The Daily Tell

The outreach to flood-ravaged Pakistan has included efforts from individuals and nations around the world, as well as donations numbering in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but some officials have criticized the Muslim community for not reaching out to the devastated country. As flood waters threatened the historic city of Thatta and rose in the town of Sujawal, destroying homes, hospitals and schools, Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the Organization of the Islamic Conference responded to the criticism.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Ihsanoglu said that the Muslim community has donated more than $1 billion to the relief effort. Pledges have been made by NGOs, Muslim states, some of the fifty-seven OIC institutions and by individuals during telethons in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Muslims "have shown that they are one of the largest contributors of assistance both in kind and cash," said Ihsanoglu.

The 250,000 residents of Sujawal and the 350,000 people who call Thatta home have mostly fled to higher ground, but the flood waters – which reach as high as 10 feet in some places – continue to destroy historic landmarks, as well as private residences and shops, mosques, clinics and other buildings. Unfortunately, just leaving the cities hasn’t been enough to save all residents.

"We don’t have water to drink, not to mention food, tents or any other facility," Mohammed Usman, a laborer who fled Sujawal several days ago, told the Associated Press. Usman needs water to help cope with a painful kidney stone.

While international support has been tremendous, not everybody is thrilled with the route that relief money is taking. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani criticized donations made to foreign NGOs rather than the Pakistani government, saying much of the money would disappear before it ever reached Pakistan.

"Eighty percent of the aid will not come to you directly," Gilani said, referring to Pakistani citizens, at a press conference in Multan. "It will come through their NGOs, and they will eat half of it."

According to the United Nations, about $228 million in emergency aid has been donated by the U.S. government and humanitarian aid organizations to the country and another $42 million has been pledged.

Following a series of devastating floods, the need for humanitarian aid in Pakistan is enormous – and finally, donors are stepping up to help.

According to the United Nations, nearly $228 million in emergency aid has been donated by governments and humanitarian aid organizations and another $42 million has been pledged. After Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry traveled to the country, the United States announced that it was increasing its emergency support to Pakistan from $75 million to $150 million. Additionally, the Asian Development Bank said it would loan Pakistan $2 billion to help the country rebuild.

Even so, the amount is only slightly more than half of what the UN originally requested in its Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan.

"We thank donors for their generosity, and ask them to keep up this accelerated pace of donations," said John Holmes, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also encouraged people to get involved.

"I realize that many countries, including my own, are facing tough economic conditions and very tight budgets," Clinton said at the United Nations General Assembly. "And we’ve also endured an unrelenting stream of disasters this year – from the earthquake in Haiti to the wildfires in Russia. But we must answer the Pakistani request for help."

The UN estimates that the flooding has affected at least one-fifth of the country, claimed as many as 1,600 lives and left 4.6 million citizens homeless. In addition, more than 3.2 million hectares of crops in the provinces of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and Punjab alone have been destroyed, while at least 200,000 head of livestock have been lost and many more are expected to die without veterinary support.

The number of people who need shelter, medical care and food is only expected to grow, but the UN remains hopeful that the aid will continue.

"The road ahead remains long," Holmes warned. "We should all also be ready for any increase in requirements … Watching this disaster unfold, the world increasingly understands its immense magnitude. I am glad that we now see a more positive response to the calls of the secretary-general and the humanitarian community for increased and faster funding."

A deal between the rival nations of Israel and Libya will let Libya work to rebuild more than 1,000 homes destroyed in Gaza during the recent conflict in the region.

Libya has historically been one of Israel’s most vocal critics, and the two nations are currently in a state of war. Even so, Israel has agreed to let Libya’s nonprofit Gadhafi Foundation provide $50 million toward rebuilding 1,250 Gaza Strip homes destroyed during Israel’s offensive in the region last year. The nation may even lift a ban on some dual-purpose construction materials entering the Gaza region to permit the construction project.

"If the Libyans have secured an increase in the amounts of construction materials being allowed to enter Gaza, backed up by large funds to procure those materials, then that is a significant and very welcome achievement, for which they deserve our sincere thanks," said Peter Ford of The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees.

The UNRWA said the signing of the deal between the two nations was an important step forward for peace in the Middle East, though more would have be done to resolve the conflicts, starting with increased Israeli approval for UN projects in the Gaza region.

Even so, "this generous donation [from the Gadhafi Foundation] should enable UNRWA to make a real difference to the lives of hundreds of families," said Ford, who estimated that more than 12,000 families could be still be homeless in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman called the deal "very, very successful."

"We know that they are a reliable partner," Lieberman said of Libya, "and we will respect their demands regarding … some Palestinian issues."

The deal with the Gadhafi Foundation, which is run by the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, comes following the release of an Israeli photographer who had been being held in a Libyan jail, although officials deny that the two events are related.

State’s Outcomes-based Approach Employs Evidence-based Practices

New York City – A study conducted in Michigan by a national poverty research center shows the state’s approach to delivering care to children and youth in its public mental health system by focusing on outcomes is a model for health care in the United States.

“Michigan demonstrates that when we start to track outcomes we are more likely to focus on access and quality,” says Janice L. Cooper, PhD, interim director of the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), a think tank based at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “Knowledge about evidence-based and effective practices is high in Michigan. We think this is because they are using data on how children are doing to inform decision-making about what practices to implement and train on. A major focus of health care reform is on patient-centered outcomes research. Our study shows that Michigan was able to focus on how they can improve their system by getting information on how well children in services are doing. They instituted a quality improvement system that included many different stakeholders.”

Dr. Cooper and Patti Banghart, a research associate at NCCP, report in “Unclaimed Children Revisited: Focusing on Outcomes – A Case Study of the Michigan Level of Functioning Project” that the state’s approach to delivering care to children and youth with the highest need begins with sharing data about children and families with providers, system leaders and the children and families themselves. This accountability and monitoring mechanism is a large part of why, unlike many states, Michigan is able to report on how well the children and families they serve are doing, what types of services are working, and what trends exist for specific conditions. With this information they can better plan and address servicgaps, explains Cooper.

Cooper and Banghart examined Michigan’s Level of Functioning Project, a 14-year effort to monitor and improve outcomes for children and youth with severe emotional disturbances, through the use of the “Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale,” which they found has helped improve individual and systems-level decision-making statewide.

NCCP found that:
· Michigan is a national leader in implementing such a mechanism for state accountability in children’s mental health.
· The state’s assessment tools allow it to use interventions that work, and address factors that support or impede quality.
· Michigan’s tools can and should be used to help facilitate communication between mental health care providers and families.
· Using Michigan as an example, mental health care services providers will benefit from “buy-in” and training in such assessment systems.

“Michigan’s statewide effort to monitor child outcomes through the collection of functional assessment data, using learning opportunities to review data, get feedback and improve practice is a promising approach to how systems can enhance their accountability and quality,” says Banghart. “Clinical decision-making is made easier by focusing on how well children in services are doing. Tracking the data also helps to identify populations of children in need, and in turn can help to introduce evidence-based practices to serve children better.”

The full report can be found online at: www.nccp.org/publications/pub_940.html

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health and well-being of America’s low-income families and children. Part of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, NCCP uses research to inform policy and practice with the goal of ensuring positive outcomes for the next generation.

This year, the national economy will face enormous challenges. Even as the economy is reportedly on the rise, America has a growing federal debt that economists suggest could reach 95 percent of the country’s GDP by 2020, reports the MacArthur Foundation.

Earlier this week, national leaders met in D.C. to discuss the country’s current fiscal situation. Now, foundations are working with the nonprofit AmericaSpeaks to ensure the public has a voice in policy debates.

AmericaSpeaks is an organization committed to engaging citizens in governance. Through partnerships with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the charity will host a national town meeting – Our Budget, Our Economy.

Thousands of citizens across the country will have the chance to participate in this discussion. Leaders in 20 U.S. cities will be equipped with video, webcast and interactive technologies to connect attendees around the nation. Thousands more will have the chance to watch live coverage from their homes and participate in the discussion via online forums.

The three sponsoring foundations are contributing $4.2 million to this national conversation aimed at informing the public about the country’s fiscal realities. The foundation leaders agree that it is Americans’ collective responsibility to find compromises to ensure families in need get resources now and opportunities for future national success are created.

"Bringing together thousands of diverse Americans from across the country simultaneously to discuss the nation’s fiscal challenges holds the promise of spurring an even broader national dialogue to help build the urgency and political will necessary to tackle our deficit and debt," MacArthur President Robert Gallucci said.

The National Town Meeting will take place on June 26.

This year, the national economy will face enormous challenges. Even as the economy is reportedly on the rise, America has a growing federal debt that economists suggest could reach 95 percent of the country’s GDP by 2020, reports the MacArthur Foundation.

Earlier this week, national leaders met in D.C. to discuss the country’s current fiscal situation. Now, foundations are working with the nonprofit AmericaSpeaks to ensure the public has a voice in policy debates.

AmericaSpeaks is an organization committed to engaging citizens in governance. Through partnerships with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the charity will host a national town meeting – Our Budget, Our Economy.

Thousands of citizens across the country will have the chance to participate in this discussion. Leaders in 20 U.S. cities will be equipped with video, webcast and interactive technologies to connect attendees around the nation. Thousands more will have the chance to watch live coverage from their homes and participate in the discussion via online forums.

The three sponsoring foundations are contributing $4.2 million to this national conversation aimed at informing the public about the country’s fiscal realities. The foundation leaders agree that it is Americans’ collective responsibility to find compromises to ensure families in need get resources now and opportunities for future national success are created.

"Bringing together thousands of diverse Americans from across the country simultaneously to discuss the nation’s fiscal challenges holds the promise of spurring an even broader national dialogue to help build the urgency and political will necessary to tackle our deficit and debt," MacArthur President Robert Gallucci said.

The National Town Meeting will take place on June 26.

At the height of economic recession, a sudden increase in food prices drove nearly 100 million people into poverty and raised the number of chronically hungry people in the world to nearly 1 billion, reports the Wall Street Journal. Thankfully, help is on the way for the food insecure of the world.

The U.S. Treasury recently committed $475 million to a Global Agriculture and Food Security Program. The program will be launched by the U.S. Treasury in partnership with global governments and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Canada has pledged $230 million, Spain will contribute $95 million, South Korea will give $50 million and the Gates Foundation will award $30 million to the cause.

These funds will be used to provide financing to impoverished countries with high levels of food insecurity. Further partnerships will be formed with countries that have sound agricultural plans and that use their own resources to effectively invest in crop production, reports the Wall Street Journal. These food secure countries will serve as models to develop low-income nations’ agricultural plans.

Opportunity International and the MasterCard Foundation will work with the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program to develop comprehensive, financial services to more than 90,000 smallholder farmers living in poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Opportunity International will also provide training and market linkages to these farmers so they can boost their overall income.

In a joint statement published in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner and Bill Gates said, "as we work to build a stronger, more stable and balanced global economy, we must renew our commitment to tackle global hunger and poverty. Because a world where more than one billion people suffer from hunger is not a strong or stable world."

New York is often considered the premier American city, and with more than 22 million people in the metropolitan area, it’s easy to understand why. The hugely diverse population in this relatively small mecca creates a unique culture. At the same time, the number of people living in such tight quarters can make it hard to stay on top of social issues.

To help city constituents remain aware of the top political issues that need to be addressed in New York, the NYC Card Project – a bipartisan nonprofit organization – is mailing more than 50,000 New Yorkers cards of easy-to-reference social issues. The cards are being sent to New Yorkers who donate the most to political campaigns.

A recent luncheon for the organization featured a dialogue between former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman and former president Clinton’s Chief of Staff, John Podesta. The party leaders met common ground on the importance of keeping NYC constituents informed about leading social issues.

Mayor Bloomberg recently spoke about the value of the organization, as well. Bloomberg explained the nonprofit’s outreach as a form of social responsibility to political donors. "The average New Yorker gives two and a half times more money to federal candidates than other Americans – and yet, too often, candidates take the money and run," he said.

With the credit-card sized references, political contributors can be empowered with knowledge to stand up for what the city needs. The NYC Card Project has listed education, financial reform, illegal guns, immigration and 9/11 health solutions as this year’s top political priorities. The cards come with suggestions for constituents to encourage political leaders to act on these issues.

The cards – and the nonprofit – have already won a number of supporters in the New York business community, including Ken Mehlman of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, Donald Marron of Lightyear Capitol and Joshua Steiner of the Quadrangle Group.

Hopefully, the reference tools will soon win social reform for the broader NYC community.

The William J. Clinton Foundation, founded in 2001, is engaging the online community in an effort to raise money, asking users to learn more about climate change at the same time, the organization announced recently.

Named the "Take Initiative" campaign, it focuses on Earth Day activism, allowing supporters to sign up for Clinton Foundation-supported green projects and to take an online quiz on climate change.

For every person who visits the campaign’s website and takes the quiz, the foundation is donating $2 toward buying solar flashlights for people living in tent villages in Haiti. The Clinton Foundation says if 100,000 people take the quiz, it will reach its goal of sending 20,000 solar flashlights to improve safety conditions in the country that was ravished by earthquakes at the beginning of the year.

The campaign will conclude on April 22, 2010, when President Clinton hosts a special online forum with volunteers from across the country.

President Clinton says his nonprofit wants to address climate change issues to encourage individuals to make contributions that will bring to benefit to society.

"My foundation invites everyone to join us in the fight by taking initiative in their own homes and communities," says President Clinton. "I look forward to a lively and interesting dialogue about what we can all do to build a more sustainable world."

The Clinton Foundation has previously helped implement more than 250 energy efficiency building retrofit projects in more than 20 cities around the world.

President Clinton also recently partnered with President Bush when the two established a relief fund for Haiti and appeared in television ads together reaching out for support.

The dropout rate in American is reaching alarming heights. President Barack Obama has called it a crisis.

"Not long ago you could drop out of high school and reasonably expect to find a blue-collar job that would pay the bills and help support your family. That’s just not the case anymore," Obama said at an America’s Promise Alliance Education event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The call for help for students across the nation is being answered by communications company AT&T. To combat the high dropout rates, the company has announced a $1 million donation to America’s Promise Alliance, which will be used to fund an initiative encouraging students to implement their own programs for increasing graduation rates.

America’s Promise Alliance forms partnerships with organizations around the nation and their local affiliates to try to ensure that young people graduate from high school prepared to enter college. The Alliance has more than 300 partners to date, and it works with them to raise awareness and encourage action toward dropout prevention.

The AT&T funds will go directly to a "My Idea" program for Grad Nation – a new phase of the Alliance’s successful Dropout Prevention Campaign. Grad Nation will focus on the areas of the nation with the greatest need – especially those surrounding the nation’s 2,000 lowest-performing high schools.

"My Idea" is unique because it asks students to take the lead in the school dropout issue. AT&T is happy to sponsor this promising innovative program.

Charlene Lake, senior vice president of public affairs and chief sustainability officer for AT&T, said, "no one knows better than they do what will keep them in school and motivated toward post-secondary education and exciting career options."