May 2014 National Grassroots Conference Call for Global Poverty Campaigns
Dr. Joanne Carter, Executive Director
I want to welcome everyone to the RESULTS National conference call for May 2014 focused on global poverty.
First I want to say thank you and wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers on today’s call. And I also want to thank all of you who advocate day in and day out to ensure that all the mothers in the world have the resources and support they need to take care of their children and themselves, to protect their children, to ensure that their families not only survive but also thrive. And on this day before Mother’s Day let’s hold in our thoughts all the mothers who don’t have yet those resources, who can’t yet protect their children from disease or poverty or violence and let it redouble our commitment to get there faster and make sure everyone is included and no one is left behind.
In a few minutes you’ll get to hear from a very special guest for our call—Sarah Brown, Executive Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education and co-founder of A World At School and global champion for education and also for the health of women and children. But first I want to say a few words about the work you have been doing.
As you all know, our main campaign this spring is focused on ensuring that every child in the world will be in school and learning, and particularly that the US make a pledge of $250M over two years for the Global Partnership for Education. Because we believe that support for the Global Partnership for Education is the single most important signal the US (and other donors) can send to low-income countries to let them know that we have their backs—that we will support them to be ambitious in their efforts now and in the future to have every child in school and learning.
I want to thank you and strongly, strongly, strongly encourage you to continue the powerful media work you have been doing—you are the leading edge of getting the issue of education for all and the need for increased US commitment to GPE in the media. We need even more—we need a groundswell of media so the administration will pay attention.
And thank you for your persistent work to get signers on the letter initiated by Rep Jan. Schakowsky to the administration. You are playing such a central role in this effort and you need to appreciate that.
The challenge we face is that the GPE and international education overall is not a priority for the Obama administration—not yet (though fortunately it is for key allies in Congress). That’s why every additional LTE and editorial and op-ed matters, that’s why every additional signer on the Schakowsky letter matters—but also why we need to strategize even more boldly and outside the box—to get members of Congress to be even bigger champions, to reach out directly to the White House on this. What if we could get a dozen members to call the White House? You can make that happen.
It’s now my privilege and honor to welcome and introduce our very special conference call guest, Sarah Brown. Sarah Brown is the president of the international children’s charity Theirworld and Executive Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education, which brings the business community together to accelerate progress in delivering quality education for all of the world’s children and youth.
Sarah is also co-founder of A World At School, a campaign to mobilize support to achieve universal education and learning for every child – all 57 million out of school children – by 2015.
A few weeks ago Sarah brought together an array of leaders to talk what we can do to accelerate efforts to get every child in school and learning by end 2015.
This week Sarah was in Abuja, Nigeria, where A World at School and the Global Business Coalition for Education brought business leaders to the table and secured an initial $10 million in total for a new Safe Schools Initiative to support efforts to stop the attacks on students, and teachers in schools and provide safe learning spaces for all children. This initial $10 million was the springboard for a subsequent additional $10 million from the Nigerian government. Congratulations on that!
She is an ardent and passionate supporter of the right to education and believes that a greater effort to get every single child in school and learning should be made.
A World at School will soon launch its 500-Day 2015 Countdown Campaign an effort to hold world leaders to their commitments on second MDG – to get the remaining 57 million out of school children in school and learning.
Sarah is not just an advocate on education but also a champion on health. She is well known for her work bringing the maternal and child health community together and working at the heart of a movement driven by many thousands of people to reduce maternal deaths and reverse two decades of slow progress.
Sarah is the Co-Founder of the Maternal Mortality Campaign and Global Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood. She has received the Vision and Impact Award from the Global Business Coalition for Health, an Honorary Fellowship from Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Recognition Award from the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.
Welcome Sarah. It’s an honor to have you. We’d love to hear about the 500 day countdown and how we can work together to achieve the goal of getting every child in school and learning.
Sarah Brown
Thank you for your dedication as RESULTS volunteers!
When enough people are asking for the same thing loudly and clearly, leaders not only hear, but they act. It’s when we have dissonance or when we don’t care that things don’t change.
The opportunity is now. The tragic events currently in the news is actually opening the conversation re: access to education. In addition to looking at school safety, we’re looking at education access . . . and that’s a role for RESULTS. USAID is taking more notice.
For us to be able to achieve Millennium Development Goal #2 on education, we will have to work in partnership. There’s work to be done now, and we know what to do. We’re not wanting to wait for the post-2015 agenda. So, the 500-Day Countdown for Global Education starts 500 days before the MDG deadline. From the mid-August start going forward, there will be markers each 100 days that we can leverage for holistic attention and action.
http://www.aworldatschool.org/pages/500-day-countdown-for-global-education
GPE replenishment in June is absolutely critical, and it will leverage monies from national governments.
Q&A:
1. What do you hope for/expect from donor countries at the GPE replenishment, particularly in the high range? We don’t yet know what the pledges will be, but, for example, UK’s historic support has been massive in comparison to ours, and they are not alone. It’s a moment to highlight that and call for U.S. leadership.
2. Can you speak to teacher salaries? It’s tough to pay teachers well in certain areas. Federal or state discussions and agreements on what’s fair for teacher salaries is needed.
3. What does the Safe Schools Initiative look like on the ground? School-based interventions, community-based interventions, and special interventions are all part of it. Physical protections at the schools, protection for the to/from school journey, school counselor visits, school security plans, a plan for religious leader engagement, etc. The distribution and governance of this is key as well. Government is a partner but not a direct driver of this.
Invitation to the RESULTS International Conference:
I want to encourage all of you to join us at our June international conference:
We have an exciting list of confirmed speakers:
· World Bank President Jim Yong Kim
· USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah
· Former Australian Prime Minister and GPE Chair Julia Gillard
· Actor Sean Astin
· Author and Broadcaster Tavis Smiley
· Children’s Defense Fund Founder Marian Wright Edelman
And many more.
We look forward to powerful dialogues with these leaders - what will we do together going forward to eradicate poverty.
I urge you to invite others: your RESULTS partners, other community leaders and allies; other friends and colleagues in your life who could be excited about RESULTS; donors and potential donors.
Allison Grossman, Senior Legislative Associate
Our priority action for the next week and half is Representative Schakowsky's Congressional sign-on letter to President Obama in support of a U.S. pledge of $250 million over two years to the Global Partnership for Education.
Our goal is 100 signers on the letter, and we're nearly half way there. The letter closes Wednesday, May 21, and we really need a huge push between now and then to reach our goal.
The goal for sign-ons on this letter is so high because we're asking for such a big increase in funding – from a tiny U.S. contribution of $20 million in 2012 to a much more appropriate pledge of $250 million over two years. Because the Administration is not inclined to make such a jump, we need to apply as much pressure as possible in the time left.
As you make these requests to your Representatives, we have a few resources and strategies for you to use:
First, check to see if your member is signed on. The list is on the slide that you have and we're regularly updating the list of signers on our website at www.results.org/issues/globalpartnershipletter. Check back every couple of days for updates. And if you've been told that your Representative is signing but don't see them on our list, let us know. We've already caught a couple of people who would have otherwise fallen through the cracks. If they have already signed, ask them to take the next step and make a call to the White House and USAID to further their impact in advance of June.
Second, check to see if your Rep. signed similar letters in 2011 and 2012 on funding for GPE that Representative Schakowsky also led, which many of you might remember. Every single member of Congress who signed one of those two letters should be on this letter – but there are still 32 Reps that fall into that category and have not yet joined this effort.
A couple of other things to look for – has your member of Congress co-sponsored the Education for All Act this year? The EFA Act includes language supporting the Global Partnership for Education – so you've already laid the groundwork to get them on this letter.
Check their background – are they a former educator? Or, are they especially interested in defense? If so, make sure you send them statistics on the links between national security and education.
We've also received questions from offices about where this funding is coming from. The pledge we're advocating for does not have to be new funding. We will continue to advocate for full funding for basic education. But in reality, in 2012, only 2.5 percent of U.S. global basic education funding went to the Global Partnership for Education - the remainder went to bilateral programs. The U.S. must balance how our basic education dollars are used. With a contribution to GPE of $250 million over two years, the U.S. can increase the impact of these dollars by channeling a portion through GPE while still achieving our bilateral basic education goals, all without increasing overall funding – there is room for both.
And in the end, if your member of Congress will not sign the letter, ask them to write their own letter of support for GPE to the Administration. Any statement supporting a U.S. investment in the Global Partnership will be useful and strategic for this campaign.
As far as resources, our April action sheet is still up to date with everything you need for letter, and of course we have the letter text itself and Rep. Schakowsky's invitation to her colleagues to join this effort.
After this call, take the time to work with your group to identify the Representatives you cover who have not signed on. Make a plan for how you'll reach out to them and identify the member of your group taking the lead. Try to anticipate why your rep. might sign on or what their concerns are, and proactively address it when you contact them. Make a plan for following up with their office until you get an answer. Congress is on recess this coming week, so reach out to them in your districts at home, and make sure you follow up when they're back in session in Washington the week of May 19.
Ken Patterson, Director of Global Poverty Campaigns
We’ve started the beginning of this year with very few people knowing about GPE to a point where it is now bearing fruit—our members of Congress and their aides know more about it and are lining up to support it on the GPE sign on letter. Our media and community members are starting to understand it as our letters, op-eds have shown up, and out editors are starting to understand it with our GPE editorial pitches and the media tour.
Now is the time to drive the message home and get our media and members of Congress to act. The headlines about the Nigeria school kidnappings have focused the world’s attention on the plight of the girls and their families and on the issue of global education. Most everyone knows that education is a long-term strategy to stability and prosperity in any nation. Extremists fear education to the point of attacking helpless children. Yet USAID and this Administration have cut educating funding in their budgets significantly and the US invests very little in the only multilateral mechanism dedicated to getting all kids a quality education, GPE. Allison talked about what we can do around the GPE sign on letter. And now is the time to go back to our media to make an emboldened request for them to cover the whole story behind the education crisis. Here’s what you can do on the media: