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I am Malala
 

Last Tuesday, 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot by members of the Taliban while returning home from school in Mingora, northwestern Swat.

Malala has been campaigning for girls to go to school in Pakistan, despite receiving death threats from the Taliban.  Earlier today, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, now the UN Special Envoy on Global Education, has launched a petition in her name. 

The petition highlights the 34 million girls not currently in school and the 61 million children being shut out of primary education. The petition also “calls on Pakistan to ensure that every girl like Malala has the chance to go to school.” Gordon Brown is highlighting the abuse of rights in Pakistan but also calling on the international community to ensure that all children have access to education by the end of 2015. Mr Brown said he would hand the petition to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari when he visits Islamabad in November.

While Malala recovers in the hospital, the world is taking responsibility for continuing her message. Gordon Brown stated: “Indeed the protests reveal a world no longer willing to tolerate the gap between the promise of opportunity for all and the reality of 61 million boys and girls shut out from even the most basic of primary schooling.”

Malala, at 14, stands up for children in Pakistan by leading this protest-- demonstrating that children understand the fundamentality of education as a right, and are demanding to learn: “the spontaneous wave of protest we are witnessing shows that children are more assertive of their right to education than the leaders who promised to deliver it.” (Brown)

The Taliban endeavor to make Malala soundless, while we can ensure her message reverberates in every corner of the world. We-- as Global Citizens-- will stand for every child and their basic right to an education.

We are Malala.

Sign the petition to support Malala and help her win this fight at educationenvoy.org.

 
Posted by Jordan Hewson in Education for column Global Poverty Project - International on Oct 16th 2012, 03:40
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Who are Global Citizens?

 

Global Citizens amplify their voices to speak for justice.

We don’t get lost in crowds. We’re different from other audiences and music fans; and we will gather for the first time in September at the Global Festival, to demonstrate to our leaders what we want: the end of extreme poverty. On September 29th with the convening of the United Nations 67th General Assembly, we’ll come together in Central Park at the Great Lawn. 60,000 change makers will gather with artists and activists alike, to demonstrate the force of our collective and creative energy. We’ll celebrate the successes in the fight against extreme poverty and the progress achieved towards the 8 Millennium Development Goals, and call to secure and increase future commitments.

At the Global Festival the audience can learn how to activate, adding a new layer to live experience. Through music, we can amplify our voice: show our leaders that we as Global Citizens are demanding the end. We have the tools. We have the resources. Becoming a Global Citizen is about discovering you are also a tool, you are also a resource. You don’t need to be a qualified medical practitioner, an educator or a mid-wife to make a difference; you can still improve access to healthcare, education or maternal health. You don’t need to be a physical utensil- a malaria net or an ARV pill, to be a tool. Instead, become a Global Citizen. Learn how to amplify your impact.

In designing Global Citizen, we asked ourselves- how can the energy and momentum powering a movement be sustained once it sparks? How can we reach our maximum output? The Global Festival might act as a catalyst, it will spark our moment, but Global Citizen can sustain us as it continues to evolve, finding a place for each of us in the fight against extreme poverty.

Global Citizen works as an online engagement platform that empowers you with the tools to learn and take action against extreme poverty. Over the coming weeks it will become available as a downloadable phone app. allowing you to connect wherever, whenever. The platform is designed to make our actions measurable, and to focus and sustain the power of our collective energy. But the platform will also be personalised; so you can engage with the particular issues which you’re passionate about, while becoming introduced to others. The app. won’t let you get lost in the masses; it’s designed to facilitate and measure your part in the movement. 

It will offer a wide cross-section of content and actions concerning international health and development issues -- ranging from videos to in-depth white papers. It will connect you with the work of our non-profit partners and social entrepreneurs who are working in each of these areas, as well as academics, writers, celebrity spokespeople and the music artists involved. The app. allows us to capitalise on the reach of mobile technology- a power that movements before us couldn’t yield.

Never has it been made so easy to mobilise as a generation, and for everyone to find his or her part in it.

To end extreme poverty, we need to change the broken systems and policies: trade rules, vulture funds etc. that keep people poor. As constituents we have the ability to set the political agenda but only if we demonstrate enough political support. The G20 countries – representing 90% of global gross national product, 80% of world trade, and two thirds of the world’s population –hold the key to this possibility, as they shape the global system. The citizens within these countries-- that’s us-- will create the political demand for leaders to make decisions that determine the fate of so many others.

Together, we will be the generation to end extreme poverty.

Amplify your impact, with Global Citizen
Posted by Jordan Hewson in Poverty for column Global Poverty Project - International on Aug 13th 2012, 12:07
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Guest Blog: Corruption is cooperative
 

Dear Prime Minister David Cameron

Corruption is cooperative.

If a government official receives a sketchy wad of cash, there has to be someone handing him the briefcase, right? Apparently not, if you're asking the extractive industries. They defend under-the-table transactions as being necessary to "protecting the sovereignty of their producer country." Well Shell… I'm not buying it.

And perhaps nobody will: if oil-companies continue to fight against legal efforts to increase transparency in the extractive sector through the Cardin-Lugar amendment, calls for a public boycott in the US could be on the horizon. In Europe, the movement has been catalyzed by 200 Ugandans mailing a petition to number 10 Downing Street.

The Ugandans are concerned that a recent discovery of oil in their country will circulate a plague often referred to as 'the resource curse'. Tullow Oil is the major extractive company operating in Uganda, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The discovery appears as a blessing (for a country with a GDP per capita of $US 1,300) and certainly has the potential to be one. Uganda is estimated to produce up to 250,000 barrels per day in coming years, and the Ugandans are excited about this forecast. However, they are also conscious of the destructive potential this kind of discovery is likely to produce without the international legal protections towards transparency.

The letter to 10 Downing Street read: 'The revenue generated by the oil has the potential to transform our economy and push the country towards middle-income status. The fight against poverty and disease could be intensified and social services for all Ugandans improved. However, world experience tells us that oil can be a curse as well as a blessing. Many African countries rich in natural resources have been plagued by instability, corruption and huge inequality.'

They cite the DRC as an example of a country that should be one of the world's wealthiest, now an example of a 'failed state'. Andnot forgetting Nigeria, which has enriched the pockets of a select few, denying the rest of its population access to their rightful, shared resources. This is not the path Ugandans want to take, nor is it a path that should be so easily walked by other developing nations.

The letter comes at a time when the European Commission is debating the introduction of legislation to amend the EU's Transparency and Accounting Directives. If approved, this legislation will require all European Union listed (or large unlisted) oil, gas, mining and logging companies to disclose their payments to governments, with Germany taking the lead in the push to fill the legal vacuum. The US have already made efforts towards transparency through the Cardin- Lugar amendment to the Dodd Frank Act - this will require all extractive companies to publish payments to the US and foreign governments in the countries where they operate. However, the amendment is receiving pushback from oil companies (such as Shell) reluctant to comply with new regulations, and consequently has now been delayed.

The push against new transparency laws has not stopped Ugandans from taking initiative to fight the odds of the resource curse. These demands are not made specific to their own government, but to other governments and international companies, highlighting the interconnected nature of corruption. This letter acknowledges the cooperative efforts needed to vaccinate against the infection the discovery of oil will likely generate. We need to recognize corruption as a trans-continental virus as the Ugandans do. Transparency can act as the vaccine.

It's easy to think about the common denominator in the resource curse as being "African government" while the role the international extractive companies play goes overlooked. Ugandans will not alone be held responsible for the corruption festering in their borders because of trans-border resource trading. They recognize the international responsibility in the resource curse - the need to root out the external influences breeding the corruption Uganda and other developing nations battle; by filling an international legal void.

Dear Prime Minister David Cameron, this is not a fight Uganda can win on its own. Evidently the Ugandans themselves are aware of the mutually reinforcing nature of back ally deal making, the sort that doesn't even really need to take place in the back ally because there's no law against it in the first place.

It's easier to accuse Uganda of "self-corrupting" and turn a blind eye to the role that our governments are playing. We ignore the silent western complicity in all of this. It's an easy excuse to cut aid too;the get-out clause. The viral argument made against the effectiveness of aid usually goes something like: 'The governments are all corrupted and unreliable, where is the money going?' Well, 'where is your money going Tullow Oil? Shell?' It's easier to place all the responsibility on the part of the developing country and make it look like it's all their fault. Then we don't have to feel guilty when we're cutting the budget, right? Ugandans however have made clear: Dear Prime Minister David Cameron, we are not taking the blame for this one.

Publish What You Pay state that secrecy in the energy and mining sectors has put the brakes on development around the world. The Ugandans have reached out, so what can we do? Sign the petition at Publish what you pay. Your signature asks your MEP to support the adoption of new transparency laws, which will put the foot of economic development back on the gas.
Posted by Jordan Hewson in Corruption & Governance for column Issue Analysis on May 26th 2012, 04:31
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