The Millennium Village Project has played a critical role in advancing global understanding of why a holistic approach to community-based rural development is needed. UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon endorsed this approach in his February 2010 major report to the General Assembly entitles "Keeping the Promise: A Forward-looking Review to Promote an Agreed Action Agenda to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015." This report presents the Secretary-General's core. In his report, the Secretary-General states that, Holistic, community-led strategies are more effective than stand-alone programmes. The Millennium Villages project, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with many partner institutions in civil society, academia and business, has shown that synergistic investments in agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, business development and environmental conservation can lead to rapid and considerable progress in food security, school attendance and performance, reduced hunger and improved livelihoods in a short period of time.

The success stories underscore the imperative of a holistic approach and confirm that positive results across the Millennium Development Goals and the broader enabling environment enhance the likelihood of sustained progress toward each of the Goals. They help define our collective accountability, but must be seen holistically. The synergies among the Goals are clear and indisputable, as demonstrated in the Millennium Villages.

Another lesson to be embedded by African countries into their national poverty reductions strategies is the Millennium Village approach. The Millennium Villages project, which is being implemented in 14 African countries, offers a bold, innovative model for helping rural African communities lift themselves out of extreme poverty. They are proving that by fighting poverty at the village level through community-led development, rural Africa can improve education, health, gender equality, and environmental sustainability by 2015, and escape extreme poverty that traps hundreds of millions of people throughout the continent. Meanwhile several governments, including those of Mali, Nigeria and Rwanda have already put forth national plans to scale-up the Millennium Village approach.


Find out more about Millennium Promise™ | www.millenniumpromise.org

buildOn™ is a non-profit organization that empowers primarily urban U.S. high school students through in-class and intensive after-school programs. In addition to tremendous contributions of community service in their own cities and neighborhoods, buildOn™ youth actually build schools and bring literacy to children and adults in developing countries around the world. buildOn™ programs are designed to build confidence and real-world capabilities in American youth while also empowering communities world-wide to overcome the crippling cycle of illiteracy, poverty and low expectations by opening the door to education.

buildOn™’ unique approach not only encourages involvement but produces tangible results. In the past year alone, buildOn™ students in the U.S. have contributed more than 109,605 hours of service and touched the lives of 208,300 elders, young children, and people who are disabled or homeless in their communities. Since 1992, U.S. student volunteers have helped build more than 295 schools in rural regions of developing nations including Haiti, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Nicaragua and Senegal. More than 132,000 children and adults have attended those schools, with 30,000 currently enrolled. Cumulatively, parents in developing countries have contributed more than 600,000 volunteer work days toward building schools, taking the first step toward changing their own lives and their communities.

The significance of buildOn™' involvement cannot be minimized. Villagers in developing nations are becoming literate as a result of buildOn™-built schools, and 97% of students involved with buildOn™ programs in the U.S. go on to college. In other words, no matter what sort of challenges youth face in their communities, families and schools – if they are empowered, they will succeed.

Rather than resting upon its accomplishments, buildOn™ is looking forward to engaging significantly more youth in the U.S. and globally. By 2012, the organization envisions 760 schools built that will have served some 286,000 children in some of the poorest countries, as well as 270 U.S. after-school programs that will have empowered more than 25,000 students. These American students will have reached out to hundreds of thousands of people every year. Or, to put it grandly yet realistically, buildOn™ hopes to touch the lives of more than 1,000,000 people around the world.


Find out more about buildOn™ | www.buildingwithbooks.org

Stop Raping our Greatest Resource: Power to Women in the DRC is a new global campaign to call attention to the wide-scale atrocities committed against women and girls in Eastern DRC and demand an end to the impunity with which these crimes are committed.

By joining this campaign, you will be supporting Congolese women and men who are demanding an end to rape. You will be supporting local efforts to demand justice and accountability. You will be supporting survivors of sexual violence to heal and rebuild their lives and communities. And you will join others around the globe to demand that women and girls in DRC are safe.

The Campaign is being initiated by V-Day and UNICEF, representing UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict.

V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues. In 2007, more than 3000 V-Day events took place in the U.S. and around the world. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $50 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 5000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.

Find out more info about VDAY | http://www.vday.org

UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Find out more info about Unicef | http://www.unicef.org