Summit on the Summit

Just in case you haven't seen this yet, definitely check out the Summit on the Summit:

http://www.summitonthesummit.com/

Ridiculously well-designed website for a great cause.

Check out the "Sponsor a Foot" feature and write them a big check.

OU International Water Prize Winner: Steve Luby

I don't go in for the 'hero worship' one bit, but if I did Steve Luby would be a good candidate: he has dedicated his career - at least a great portion of it - to preventing and treating waterborne diarrheal disease. Recognition is long past due, and rah rah for the University of Oklahoma and its Selection Committee for awarding Steve Luby the International Water Prize. Please join them in October (27th - 29th) for the International WaTER Conference and choice prize ceremony if you have the means.

Oklahoma University International Water Prize

Purpose: The purpose of the OU International Water Prize is to recognize and honor an individual who has made significant international contributions, either through research or teaching or service activities, in the field of water supply and sanitation, with a focus on the world's poorest living in small villages/communities in rural or remote regions.

Details: The Prize is a biennial award sponsored by the WaTER Center at the University of Oklahoma and made possible by generous gifts from alumni and friends. The inaugural prize winner will be selected in 2008 and awarded at the 2009 OU WaTER Conference to be held in late October 2009. The winner will receive a $25,000 cash reward with half of the reward going directly to the recipient and half going to the WaTER-related non-profit organization of his/her choice. The winner will also receive replica of the WaTER symbol cast in silver and a bronze plaque. This is one of the first and largest prizes dedicated to the field of water supply and sanitation in remote areas of emerging regions.

Dr. Stephen P. Luby - 2009 OU International Water Prize Winner

Dr. Luby has worked for the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh since 2004. He is head of the Program on Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Sciences and also functions as the head of Agency for the Centers for Disease Control in Bangladesh. He earned a bachelor of arts in philosophy from Creighton University in 1981 and a medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas in 1986. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Rochester-Strong Memorial Hospital. Dr. Luby studied epidemiology and public health in the Epidemic Intelligence Service and the Preventive Medicine Residency of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Luby has authored over 120 scientific articles, the majority concerning communicable disease epidemiology in low-income countries.

Jurors for the 2009 Prize included:

Greg Allgood, Director of Procter & Gamble Pur Program
Michael Campana, Director of the Institute for Water and Watersheds, Oregon State University
Henock Gezahegn, PSI-Ethiopia
Daniele Lantagne, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA
Malcolm Morris, Chairman of Stewart Title Company in Houston, TX and co-founder of Living Water International and the Millennium Water Alliance

Smart Power and Water

I'm not entirely convinced by the whole concept of "smart power," and if/how water can be an effective tool in this new arsenal.

That's why I'm hitting this event in DC this week:

You are invited to a CSIS Briefing for World Water Day with the

Bipartisan House Water Caucus

Water: A Strategic "Smart Power" Tool

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
10:00 - 11:00 a.m. Rayburn Gold Room 2168

Speakers will include:

Krishna Jafa
HIV Director and Former Deputy Country Director of PSI/Zimbabwe
Population Services International

Greg Allgood
Director, Children's Safe Drinking Water
Senior Fellow in Sustainability
Procter & Gamble

Howard Passell
Water Resources Ecologist
Senior Member of the Technical Staff
Sandia National Laboratories

Ladeene Freimuth
President, The Freimuth Group, LLC
former Deputy Director, Tel Aviv Office, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME)

Please RSVP by emailing chall [at] csis.org

This event is supported by: Population Services International (PSI), Procter & Gamble, the American Chemistry Council, PATH, the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL BE HELD IN THE RAYBURN GOLD ROOM 2168

Water, Education, and American Express: priorities...

Just this morning I received an email from an old (I should say long-time) friend of mine suggesting I vote for the DonorsChoose project for education at the Amex Members Project contest here:

Members Project

She positioned DonorsChoose as the "David" and the UNICEF Children's Safe Drinking Water Project as the "Goliath," as does a recent interesting NY Times article here. My response to her (and to the dozens of other friends she had included in her To: line (most always a bad idea) was that Yes, UNICEF is large, but the word"Goliath" unjustly positions the Amex contest as a David vs. Goliath battle which fails to account for the real beneficiaries of both projects: children who either die from unsafe water or do not receive an adequate education.

Unsafe water is the #1 killer of children throughout the developing world. Period. Bad water kills five times as many kids as HIV/AIDS, twice as many as malaria. Period. More germane to this conversation: Without safe water, girl children in particular will not have the opportunity to enroll in school (they spend their childhoods either sick and hauling 45 pound buckets of dirty water on their heads). If their schools do not have single-gender sanitation facilities, they will drop out of school once they start menstruating and lack privacy. Safe water is in many cases the single biggest determinant of whether or not a girl receives an education.

For more information on the water/education nexus:

Water and Sanitation: The Education Drain (WaterAid)

The Education Millennium Development Goal: What Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Can Do

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education for Schools - Oxford Roundtable Statement

UNESCO – Focusing Resources on Effective School Health

Vote Early Vote Often

Get warmed up for November 4, 2008 by voting at:

American Express - Members Project

I suggest Children's Safe Drinking Water. It's a point-of-use water purification system from UNICEF et al.