When EU development ministers met on 14 May 2012, the most significant conclusions were the redefinition of the future of EU development policy overall. In an effort to improve the clarity of results and impact of aid the ministers agreed that the EU would focus on those countries and sectors where it can have the greatest impact.
“If the world doesn’t help us I’m scared more friends and even my family will die”, Abdoul told me. It was horrible to hear. It’s not right that a ten-year-old should be going through this just because of a simple lack of nutritious food when there’s enough food in the world for everyone.
We hosted a debate on 15 May to tackle the contentious issue of increasing aid spending whilst domestic budgets are cut.
A distinguished panel of speakers watched our recent aid film and debated the Coalition’s aid policy. They were Lord Ashdown, former leader of the Liberal Democrats; Tim Montgomerie, editor of ConservativeHome; Baroness Glenys Kinnock, Labour’s spokesperson for international development in the Lords; Philip Davies, MP for Shipley and member of the influential 1922 Executive Committee of backbench Conservative MPs.
Last month, I was at a meeting with more than eighty campaigners from around the world in a single room in Tanzania. We were from Save the Children and the White Ribbon Alliance, swapping notes on the best campaign ideas for maternal and child survival.
A couple of weeks ago I did something I’m not proud of. In fact I would go as far as to say that it was something I’ve spent the last few years actively avoiding….
The one thing that puts things into perspective for me is talking to Yaha, a mother of nine, in the village of Dan Badada. She actually used to have ten children, but not anymore.
Imagine you can’t afford food. The problem isn’t that there is no food at the shops – just that you can’t afford it. You see food piled up in the aisles at the supermarkets, but you aren’t able to buy it. The prices have gone up and they’re just simply out of reach. What would you do?
For the last three months the European Parliament has had a ‘written declaration’ open for signature calling on the European Union to give more support to vaccines in developing countries. It is crucial that a further 77 MEPs support this declaration in the next month. And even more important that the European Commission act upon it should they do so.
The Salawe health centre serves nine villages in total with a population of 16,900 people. As the health centre no longer has an ambulance, if there is a complication it falls on the woman’s family to hire the one vehicle in Salawe to transport her to the district hospital. And with only one trained midwife for a population of 16,900, it would be impossible for the health centre to cope if all deliveries were to take place there.
I was reading about the appointment of our president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, as the co-chair of the UN Commission on Life-saving Commodities, when I read that the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Iweala, was also named by the UN Secretary-General, as a member of the newly established body to tackle child malnutrition. I kept asking myself, what does this mean for Nigeria? Will the appointment make the president appreciate the enormity of maternal and child mortality in Nigeria and make him take the necessary steps for ensuring access to basic health care?