The ONE Campaign, an advocacy organization that raised awareness about global poverty during the 2008 U.S. presidential elections, is the 2008 winner of the Commitment to Development “Ideas in Action” Award, sponsored jointly by the Center for Global Development (CGD) and Foreign Policy magazine.
The award, granted annually since 2003, honors an individual or organization from the rich world that has made a significant contribution to changing attitudes and policies toward the developing world.
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Through its ONE Vote ‘08 initiative, ONE mobilized 2 million supporters to sign petitions, raise awareness in their communities, and encourage the presidential candidates to explain how they would improve U.S. policies that affect poor people in developing countries. After the election, ONE pushed for President-elect Barack Obama and other newly elected officials to keep their commitments to the world’s poor in the face of the global financial crisis.
“CGD and Foreign Policy magazine are proud to bestow this award upon the ONE Campaign for their innovative use of online tools and real-world events to raise awareness during the 2008 U.S. elections about how the United States can make it less difficult for poor people in developing countries to escape poverty,” said CGD president Nancy Birdsall.
Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Moisés Naím said that the Commitment to Development Award, like the magazine, was designed to highlight the growing interdependency of societies in the 21st century. “We at Foreign Policy are pleased to be the co-sponsors of this award and delighted with this year’s winner, the ONE Campaign,” he said.
ONE Campaign advocates—often sporting ONE Campaign t-shirts—were visible at town hall meetings and election events around the country in 2008, catching the attention of candidates and voters.
ONE also hosted high-level panel discussions on global poverty at the Democratic and Republican national conventions. Hundreds of students, activists, and convention delegates attended the convention events.
“This award underscores how every American—no matter his or her zip code, career or political persuasion—can make a real difference in the priorities of a president. Americans of all stripes tracked the presidential candidates at almost every coffee shop, town hall meeting, and campaign rally, winning amazing commitments from the candidates to tackle extreme poverty and global disease. We were proud to have joined with so many other organizations in doing this important work,” ONE president and CEO David Lane said. “We thank CGD and Foreign Policy for recognizing this effort to make global poverty an important part of America’s political dialogue and agenda—and we look forward to working with others in building on these accomplishments in 2009 and beyond,” he said.
ONE Vote '08 campaign is co-chaired by former U.S. Senate majority leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Bill Frist (R-TN).
“ONE was ever-present on the campaign trail and has established itself as a unique and influential voice heard on Capitol Hill and across the country,” said former senator and ONE Vote ’08 co-chair Bill Frist. “ONE’s accomplishments are a testament to the building, bipartisan recognition that saving lives and alleviating global poverty is both right and smart for America.”
ONE’s internet presence spans many online communities and new media tools, including YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, and Myspace, and many more. Birdsall and Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Moisés Naím co-chaired the selection committee which also included Evelyn Herfkens, executive coordinator of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Campaign; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director at the World Bank and former minister of finance and foreign affairs for Nigeria; Sebastian Mallaby, Washington Post columnist and director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations; and Kevin Watkins, director of UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report.
Previous winners of the Commitment to Development Award are the European ministers of international development who constitute the Utstein Group (2003); Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair Campaign (2004); then-Chancellor of the Exchequer and now Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown (2005), then–U.S. Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) (2006), and Global Witness (2007).
For more information on the award, see The Commitment to Development Award.