Three in One

ONE:  July has been a big month for Launceston RESULTS.

We kicked off with a visit to our local Labor MP Mr. Dick Adams on July 4. Warm, engaging and positive, Mr. Adams was eager to share his concerns for global poverty with us. He affirmed our disappointment regarding the Federal Budget and talked about his involvement with the Inter-Parliamentary Union. A recent trip to Uganda highlighted a number of global issues for him, namely the recent famine in Somalia and the ongoing food crisis throughout West Africa. 

We informed Mr. Adams of the World Bank's commitment to increase education funding by $750 million by 2015 and alerted him to the recent drop in funding levels! Mr Adams agreed to email Australia's Executive Director, Mr. John Whitehead, to relay his concerns. However, there has been no confirmation of him having done so to date.

The night after our MP visit, we held our monthly meeting and made a plan to host a 'Dinner for 16' on July 16.

TWO: A few days later, on July 12, two of our members met with a Liberal candidate for Federal Parliament Mr. Andrew Nikolic. Quick, articulate and measured, Mr. Nikolic was eager to tell us about his 30 years of experience with the Australian Defence Force and his leading role in Iraq and Afghanistan. He views the role of the military as vital in securing a stable environment for development in conflict situations.

We asked Mr. Nikolic to speak to his party members regarding the Federal Budget, requesting that they release a time frame for meeting 0.5% of GNI. Although he was well aware of the issue, he said that the Opposition cannot make any promises because it does not and will not know the true fiscal situation until after the election.

Mr. Nikolic was unaware of the situation with the World Bank and agreed to write Mr. John Whitehead an email. On July 21, we received confirmation that he had done so. Thank you Mr. Nikolic!

THREE:  Then Monday night, July 16, our group hosted a Dinner for 16!! It was held in the family home of one of our members and catered by the group. We ran a MDG quiz with prizes relating to the 8 goals. One dinner guest was the lucky winner of a face mask (goal 6), another went home with a new scarf (goal 3) and another left with an empty pottery bowl (goal 1). We screened the film 'Caught in the Cycle of Poverty' and shared the story of RESULTS with our guests. It was great to hear what our guests are already doing to help eradicate poverty and generate some fresh interest in RESULTS.

RESULTS walking towards a world free from extreme poverty!

THIS year, friends and supporters of RESULTS will be entering the City2Surf.

We will raise money and create awareness for our work that is helping to mobilise resources and shape national policy for the end of extreme poverty.

Eight Sydney & Beaches group volunteers are planning a fun day out on Sunday, August 12.

The goal is to finish the gruelling 14 kilometres and raise $3000 to help RESULTS volunteers continue their work, by engaging and educating the community around poverty issues.

With less than three weeks to go, and our volunteers training hard, please get behind them to reach the finish line and raise much needed funds for those less fortunate than you and I.

Please dig deep to support us as we run the race and continue our work around Australia, making a real and positive difference in the lives of the worlds poorest people!

Please click on the link provided:

http://www.everydayhero.com.au/results__sydney_

 

RESULTS works with AusAID to tackle diseases of poverty

LAST week RESULTS had the ear of the Executive Director of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Mr. Peter Baxter.

Maree Nutt and Rachel Achterstraat from RESULTS, along with Rob Lake, Executive Director of the Australian Federation for AIDS Organisations, met with Peter Baxter in Canberra to talk Global Fund and TB-HIV.

The meeting began with an energetic debate on Australia’s commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Global Fund is one of the world’s most successful instruments in the fight against the diseases of poverty. This was noted in our discussions and also reflected in the Australian Multilateral Assessment of the Fund (release April 2012), in which it was ranked strongly on impact but below average on some aspects of organizational behavior.

Since the Assessment was performed, the Global Fund has made significant progress in its reforms. Over coming months RESULTS will be keen to monitor and promote further progress with its members and their Parliamentarians to enable future Australian funding for the Global Fund to increase with renewed confidence.

Also raised in discussions was an issue very close to RESULTS heart – that of tuberculosis (TB). RESULTS volunteers have worked for years to raise the profile of TB amongst Australian and international decision makers – a disease that all in the meeting agreed was a major concern in our region and which required greater attention.

Acknowledging the efforts of RESULTS members to speak on behalf of people suffering from TB, Mr. Baxter suggested that we work together to further shine the light on this often overlooked disease.

An area for further discussion was the concept of a regional stakeholder meeting on tuberculosis in 2013. RESULTS would welcome working with AusAID on any initiative that has the potential to raise the profile of the disease and improve outcomes for people living with or at risk of contracting TB especially in the Asia Pacific region.

With the need to appoint a new Australian AIDS Ambassador in the near future, RESULTS may also look to support the broadening of this role to encompass both TB and Malaria. This would further demonstrate recognition of the combined impact these diseases on people living in poverty and their significance in Australia’s aid efforts.

Well done to our RESULTS members for your passion and determination to speak on behalf of the families, individuals and communities who needlessly battle against TB each day. Your advocacy over the years is inspirational in meetings such as these.

Speed up testing for TB to save lives

LAST Friday, June 8, the Ministry of Health in China released a report stating that the nation is facing a "serious epidemic" of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

Using World Health Organisation figures as a basis for comparison, the report found that China has the highest annual number of cases of MDR-TB in the world, with a prevalence of 5.7 per cent amongst TB patients. That’s nearly twice the global average.

Another shocking piece of new information was that one in 10 Chinese patients recently treated for TB, actually had a drug-resistant strain of the highly contagious lung disease. These people would have suffered the cost and side-effects of the TB drug treatment, without any real hope of recovery.

The reason for this gross diagnostic oversight is that the current technology being used for TB diagnosis is inadequate. ‘Smear microscopy’ fails to diagnose TB in 1.8 million people every year, especially cases among women, children, and people living with HIV. In a nutshell, we are failing to detect TB amongst those who are most vulnerable, at a global level.

But there is a solution.

In December 2010, the World Health Organisation endorsed a new tool to diagnose TB: Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert). Instead of using a microscope, this revolutionary tool uses DNA technology to rapidly identify TB bacteria in less than two hours.

By diagnosing patients correctly and in hours rather than in weeks, Xpert allows patients to immediately know their status (and form of TB contracted), helping them to receive treatment earlier, stop the spread of disease in their communities and lead healthier, more productive lives.

Xpert could be a game changer for TB control in China and globally. With the technology now available, it would be unethical to deny people access to an accurate diagnosis of their illness; a luxury that we in Australia take so much for granted.

Check out this photo blog which shows how Xpert has dramatically improved MDR-TB control in India.

One year on: GAVI Alliance on track to save 4 million lives

ONE year ago today, international donors pledged to invest $4.3 billion to immunise 250 million children and save an estimated 3.9 million lives.


At the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) pledging conference last year, the total pledged surpassed even GAVI's own target of $3.7 billion.

With strong advocacy from RESULTS volunteers, the Australian Government more than tripled its contribution to $200 million over the period 2011-13.


And GAVI is delivering on its side of the bargain. A first-year ‘report card’ shows the Alliance is delivering on its promise to immunise 250 million children by 2015 -- and in the process save four million lives.


Some of the key milestones include:
- Routine immunisation rates across all GAVI-supported countries averaging over 80 per cent;
pentavalent vaccine introduced in 65 countries;
- Developing countries rolling out new vaccines against the major causes of the two biggest childhood killers in the world: pneumonia and severe diarrhoea.
- The first-ever GAVI funding windows for vaccines against human papillomavirus and rubella;
- Reductions in price of rotavirus and HPV vaccines for GAVI-supported programmes.
Vaccines provide a proven, cost effective intervention for saving the lives of children everywhere, particularly the world's poorest children. In a time of financial austerity and with international aid spending coming under increased scrutiny, the GAVI Alliance is a clear example of good aid in action.


RESULTS urges the GAVI Alliance to put equity front and centre of immunisation strategies in the next decade. By expanding coverage without addressing inequalities, gaps between rich and poor will widen.


One year on RESULTS congratulates the amazing achievements of the GAVI Alliance, and continues to champion the potential for immunisation to reduce poverty - urging greater efforts to reach the final 20 per cent of children around the world still left without access to vaccines.

Funds raised for RESULTS!

THREE Sydney schoolgirls raised $320 for RESULTS from a cake stall in their local community during the school holidays. 

 A huge THANK-YOU goes out to Ella, Edita and Sienna for their awesome work! 

The Global Fund: Back in Business

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria will be ready to begin funding new grants in September 2012. 

This good news is a far cry from where the Global Fund found itself just over six months ago, when due to lower than expected donor contributions, it announced that no new grants would be approved until 2014.

The decision was taken by the Global Fund Board at its meeting in Geneva on May 10-11, 2012.

The Board said that its decision was made possible by a "new and encouraging financial forecast," which estimated that approximately $1 billion would be available to fund new grants in the period 2012-2014.

This $1 billion is on top of the $615 million that was made available in March 2012, to carry essential programs through the period of uncertainty that was facing the Global Fund.

The positive forecast is a result of strategic Board decisions and transformations currently underway which have significantly improved the Funds financial supervision and overall efficiency.

The better than expected financial position has been made possible by money from new donors like Namibia, a hike in contributions from existing donors such as Japan and Saudi Arabia, and the cutting of support for programs in some emerging economies such as China and Brazil.

Whilst the Board is pleased that work can begin so much sooner than what was originally thought, it is concerned that current pledges remain insufficient to sustain current efforts and continue making the great gains in global health for which the Global Fund has become well known.

RESULTS, along with other Australian aid advocacy groups such as MSF, World Vision, the Global Poverty Project and Oxfam, will be calling on the Government to make an additional $100 million commitment to the Global Fund this year, as a vote of confidence in its life-saving work.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has offered to host a dinner during the UN General Assembly session in September 2012 in support of health-related development goals, with a special focus on the Global Fund. 

The dinner should provide an opportunity for heads of state and government, and also for business leaders, to recommit themselves to the Global Fund as a key instrument for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and, for some, to also announce new financial commitments.