grant helped us acquire most of the hardware and software we have at the moment. It has also been fundamental to our success because it gave us confirmation that someone else, especially the older folk, believed in our ideas and this has pushed us to work even harder.

What are the problems that you've faced in getting where you are today and how have you overcome them?

It has been difficult to create a game development company in Kenya, as game development is still a new idea and is not considered as anything worth doing- for any reason. We usually get shocked reactions whenever we tell people that we make games and there are no local sources of information on the art of game development. At this point we give thanks to God for the Internet.

Life is full of challenges and that will never change. Once you are aware of what you want and you decide to focus all your energies towards achieving those goals the challenges all of a sudden start to seem do-able. And even if they are really hard, you will forget all the hardships once the job is done. At the University of Games, we take games very seriously!

What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs?

First find what you love and what you would want to do with your life.

One quality of such a thing is that you would be willing to do it for free! It’s not about the money when it comes to that!

Once you have established what you want, you should work hard (really hard) at attaining the goal of excellence in that field. This requires learning a lot about everything relevant in that field.

The people that make a mark in society are usually those that follow their dreams.

One thing to note though is that your dream has to have a business model to it at some point so as to sustain your activities.

Lastly, the most important advice we can offer is that greatness cannot be achieved by only one person. Working together is necessary. There is no way around this because we can only live for so long, and if we try to do anything on our own, we will take too long.

For more info please visit University of Games.
 
Posted by Philip Corden - GPP in Technology for column Success Stories on Mar 26th, 03:04
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Amazing Progress, But a Very Real Risk
 

 “The Programme has never been in a stronger position, but how history looks back on 2012 will depend on what happens next. The remaining polio virus now sits on just 0.2% of the Earth’s land mass. Are we seeing its last stand?”

This is the question asked by the Independent Monitoring Board in its latest report, released recently. This group of public health experts, led by Sir Liam Donaldson, the UK’s former Chief Medical Officer, meets quarterly to review progress towards global polio eradication.

So what does their latest report say?

First of all, the IMB congratulates the program on the amazing progress that has been achieved over the past year. Not only has 2012 seen record-breaking low case numbers, but polio has been beaten back to the smallest geographic area in history. As the IMB states, “by this time in 2011, there had been almost three times as many children paralysed, in four times as many countries”.

We really are closer than ever to wiping out polio.

But the IMB also has a warning for the program – don’t celebrate too soon because the virus could still resurge:

“Cries of ‘nearly there’ have been heard before... History cruelly shows that hard-won progress is easily lost. In 2001, the number of polio cases reached an all-time low. In the years that followed, progress went awry and the virus spread once more."

 

 

And spread it did. Check out this infographic from the report, showing how polio spread from northern Nigeria to 18 countries between 2002 and 2005, causing more than 1200 cases of polio:

 

How can we prevent similar outbreaks from happening again? The IMB has a number of suggestions for the agencies running global polio eradication operations, including ensuring strong leadership, high parental demand and robust microplanning – feedback that is being taken seriously by those working on the technical side of things.

While we’ll leave the operational aspects in the capable hands of the likes of WHO and CDC, there is something we can help with – and that’s ensuring global polio eradication efforts are fully funded.

We’ve been incredibly lucky that there haven’t been any outbreaks in 2012, as the funding shortfall has caused the cancellation of vaccination campaigns in many of the same countries that suffered polio outbreaks over the past decade. But unless we can come up with the funding to ensure that no more vaccination campaigns will be cancelled, eventually our luck will run out.

The partner agencies of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are currently putting the finishing touches on a strategy to end polio in the next two years and to make sure that it can’t come back. We need to help them come up with the money to fund their activities until polio is finally gone. So get set for a whole new wave of campaigning in 2013!

 

Some highlights of the report:

·       In Afghanistan, trials of Permanent Polio Teams have proven the strategy to be hugely successful. This strategy, which involves vaccination teams made up of local people, travelling from house to house, vaccinating children in their community on an ongoing basis (ie. not just during country-wide vaccination campaigns), has resulted in polio vaccine being provided to 146,000 children, including almost 9000 who had never before received a dose of the vaccine.

·       Helicopters are being used to reach children in the Lake Chad area who are normally entirely cut off from other health services.

·       In Nigeria, 1500 nomadic settlements have been identified for the first time.

·       Direct disbursement mechanisms in Pakistan are ensuring that vaccinators receive the money they are due, on time - an incredibly important step in ensuring these frontline workers are motivated to go the extra distance to vaccinate every child.

 

      This blog was originally published here.
Posted by Lauren O'Connor - GPP in Global Health, Polio for column Success Stories on Jan 4th, 02:58
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Save lives by eating ice cream!
 

 The 1st December 2012 marks World AIDS Day, and this year we arrive at a significant crossroads. For the first time in history the end of AIDS is in sight. Isn’t that something worth celebrating? Absolutely! But there is still much more to be done, and here’s why…

According to the most recent global report on HIV/AIDS from UNAIDS, we have witnessed a 24% decrease in AIDS-related deaths globally since 2005. Along with this, access to HIV treatment (known as antiretroviral treatment) has increased globally by 63% from 2009-2011- meaning that over 8 million people living with HIV currently have access to this life-saving antiretroviral treatment.

These are big strides forward in the response to the HIV epidemic, and shouldn’t be underestimated. They highlight the outstanding developments that have been made in tackling this global issue in recent years. Evidently, we have the capabilities to tackle HIV/AIDS at a significant scale.

 

However, although these statistics are important and should be celebrated, there is still so much more to do. We have the capacity and the technology to bring even greater change – but only if we take the opportunity presented before us right now. What we have already achieved is brilliant, but should not make us complacent about what still needs to be done.

 

After all, three out of every four children living with HIV are still without access to treatment.

 

At Chasing Zero, we have a big vision. We are giving everything we’ve got to building a world where the number of AIDS-related deaths is reduced to ZERO. Improving access to treatment is pivotal to this, and can be as simple as providing transport to and from hospitals, or training local volunteers to visit people in the comfort of their homes.

That is why in order to play our part in this global ambition, Chasing Zero is working to improve access to treatment and help overcome one of the largest obstacles of the HIV epidemic. In fact, our 5-year aim is to provide 1 million people living with HIV with access to antiretroviral treatment and care.

 

 

 By working to provide this access to communities located in hard to reach, rural parts of the world, AIDS-related deaths will continue to fall, whilst the spread of HIV significantly reduced.

This coming Saturday, 1st December is World AIDS day. And we are taking a stand- with ice cream!

 

Eat Ice Cream. Share Photos. Help Save Lives.

On the 1st December 2012, Chasing Zero is launching the campaign and web-app ‘Freeze AIDS’ which is a really simple and fun way to get involved with World AIDS Day 2012. It just takes 3 simple steps….and guess what? It involves ice cream!

 

 

All you need to do is…

1.Get some ice cream.

2.On your ice cream, squeeze a red ribbon (as shown) with some strawberry sauce.

3.Take a picture and upload to Freeze-AIDS through twitter, email, text or their website.

By joining in with Freeze AIDS this World AIDS Day, you will be helping to raise awareness of the significant opportunity we have right now as a global community. You will be joining with thousands of people who are part of ‘the Chase’ and believe that we could be the generation to bring about the end of AIDS.

Find out more about Freeze Aids.

Today’s guest blog is by Joel Wallington - Chief Executive of Chasing Zero. 
Posted by Joel Wallington - Chief Executive Officer - Chasing Zero in Poverty for column Success Stories on Dec 1st 2012, 00:33
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Celebrating Global Poverty Ambassadors!

 

In partnership with The Co-operative, the Global Poverty Project has been able to mobilise over 120 Global Poverty Ambassadors in the UK. These ambassadors have been trained to deliver important messages to the community about what actions they can take in their everyday lives to end extreme poverty within a generation.

Thanks to our ambassadors’ drive and innovation, there have been a number of campaigns already that have stood out as being truly inspiring. Here is a short description of the events that have really stood out so far this year.

In March, the Ambassadors first campaign task was to write to their local MP to prompt the government to reconfirm the UK’s pledge to spend 0.7% of its GNI on overseas aid. Ambassadors Claire Griffths, Amar Chauhan, Anne Parker and Mark Hague went above and beyond this and created a Facebook page asking members of the public to take photos of themselves holding a sign thanking the government for protecting 0.7%. After hundreds of photos in just a few weeks the campaign was given the opportunity to meet the then Secretary of State for International Development, the Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP to discuss, in person, the importance of the UK committing to its 0.7% aid-spending target! 

One of GPP’s most prominent campaigns is Live Below the Line, where participants live on a pound of day to raise awareness of some of the challenges of what it’s like to live below the poverty line. As ever, each Ambassador was encouraged to do their bit for this campaign and enhance its public profile. However, none had done quite so well as Anne Parker. On the 27th of April, Anne launched her LBL efforts with a free gig in Liverpool. It was open to all and offered live music, free food and a great opportunity for Ambassadors and members of the public to get together and spread the word about the challenges of living in extreme poverty. Quite apart from attracting a large number of local people including the Shadow Secretary of State for Education Stephen Twigg MP, this party raised hundreds of pounds and encouraged many people to take part in LBL creating more awareness for the world’s poor.

Another successful campaign party was organised by Sarah Conway. As part of her efforts for The End of Polio Campaign in June, Sarah came up with a unique and fun event to raise awareness of polio in her local community by having a ‘Purple Party’. It was designed as an opportunity to get people together and sign a petition calling on the government to increase funding and end polio for good. The party was featured on local radio and local newspapers, with guests wearing purple for a great evening filled with games, quizzes and music. The money raised from the entrance fee was donated to the Rotary International campaign to end polio and, above all, everyone had fun.

One of most exciting ambassador-led campaigns of 2012 is the Point 1 campaign, championed by Kristina Crawford-our Isle of Man ambassador. Along with the team at GPP, Kristina has set up numerous events to encourage the public to get behind foreign aid spending and encourage the Isle of Man’s government to increase their aid spending to 0.1% from the tiny 0.07%. The campaign has been achieving a lot of press coverage, with Kristina regularly appearing in newspaper and on radio. This has helped the campaign already reach over 10% of the island’s population online and has gained over 1200 signatures on its petition to the government to increases its overseas aid. It's an amazing example of what the ambassadors can achieve.

Most recently the ambassadors were asked to promote World Mosquito Day for Malaria No More on August 20th. Again, one ambassador had been truly inspirations this month and that was William Stringer. William had put together and art installation in several shopping malls in Northern Ireland to raise public awareness about Malaria and the world’s poor. He used mosquito nets as a canvass for members of the public to post their names on to show solidarity with malaria suffers. He reached over 200 people, which is an amazing achievement.

Overall, these are just a few examples of the outstanding work ambassadors have done in such a short amount of time. They have been a beacon of inspiration for the public and staff of GPP alike and will continue to find creative ways to inspire people to end extreme poverty for years to come.
 
Posted by Stephanie Talbut in Education for column Success Stories on Oct 1st 2012, 12:55
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