FYI: Vaccine-preventable diseases

Last week at the Social Good Summit, there were many panels devoted to women-centric issues: Christy Turlington spoke about reducing deaths in women due to childbirth and news anchor Juju Chang covered maternal health in the developing world. In many of these sessions, the story wasn't just a strengthened focus on women issues but also putting women in the seat of the activist, especially moms. Nonprofits are now targeting mothers in America  as a key activist group to impact women and children in the developing world.

An organization that is aiming to utilize this power of mothers' voices is Shot@Life. Launched by the UN Foundation at last week's Social Good Summit, the campaign aims to create awareness on vaccine-preventable diseases and provide children vaccines where they are needed the most. Part of the problem is that many developing nations need to strengthen their health systems to properly store and administer vaccines. The numbers are grim (see below) but expanding access to vaccines can prevent an additional 1.7 million deaths each year.

The numbers:

• Every 20 seconds a child dies to a vaccine-preventable disease.
• 1 in 5 children do not have access to life saving vaccines. 
• Around 1.7 million children in developing countries die each year of a preventable disease like pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, and polio.
• Measles is still a killer with  an estimated 450 people dying to the disease each day.
• Though polio is almost near eradication, it still remains endemic in four countries: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. There has been a resurgence of polio in other countries, such as Angola, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• The rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrhea in children. More than half a million children under age five die as a result of rotavirus each year.  Approximately 2 million more become severely ill.
• Access to vaccines is particularly problematic in some countries:  75% of non-vaccinated children live in just 10 countries -  India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, China, Uganda, Chad, and Kenya. 

Watch the full panel discussion from Social Good Summit:

Watch live streaming video from mashable at livestream.com

Social Good Summit: Day 3 Recap

Day 3 of the Social Good Summit was marked with inspirational words from noted personalities. The day began with the presentation of the Social Good Award to the much deserved President Kikwete of Tanzania. Kikwete has championed social media in his country to create awareness on health issues, including maternal health. "We want to get to a point where not a single woman will die from childbirth," he said. 

"Social media is taking over the medium of communication all over the world." Tobeka Zuma, First Lady of South Africa

In a light-hearted but informative session, two First Ladies joined the stage to talk about the power of Twitter. Tobeka Zuma, First Lady of South Africa, and Dr. Ida Odinga, First Lady of Kenya, both alluded to how social media has helped spread awareness about health issues in their respective countries. "Social media helps to network, inform, and educate," Odinga said. The session ended with both ladies tweeting for the first time on the stage on smart phones.

"I made the choice to work for the poor," Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank

One of the most inspirational sessions of the Summit was with the father of micro-finance, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who spoke about the "social business way." This entails starting a business that not only creates profit for the entrepreneur but solves a particular social issue. For example, "you can design a business with the sole purpose of creating jobs for young people," he said. "Pick up one problem that bothers you, refine it, and find a business solution for it," he asked of the audience.

Yunus also commented on the technology-savvy younger generations. "They have all this power at their disposal but don't know what to do with it. In 10 to 20 years time, all this power will be at our disposal. The question is what do you use this power for." He ended his session with advice for younger generations on starting their own business: "The first thing to learn as an entrepreneur is patience. I have never seen failure as a separate issue. It's part of the process. You fail. You overcome."

"I fed the entire neighborhood using only the power of the sun." Chef Jose Andres

FYI: Smoke inhalation from cooking is the fifth largest killer in the developing world. Around 3 billion people around the world are still using methods to cook food that exposes people to harmful smoke. Chef Jose Andres, Ambassador to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, is not only passionate about food but also about using food to solve some of the world's problems, including clean cookstoves. "Food is the most important energy on the earth, not gas. Food should be at the heart of energy talks," he said. Andres advocated for solar cookstoves, which would reduce the loss of trees and protect the soil and farming.

"Let girl be girls and not brides." Archbishop Desmond Tutu

A moving session with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson was one of the highlights of the day. Both personalities make up The Elders, an independent group of global leaders who lend their name, voice, and expertise to pressing social issues. The group, founded by Nelson Mandela, have launched a campaign to address child-bride marriages called Girls Not Brides. Ten million girls under the age of 18 are married. This translates to 25,000 girls getting married every day. In order to be successful, the campaign needs to target cultural and religious traditions. "One of the issues that causes girls to feel like a second class citizen is a misuse of religious tradition," Robinson said. "We can end child marriage in a generation and we couldn't have 10 years ago without the technology we have now," she added.

Tutu also spent some time chatting on hope. "I'm not an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope," he said. "How often over the span of history that good prevails. Even when the stakes are high against us, in the end good wins." And Tutu believes that the younger generation shares in this hope: "I’m glad to see what young people can do. They blow my mind. I’m amazed at how idealistic they are. They believe that poverty can in fact become history." The Archbishop even said that young people are "awesome" and "have oomph!"

Social Good Summit: Day 2 Recap

Today's sessions were definitely star-studded, with athletes, singers, actors, and other noted personalities gracing the stage.

"The question of all questions: how do you prepare a human being to not use technology for the wrong reasons." Elie Wiesel

In a four-day summit discussing the power of technology and social media, the second day's first session started on a very different note. Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel doesn't seem to take to technology. In fact he stated that he doesn't use the computer. "I come from an old generation. I use the pen," he said. Wiesel's words were a welcome addition to the summit, touching about the potential negatives of technology. "You can use technology against humanity unfortunately," he stated. But he asked young people who use social media or technology to "respect the words. Respect the other."

"We are exporting a negative portrayal of women around the world." Geena Davis

At the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, actress Geena Davis in on a mission to clean up the portrayal of women in media. Davis is concerned that media do not portray women in a variety of occupations and this stereotyped portrayal is being exported around the world. "Eighty percent of the media consumed worldwide is produced in the US," she said. For example, only 17% of crowd scenes are female. Her institute is working with media executives to push for more females onscreen and in more occupations.

"The yellow band democratized philanthropy. It also de-stigmatized the disease that we fight." Doug Ulman, President & CEO of LIVESTRONG

Athlete Lance Armstrong and LIVESTRONG President & CEO Doug Ulman championed the use of messaged rubber wristbands to spread awareness on a particular issue, or in their case cancer. Now, like many other non-profits, the organization is using technology and social media to create awareness. Ulman stressed that the message has to be authentic, regardless of the messaging medium. He also noted a challenge in targeting messages online to specific audiences. Prior to social media, the team would snail mail or phone call potential donors to help with their advocacy and public policy campaigns. Now, "social media allows us to be more effective in the public policy arena for very little cost," Ulman stated.

"If you can't promote education, you can't end poverty. We need to break this cycle." Jeff Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute

The Earth Institute and Ericsson have teamed up to use broadband and mobile technology to improve education around the world through the organization Connect to Learn.  Jeff Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, started the session with an overview of the state of education in the world. There are approximately 100 million primary school aged children not in school around the world. He also noted that the MDG goals were inadequate in not including secondary education as its aim.  Secondary education is imperative to land jobs and move ahead in society. Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson predicted that by 2016, 5 billion people will have mobile broadband capabilities. This can help education. "Teachers get a chance to get access to information to teach children," Vestberg said.

"Malaria is a bigger killer than AIDS and we don't talk about it enough." Derrick Ashong, host of The Stream on Al Jazeera English

In the last panel of the day, actress-singer Mandy Moore and Al Jazeera English host Derrick Ashong wanted to bring greater awareness to malaria.  Speaking on behalf of Nothing but Nets, the duo talked about problems stemming from malaria in Africa. "Every 45 seconds a child dies of malaria," Moore said. "I've had malaria 3 or 4 times," Ashong said. "Malaria medicine is expensive and it is not a guarantee. It's a huge drain on productivity and the economy in Africa."

Social Good Summit: Day 1 Recap

 

The UN Foundation's and Mashable's 2011 Social Good Summit opened to a packed auditorium at New York City's 92Y. Here are highlights from the first day of the four day summit.

 "We have to work together like never before. It is no longer you or me. It is you and me." Ted Turner

UN Foundation's founder and media mogul, Ted Turner, opened the summit with a very witty chat with Mashable Editor Adam Ostrow. Aside from keeping the audience in stitches, Ted Turner pointed to important goals to work towards including disarming nuclear weapons, reducing climate change, and providing easier access to electricity. This being UN Week, Turner also added that the UN is still very relevant with the many issues that the world needs to tackle currently.

"The UN is getting better at telling the story, but we need the public to share the story."  Valerie Amos, UN Under-Secretary-General

Monique Coleman, a singer and philanthropist, and Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary-General, led a discussion on engaging youth in humanitarian action and focused on the power of connectivity. Coleman stated "Technology is a tool to get us somewhere" but also asked how should we take online interaction among youth and convert it to offline, tangible efforts.

"If you want to expedite education, leverage the children themselves." Nicholas Negroponte, Founder of One Laptop per Child Foundation

One Laptop per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte aims to tackle universal education through technology. Already the organization has gained success in Uruguay, where every single child between the ages of five and fifteen have a laptop. But to achieve universal education, Negroponte argues that building schools and training teachers are not enough. In fact, he points out that many teachers in the developing world are illiterate themselves (shocking stat: 25% of teachers in Afghanistan are illiterate). He believes that children can learn on their own. The organization will be testing this notion out.

"It is our time to use technology innovatively and socially to affect change." Michael Teoh, a youth ambassador with One Young World

 The next two presentations highlighted the power of younger generations. David Jones, the founder of One Young World, claimed that the young generations of today are the most unique as they are the most knowledgeable, responsible, and powerful generation. "Eighty-four percent of the world’s young people believe it is their duty to change the world for the better. Eighty-two percent believe they can do so," Jones added. He also said that today's leaders are failing and they should listen to the younger generations to find solutions to global problems. 

Nancy Lublin's presentation was short but captivating. (She also opened her talk with getting the audience to sing Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All!) As CEO of Do Something, she knows how important it is target the younger generation. Her tactic: texting. Texting has a 100% open rate and only a 0.4 percent opt-out rate among youth.

"We are on the cusp of a huge wave of deaths in the Horn of Africa. But it doesn’t have to be that way." Raj Shah, USAID Administrator

With the famine crisis in the Horn of Africa still ongoing, the organizers of the summit were wise to devote some time to speaking on possible solutions. Raj Shah stated that the USAID launched a new online initiative in response to the crisis - FWD (Famine War Drought). "The FWD campaign is our attempt to make our world smaller, to connect people with the clear knowledge and understanding of exactly what is happening in the Horn and giving them a powerful way to respond," Shah said. The new campaign provides live and accessible real-time, open source data as well as online citizen engagement.

FYI: How to prevent a famine

Source: REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

Speaking at a meeting in Kenya on food crises, agricultural experts agreed to four ways to prevent future famines in the Horn of Africa. The panelists included representatives from CGIAR Consortium, UN Somalia Food Cluster of the World Food Programme, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI).

AlertNet summarized the meeting with the top four ways future famines could be prevented:

• Get the private sector to adopt new research

Investing in innovations can not only help to curb hunger but can also seed future businesses in the region. For example, KARI has helped to develop sorghum in the region. East African Breweries, the largest beer company in the region, is investing $2.6 million in buying the sorghum from small-scale farmers.

• Eat different foods

Investing in famine-resistant crops and changed food preferences can help the region.
 

• Invest in livestock and agriculture

“Modest investments in agricultural research that allow the world’s most vulnerable people to take charge of their food security are far less expensive than constantly parachuting in with food aid and humanitarian assistance,” said Lloyd Le Page, CEO of Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). “Yet donors and governments continue to fall short of their promise to boost investments in the farm sector.”

• Use irrigation to support pastoralism, not switch to farming

"The food crisis in the Horn is essentially a livestock crisis,” said Le Page. “The best way to prevent famine in arid lands is to ensure access to critical dry season grazing and water areas for livestock.”