Document offers guidelines for next U.S. President on improving the lives of children around the world

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 14, 2007

WASHINGTON - Global Action for Children (GAC), a nonpartisan coalition advocating on behalf of orphans and vulnerable children around the world, has issued a series of policy guidelines designed to assist the next U.S. President in taking action to meet basic needs and fight poverty in developing countries. Learn how you can share these goals with the candidate of your choice.

Titled "Platform for the World’s Children," the document outlines concrete goals and actions policymakers can take to bring lasting change and improvements to the lives of the millions of children around the world living in grinding poverty.

"Every child has the right to security, health, and an education, but those things won’t just happen," stated Leila Nimatallah, GAC’s Policy Director. "It is not too early to begin thinking about how the next President can lead the United States in helping so many children worldwide."

The goals and actions include:

• Helping orphans and highly vulnerable children:
  • Address challenges faced by orphans and vulnerable children (OVC): invest at least $2.24 billion by 2010 in effective, community-based intervention
  • Increase the impact of U.S. investment in international programs for OVC: create and fund a high-level OVC office dedicated to effective administration, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Saving children’s lives and improve development:
  • Within the next eight years, reduce the number of preventable deaths among children under five by 75 percent, and pregnancy-related deaths of mothers by two-thirds: invest the U.S. share of the global need, $1.6 billion, in cost-effective, high-impact interventions.
• Achieving universal primary education.

Click here to view the full platform.

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Global Action for Children is a nonpartisan, results-oriented coalition dedicated to advocating for orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world. GAC seeks to increase the level of funding from the governments of wealthy countries to orphans and other vulnerable children in some of the world’s poorest countries.

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