Author: Ronald Minard

SEATTLE — Pakistan’s government recently announced that it plans to join the world’s top ten economies by the year 2047 – the centennial of its independence. To get there, it is launching Vision 2025, a plan to spur broad, multidimensional development across the country. “Vision 2025 will build upon the sustained efforts made by the Government to regain macroeconomic stability,” said Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “It will focus on the right of the people to the benefits of growth and development, and aligning national priorities to make development more inclusive and sustainable.” Pakistan’s most pressing barriers to development include…

SEATTLE — The Electrify Africa Act has passed a full vote in the House of Representatives – an action welcomed by The Borgen Project. Having been approved by the Senate in December, it will now go to President Obama for signature. Since the legislation was first introduced in 2013, The Borgen Project has held nearly 400 meetings with Congressional offices. The organization has also mobilized over 6,300 emails from constituents to their members of Congress in support of the bill. Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, praised passage of the bill, calling it a big deal…

SEATTLE — Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is optimistic that by 2047, the centennial year of its independence, his country could be among the top ten economies in the world thanks to Vision 2025. “Pakistan is a passionate country,” he said. “It has the extensive potential to turn challenges into opportunities.” And, Pakistan has quite a few challenges. Over 60 percent of its population is food insecure, 15 percent suffer acute malnutrition, and it is estimated that up to 11 million children under the age of five face irreversibly limited physical and mental abilities due to malnutrition related stunting. That’s…

SEATTLE — Nutrition in Guatemala is poor and the chronic malnutrition rate is among the highest in the world. Health officials say inter-generational diets high in fat and simple carbohydrates have created an anomaly where up to 65 percent of children are undernourished while 50 percent of adult women are overweight or obese. “One of the myths about addressing hunger in Guatemala is that people need to eat more,” said Dr. Reynaldo Martorell, international nutrition expert at Emory University, in an article posted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). “The issue isn’t about eating more; it’s about eating better.” The…

At a recent fundraiser in New York City for Seed Global Health, Vanessa Kerry, daughter of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, rubbed elbows with the city’s social elite, including actress Drew Barrymore, to pitch the cause she’s been working for over the last three years. Seed Global Health is the organization that Kerry founded to strengthen health education in countries facing severe shortages in healthcare workers and gaps in patient care. A physician herself, Kerry spoke about the need for better healthcare in poor countries. “I started Seed Global Health because I grew up having the opportunity to see the intense…

Despite the considerable economic progress achieved in sub-Saharan African countries over the past decade, the UN reports that sustainable industrialization has stagnated. On Africa Industrialization Day in late November, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon highlighted the challenges facing the region’s manufacturing sector – primarily youth and female unemployment in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and underdeveloped market penetration. In 2014, manufacturing sectors contributed to only 11 percent of the region’s GDP, which was down from 13 percent in 2000. A mere 2 percent of global imports came from sub-Saharan Africa, and only 28 percent of those exports were manufactured goods –…

SEATTLE – In early December, governments and civic organizations across the globe celebrated the International Day of People with Disabilities, a United Nations effort to build awareness and support for people with disabilities. Each year the UN chooses a theme for the day. This year’s theme was Inclusion Matters: access and empowerment for people of all abilities. Included in this theme were issues related to making cities inclusive and accessible for all, improving disability data and statistics, and including people with invisible disabilities in society and development. “The annual theme provides a frame for considering how people with disability are…

SEATTLE — The Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act has passed a full vote in the House of Representatives – a move that was welcomed by aid advocacy organizations including The Borgen Project. In a statement released after the vote, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) commended Representatives Ted Poe (R-TX) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA) for sponsoring the bill and thanked house leadership for moving swiftly to bring it to the floor. “At a time when the U.S. is facing an unprecedented number of humanitarian and development challenges around the globe, efforts to ensure our foreign assistance is being spent…

LIMA, Peru — In November, government officials and representatives from the United Nation’s regional Economic Commission (ECLAC) convened in Lima, Peru for a three-day conference on poverty reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean. Inclusion was the key theme of the meeting. The gathering was set against the backdrop of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda, as policymakers work toward the central principle of eradicating poverty in all its forms. According to the UN, after a decade of growth, 92 million people in the region rose out of poverty and into the middle class in the period between 2003-2013. But…

WASHINGTON — The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 was signed into law on November 2nd. The bill includes the federal government’s priorities on foreign aid for 2016. The following is an analysis of U.S. foreign aid priorities by the numbers: State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS): Administration’s Request: $54.08 billion House Appropriations: $48.19 billion Senate Appropriations: $49.77 billion State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs represent the entire non-military foreign assistance budget with the exception of some food aid, which is appropriated in the agriculture budget. The administration’s request, $54.08 billion, is less than one percent of the total federal…