Submitting guest blogs is open to Global Washington’s members of the Atlas level and above. We value a diversity of opinions on a broad range of subjects of interest to the global health and development community.
Blog article submissions should be 500-1500 words. Photos, graphs, videos, and other art that supports the main themes are strongly encouraged.
You may not be the best writer, and that’s okay. We can help you shape and edit your contribution. The most important thing is that it furthers an important conversation in your field, and that it is relatively jargon-free. Anyone without a background in global development should still be able to engage with your ideas.
If you include statistics or reference current research, please hyperlink your sources in the text, wherever possible.
Have an idea of what you’d like to write about? Let’s continue the conversation! Email comms@globalWA.org and put “Blog Idea” in the subject line.
Posted on May 3, 2013
By Anna Jensen-Clem
In an editorial published in Politico on Tuesday, General David Petraeus and Michael O’Hanlon make a strong case for maintaining current levels of foreign aid spending. General Petraeus argues that aid and development assistance, still only 0.19% of the United States’ GDP, “need not break the bank,” but would provide for long-term, effective projects across the globe. So-called soft power, which is relatively unpopular in the United States, is frequently presented as an unnecessary expense, especially in the face of sequestration cuts and growing deficits. Petraeus and O’Hanlon note that these programs have been extremely effective; PEPFAR, development assistance programs, and global health funding have reduced childhood and maternal mortality by one third and one half, respectively.
Both authors advocate for a reasonable budget solution—repeal sequestration and reduce the deficit through cuts to other spending. They make sure to note that “lawmakers should avoid the temptation to gut foreign aid just because it generally lacks a strong constituency in the United States.” Maintaining foreign aid saves lives and ensures a better future for our children; cutting it now would make little headway in debt reduction.
Posted on April 26, 2013
By Anna Jensen-Clem
On April 25th more than 40 people from a wide array of global health nonprofits gathered to celebrate World Malaria Day at PATH’s headquarters in South Lake Union. Most of the evening focused on networking and a Marketplace event, where PATH, Pilgrim Africa, RESULTS, Rotary Malaria Partners, Seattle BioMed, the UW Department of Global Health, the Washington Global Health Alliance, World Vision, Health Alliance International, the Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network, and Global Washington hosted informational tables and highlighted their latest malaria research.
Amie Batson, PATH’s new Chief Strategy Officer, convened a panel of four speakers to discuss challenges and breakthroughs in malaria research and to reflect on some of the upcoming issues in finding a cure. In her introductory remarks, Batson stated that we have seen a 50% decrease in malaria cases in many endemic countries over the past few years, because “we’ve learned what works and we’re having impact.” With new technological developments, we are even “better poised” to save children’s lives and eradicate the disease altogether.
The panel members each spoke briefly about their own research and discussed the importance of developing a preventative vaccine and ensuring that the parasite does not become (more) resistant to new forms of antimalarials. They also spoke to the need to keep donors and funders engaged even as they no longer see malaria as a daily, existential threat in many parts of the world.
David Brandling-Bennett, Malaria Program Deputy Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, outlined a three-point strategy for eliminating malaria, in line with earlier efforts to eradicate polio and measles. We need to start early in the hardest endemic areas; learn to “get the last mile right” using the right tools and approach; and gather information and data along the way—as the Carter Center has done for its nearly-successful guinea worm eradication effort.
Kent Campbell, Malaria Control Program Director, PATH, argued that defeating malaria “has no middle ground,” meaning that we can either eradicate it or allow it to flourish. Essentially, he said, “controlling malaria means getting rid of malaria.” At this point, one of the main challenges is to formulate strategies and funding programs for eradication.
Stefan Kappe, Malaria Program Director at Seattle BioMed, emphasized the need for the right tools and argued that eradication without an effective vaccine will be extremely difficult because we need to focus on blocking transmission from mosquito to human in addition to treating the symptoms once someone is infected.
Carol Sibley, Scientific Director, Worldwide Artemisinin Resistance Network, focused on finding the right tools to mitigate resistance. Although some level of resistance to antimalarials is inevitable, she said, the real question is “how do we slow it down?” We need sensible, usable data and a centralized database for analysis; this will aid in finding solutions and slowing the speed of resistance.
For more information about World Malaria Day and PATH’s work to eradicate the disease, please visit their blog, and for more information about last night’s event, you can follow the twitter hashtags #WorldMalariaDay and #MalariaExpoSea.
Posted on April 25, 2013
By Zahra Emrani
The third Global Washington’s 2013 capacity-building workshop was held on April 24 with a session on “Developing your case and messaging.” The lunchtime presentation was lead corporately by Sean Dimond director of External Relations at Pilgrim Africa and Joy Portella president of Minerva Strategies. Sean took participants through the general concepts and frame work of case and messaging and Joy presented case studies of her past works. At the end Sean took participants through taking a case and applying the conceptual theme that been discussed earlier to create a clear and powerful message.
Participants included representatives from the Days for Girls, Prosthetics Outreach Foundation and other GlobalWA members based in the greater Seattle area.
“Not only the presentations are wonderful, these workshops give us the opportunity to get to know and network with other communication coordinators in this sector.” said Jenna Swalin, Communications Coordinator at Initiative for Global Development. She added “Although participants are from diverse background and different starting points, presenters did a great job in addressing participants’ need!” Alison Dvaladze, Assistant Director for Outreach & Independent Consultant at Jackson school of international studies, University of Washington pointed out that “using the case studies and practical examples was super useful to understand the concept and learn how to implement it in practice!”
The “Dr. Is In” series on Fundraising will start on May. The first two sessions are “Building a Fundraising Plan & Case for Support” on May 10 and “Motivating Individual Donors: Building a Loyal Base of Donors” on May 14. Visit Global Washington’s website for the full list and to register for a session.