We have celebrated many successes in global development, thanks in part to advocacy efforts. The billions of dollars in resources and political will mobilized to tackle global development challenges have yielded historic results, such as reducing the number of cases of HIV, cutting malaria deaths in half and increasing life expectancy rapidly, even in the poorest countries. Does the promotion of the progress made lead to complacency that could ultimately reverse the gains we now celebrate?
In this episode, I sit down with Tom Hart, North America Executive Director for the ONE Campaign. Tom shares ONE’s approach to advocacy. We discuss the paradoxes of sharing successes and talk about how the final stretch of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals may be the hardest part of the race. We also examine the role of advocacy in development, the continued need for bipartisan political support for development work and the coalition of strange bedfellows during a divisive time.
This conversation is a part of our 2019 theme for A Deeper Look podcast: the darker side of development — the paradoxes and unintended consequences of international development efforts. You can listen to A Deeper Look on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. I invite you to subscribe and join the conversation by leaving a comment, submitting a rating or sharing this episode on social media.