Save The Children [to 30 May 2015]

Save The Children [to 30 May 2015]
http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6150563/k.D0E9/Newsroom.htm

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Nepal: Damaged or Destroyed Schools Threaten Return of One Million Children
May 31, 2015
… “Save the Children firmly believes that education cannot stop because of an emergency. We know that in times of crisis, providing children with an education allows them the opportunity to recover from what has happened not just restart their learning. As such, we are eager to get children into the classroom but know that it is crucial they also feel safe,” says Delilah Borja, country director at Save the Children Nepal.
“We have already established 32 temporary learning centers in some of the communities most-affected by the earthquake of April 25, and will build a further 670 in the coming months.
“We are aware that the longer children are out of school, the harder it is for them to return and that is why we will continue to do all we can to get children back into education,” she adds.
Save the Children is providing essential learning materials to schools as well as training to teachers on how to ensure that the school environment is safe and how to help traumatized children recover from their experiences…

 

SOS-Kinderdorf International [to 30 May 2015]

SOS-Kinderdorf International [to 30 May 2015]
http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/about-sos/press/press-releases

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SOS to help 450 unaccompanied Syrian children through new European Commission project
29.05.2015 – A new project in Northern Syria run by SOS Children’s Villages and financed by the European Commission will provide complete care for hundreds of unaccompanied children and reunification services to reunite them with their families if possible.

ODI [to 30 May 2015]

ODI [to 30 May 2015]
http://www.odi.org/media

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What if growth had been as good for the poor as everyone else?
Research reports and studies
28 May 2015
World leaders are set to endorse an ambitious set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015. Proposed targets aim to, among other things, eliminate extreme income poverty ($1.25 a day) by 2030 and ensure that the bottom 40% of the distribution experiences higher than average growth. Although extreme poverty has fallen considerably over the last thirty years, it persists at unacceptably high levels and inequality within many countries has risen. More equally distributed growth could reduce poverty further, in addition to having other positive spill-over effects.
Numerous projections have suggested that the world could come close to eliminating extreme poverty by 2030. However they tend to assume that growth will be shared equally by all people, regardless of where they are located in the income distribution. This report interrogates this assumption. It considers the implications of growth in which the bottom 40% of the population shares equally or more, taking a retrospective view.
Pdf: http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9655.pdf

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Means of implementation and the global partnership for sustainable development: what’s in it for emerging economies?
Research reports and studies
28 May 2015
The new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is navigating the unchartered territory of defining a workable universal development agenda that will apply to all countries. Emerging economies (EMEs) will play a pivotal role in the implementation of this new global agenda. This paper examines the position of four of the most influential EMEs – Brazil, China, India and South Africa, outlining what they stand to gain or lose from a series of issues that require global action and that are fundamental for the successful implementation of the SDGS.
We focus our analysis on six selected issues: global finance, technology transfer, trade, climate change, sustainable consumption and production and global governance.
Pdf: http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9654.pdf

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Revitalising evidence-based policy for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030: lessons from existing international science partnerships
Journal articles or issues | May 2015 | Elizabeth Carabine
Science is to be included as a core aspect of the Post-2015 Disaster Risk Reduction Framework, although the ways in which this will occur in practice is unclear. We address this by examining a number of existing international science mechanisms used across other…

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Exploring spaces for economic transformation in the Sustainable Development Goals
Research reports and studies | May 2015 | Yurendra Basnett, Debapriya Bhattacharya
The Sustainable Development Goals are bringing the spotlight back to economic development issues. While maintaining the social pillar and adding a focus on the environment, it is expected that the SDGs will promote economic transformation.

Clinton Foundation [to 30 May 2015]

Clinton Foundation [to 30 May 2015]
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/press-releases-and-statements

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Press Releases
Clinton Climate Initiative Partners with Rocky Mountain Institute and Carbon War Room to Advance Renewable Energy in Caribbean Island-Nations May 29, 2015
The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, today announced its official partnership with Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and Carbon War Room (CWR) in promoting a transition to renewable energy and energy-efficiency solutions in the Caribbean region.

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Blog
A Message from President Clinton
29 May 2015
Chelsea and I recently returned from a trip to Africa where we saw the results of the work that you support through the Clinton Foundation. We make this trip almost every year to see the work our Foundation, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), and CGI partners do, and the people we’re able to help.

As you all know, it’s the political season in America, so the purpose and impact of the efforts your support makes possible has largely been ignored in recent coverage of the Foundation. But we are and always have been a non-partisan, inclusive foundation with lots of support from and involvement by people across the political spectrum and governments from right to left, all committed to our creative solutions-centered work. That’s why I am writing to you and our hundreds of thousands of other supporters in the U.S. and around the world to let you know how grateful I am for your support, and for our staff and our partners, and how determined I am that our work will continue.

Next week, Donna Shalala will join the Foundation as President and CEO. She will inherit a senior leadership who have years of experience in the NGO and private sectors, and a talented, dedicated, diverse staff, all deeply committed to keep doing the kind of inspiring work we saw in Africa. We will also continue to look for ways to improve our reporting systems so that we can operate as accurately, efficiently, and transparently as possible – a goal to which we have been committed since day one.

I started the Clinton Foundation when I left the White House to continue working on issues I had long cared about, where I believed I could still make an impact. I grew up believing that if I worked hard enough I could build a rewarding life, and entered public service to create more opportunities for others and to empower them to seize those opportunities – or as we say, to have better life stories. That same purpose has driven our work at the Clinton Foundation – whether we’re helping smallholder farmers in Africa increase their yields or supporting women entrepreneurs in Latin America as they build better lives for their families.

From the very beginning, the Clinton Foundation has intentionally taken a different approach to addressing global challenges. Except to spur recovery in the aftermath of disasters like the South Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and, over a longer period, in Haiti, we don’t primarily make grants to other organizations. Instead, we implement and organize projects ourselves by bringing partners together, including governments, businesses, labor unions, philanthropies, other NGOs, and the people we’re trying to help, and join them on the ground to solve problems faster, better, and at lower cost. We strive for innovative approaches to problem solving that are sustainable and yield strong results. With each of our initiatives, we try both to change lives today and offer a model for meaningful and replicable future action. The best way to do that usually starts with forming inclusive networks of all stakeholders. We incorporate data and metrics into the Foundation’s work and encourage others to help scale-up or replicate our successful projects wherever they can touch more lives.

My work with the Clinton Foundation over the past 14 years has been one of the most rewarding endeavors of my life, as every day I see how, with your support, our programs change lives. While in Africa, I met many of the people we’re helping build better futures, provide for their families, and strengthen their communities. Their lives tell the real stories of the Clinton Foundation, and they are worth hearing.

In Tanzania, I visited Wazia Chawala. She is a farmer and a single mother raising seven children. She is also one of 85,000 people in Tanzania, Malawi, and Rwanda participating in our Clinton Development Initiative’s Anchor Farm program. The program operates commercial farms and partners with local smallholder farmers to provide them with access to high-quality, low-cost seed and fertilizer, training in improved agricultural techniques, and transportation to market. Participants have more than doubled their yields on average, increased their incomes by even greater margins, and dramatically improved their quality of life. When I met Wazia, she told me how her increased productivity has helped her improve her home and keep her seven children in school. She is forging her own path out of poverty with a system that is life-changing, sustainable, and replicable. What is working for 85,000 farmers could work for millions.

In Tanzania, I also visited a dispensary run by CHAI that is helping to make life-saving vaccines more affordable and readily available to people in rural areas, where 70 percent of the country’s people live. In addition to negotiating price reductions for the pneumonia and rotavirus vaccines, CHAI is using innovative solar-powered refrigerators to preserve the vaccines – which are only effective when stored in cool temperatures – in the remote areas of the country that lack electricity. I met with several mothers who have had their children vaccinated through the program, which is saving 11,000 lives annually, including one woman who walked twelve miles to get her baby vaccinated for the first time. Stories like that are why I started this work, and why I am more committed than ever to continuing it.

As I often say, there can be a big difference between the headlines and the trend lines. We mostly hear about the headlines – but the trend lines can tell us more about what is happening in most people’s lives. When I look at what the Foundation has accomplished over the last 14 years, I believe we are helping to move the trend lines in the right direction. 9.9 million people in more than 70 countries now have access to low-cost, life-saving HIV/AIDS medicines through the Clinton Health Access Initiative; 16 million kids in more than 28,000 schools in the U.S. now have healthier food and more physical activity options; and members of the Clinton Global Initiative have made 3,200 commitments that have already improved 430 million lives in more than 180 countries.

That’s the real story of the Clinton Foundation – people coming together across traditional divides to help others live up to their full potential. We are grateful that you have been a part of it.

We’ll keep trying to reach our goals faster, better, and in the most cost-effective way. We’ll continue to strive for accuracy and transparency and, most important, keep working on the mission and measuring our progress every step of the way. That commitment to impact, innovation, and efficiency is what you expect from us, and what we want to deliver for years to come.

Thank you for your support of the Clinton Foundation. Together, we can build a future we can all be proud to share.

I encourage you to visit clintonfoundation.org/our-work to learn more about the way the Clinton Foundation works and our life-changing programs around the world.

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Editor’s Note: Given the above blog content, we include below links to the latest of a continuing series of New York Times articles on the Clinton Foundation.
Clinton Award Included Cash to Foundation
New York Times, May 30, 2015 – By DEBORAH SONTAG – U.S. – Print Headline: “Clinton Award Included Cash to Foundation”
The former president of the United States agreed to accept a lifetime achievement award at the June 2014 event after Ms. Nemcova offered a $500,000 contribution…