Ideas for Change in America - Last Chance to Vote | War and Peace

Ideas for Change in America - Last Chance to Vote

Published December 30, 2008 @ 10:33AM PT

Just a quick one, that voting for Change.org's Ideas for Change in America will end Wednesday at midnight. Ideas for Change aims to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama Administration and Congress can turn the broad call for "change" into specific policies.

The top 3 vote-receiving ideas for each cause will qualify for the final round. Final round voting begins on Monday, January 5 and ends on Thursday, January 15 - the top 10 rated ideas will be presented to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009 as the "Top 10 Ideas for America." (For more information, see here.)

Anyhows, wanted to highlight a few of the ideas under Humanitarian Relief, and - if you're so moved - urge you to vote:

1. The US should establish a Department of Development. And yes, I'm definitely biased, as I posted this idea a while back:

"Today, more than 25 different US Government departments and agencies provide overseas aid, which means that our foreign assistance spending is at best chaotic and uncoordinated, if not often completely incoherent. The most effective reform would be to establish a new cabinet-level Department of Development, with the power to coordinate US foreign assistance across and throughout the Government, while also implementing a long-term, global development strategy."

2. Stop differentiating between emergency relief funding and development funding. As A.S., an international aid worker explains:

"Instead of dividing our foreign assistance money into separate accounts for emergency relief and development assistance, we should allow NGO partners to apply for funds from a flexible pool which would allow for programs which do both relief and development work."

3. Demilitarize humanitarian aid and increase civilian capacity. As Charles London explains:

"Shifting more resources to civilian development agencies and supporting a non-military humanitarian response apparatus will go a long way toward preventing future failed states from becoming hotbeds of radicalism and will create much more long term solutions to global poverty and crises than a militarized humanitarian intervention can."

There are also a number of excellent ideas related to global poverty, including ending acute malnutrition and improving global child health.

Finally - because law school habits about disclosure never quite die - I should add that the project is nonpartisan, and invites all political points of view. It is not connected to the Obama campaign or the Obama Administration.

[Image from www.universaldeceit.com]

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Comments (2)

My thanks to you Michael for posting this idea. One thing that aid workers need, especially in the private or religious sector, is financial contributors. I used to have high hopes of going overseas, but age and a better perspective changed that. I found organizations that extensively use local personnel are much more effective---dollar for dollar--than I would be, so the best thing for me is to stay and work and send money.

Our family has had missionaries who were posted to very poor countries, so development issues are nothing new. I'm also into construction and urban planning and have been a little involved lately in the UN Urban Forum. However, in my employment (in construction) it seems that material and consumer issues reign supreme, and the compassionate person is at a real disadvantage. I am continually assailed by people, forcing me out of a job, so they can pursue their materialist interests. All of my financial contributions have dwindled to nothing.

Employment rights advocates seem to always advocate for minorities. Apparently religious people who are interested in poverty and changing THAT have no rights. Pres Elect Obama is noted for his work as a legal advocate in Chicago community organizing. That's fine; I don't have a problem with that. However, it should be know that there are a lot of other poor people, of all races, who have had their rights violated. I would like them to address that issue---in a realistic way.

The UN Urban forum meets every two years--so some of the meetings can be hard to get to. I had met the former secretary general of UN Habitat at a conference in New York and he was very interested in my perspectives on building materials for third world development. The 2006 Forum was in Vancouver BC, so very easy to get to. Go to the Website of UNHabitat for more info.

Posted by Ronald Swaren on 12/30/2008 @ 12:04PM PT
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Here is the website of UN Habitat:
http://www.unhabitat.org/

Changing the living conditions in poor countries might be the best way to control disease and other problems. But the access to durable materials needs to be affordable and there needs to be community planning that will prevent future problems. Probably the best thing would be regional investment in manufacturing facilities that can produce these materials on a mass scale. The technologies have already been developed in western countries so it's mainly a matter of adopting them or inviting the companies to locate new facilities in the region.

Posted by Ronald Swaren on 12/30/2008 @ 12:27PM PT
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Author

Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.