Presidential Initiative For The World’s Children
Global Action for Children is calling for the creation of a Presidential Initiative for the World’s Children to help millions of orphans and highly vulnerable children around the world.
WHY SHOULD THE CANDIDATES CARE?
"The top three issues these young Evangelical Christians said they most want the presidential candidates to address are Internet pornography, media glamorization of sex and drugs, and children orphaned by AIDS." - ABC News, February 2008.
"AIDS-affected states also could become vulnerable to political instability in the future as the staggering number of children orphaned by the disease increases the proportion of dependent people, exacerbates poverty, widens inequalities, and erodes the operational readiness of military forces." - Population Action International: Security Demographic Report, 2003.
"The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) "is our most successful foreign policy initiative in my lifetime. This is the most effective thing we have done to build America’s prestige, esteem and respect." - Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), The Associated Press, July 2008.
"Experience shows that investing in the health of children and their mothers is one of the surest ways for a country to set its course towards a better future. - UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children, January 2008.
WHAT WOULD A PIWC DO?
* Consolidate, coordinate, monitor and evaluate the primary U.S. programs benefitting the most vulnerable children globally under the authority of one high-level ambassador answerable directly to the Secretary of State.
* Maximize taxpayer dollars and the impact through increased coordination and monitoring of current and new foreign aid programs for children.
* Support children in need while strengthening the United States’ image abroad.
* Promote U.S. national security by supporting the world’s most vulnerable.
WHY NOW?
The United States has recently recommitted to allocating 10 percent of The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) which will equal approximately $3 billion dollars over the next four years. In addition, in 2005, Public Law 109-95, the Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act was enacted, providing the first-ever comprehensive U.S. strategy to address the challenges faced by the world’s orphans and vulnerable children. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding, our government has not fully complied with this law. Meanwhile, 143 million orphans and millions more vulnerable children worldwide are in desperate need of support.
WHAT ABOUT THE FUNDING AND POLICY FRAMEWORK?
A Presidential Initiative for the World’s Children (PIWC) can be partly financed through the already existing OVC funding from PEPFAR and structured around priorities laid out in Public Law 109-95. The next president of the United States should create a PIWC within the first hundred days in office.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO THE UNITED STATES?
Americans from coast to coast, left to right, and of all faiths have demonstrated they care about children around the globe. The next U.S. president has a unique opportunity to help millions of orphans and vulnerable children around the world, while demonstrating a new tenor in foreign relations and public diplomacy. A Presidential Initiative for the World’s Children has the potential to be one of the United State’s best ambassadors yet. Orphans and vulnerable children are far more susceptible to a host of dangers than children with healthy parents and stable communities to care for them. In addition to malnutrition, lack of education, or neglect, these dangers include being forcibly recruited into a rebel army, a child sex trafficking ring, or child labor. If we invest in the future of these children now we make the world a better safer place for all. The United States can show that we care, not only about children in the United States, but around the world. It is not just the right thing to do but, also, the smart thing to do.
Do you agree that the Presidential Initiative for the World’s Children is important? Ask your presidential candidate to make orphans and vulnerable children a priority.
