John,

This year, in the face of a global pandemic, the fight against global poverty and inequality became tougher, but more important than ever.

With your help, we fought for a global response to the COVID pandemic, US leadership on global health, fair deals on debt, vaccine access, and more. Hundreds of thousands of you signed a petition, completed a survey, sent a letter to Congress, tweeted in support of our issues, attended a briefing call, shared messages of solidarity, or danced to our Pan-African anthem 'Stand Together'...

All the progress made this year came down to the work and support of people like you, so from everyone at ONE, thank you for your continued support.

Keep reading and watch our video to find out more about the things you and ONE supporters around the world did in 2020.

A global response

In 2020, ONE activists mobilized to urge Congress to fund a global pandemic response package of $20 billion to ensure crucial global health programs have the resources they need to fight COVID-19. We activated online and offline, sending over 43,332 letters and tweets in support of a global response and holding 59 virtual meetings between ONE activists and Congressional leaders!

Recently, Congress passed a bipartisan COVID relief bill that ultimately fell short of our $20 billion ask for global health programs. While we're disapointed Congress failed to fully commit to a global response to COVID-19, the package does include $4 billion for Gavi, the vaccine alliance, an organization crucial to ensuring access to vaccines for the world’s most vulnerable. This is a huge win in the fight for equitable access to vaccines and wouldn’t have been possible without your efforts!

In 2021, we’ll continue to urge Congress and the incoming administration to support a global response to COVID-19 and provide additional emergency funding.

One pandemic, double standards

As the COVID-19 crisis unfolded, it quickly became clear that the way a country responded to the pandemic would be dictated by the amount of money they had available. However, while many rich countries were able to maneuver around financial rules to quickly respond to the pandemic, many of the most vulnerable countries were still having to pay back debts to rich countries and groups like the World Bank, draining resources that were needed to address the crisis. You can find out more about these double standards in our Monopoly video.

Together we mobilized against this. More than 80,000 people signed our petition and in the US we demanded an end to these double standards by tweeting at World Bank President David Malpass. Twice we saw the G20 countries agree to suspend debt repayments (something we’ll need to return to in 2021) which freed up around $5.7 billion for vulnerable countries. While we couldn’t shift the World Bank, or private lenders, we did (and will continue to) keep relentless pressure up on them throughout the year.

End Covid everywhere

While recent news of successful vaccines against COVID-19 is reason to celebrate, the reality is this pandemic won't end with a vaccine - it will end when everyone, everywhere, can access it. A handful of wealthy countries have already bought up over half of the expected vaccine supply, leaving people in low income countries behind. That's why we'll be pushing hard for governments and pharmaceutical companies to step up and ensure the tools to fight this virus are in as many people's hands as possible.

ONE Vote 2020

Ahead of the election this year, 5,000 ONE activists joined us to call on candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump and candidates for Congress to commit to leadership on global health to help end the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the course of the ONE Vote campaign, activists from around the country came together to intercept candidates at early-on campaign events (even earning a pre-pandemic on-stage shoutout from now President-elect Joe Biden), hold campaign briefings on the need for strengthening of global health with candidates’ staff, and activate online by sending tweets urging action on COVID-19 response and global health following the presidential debates.

None of this would have been possible without YOUR support over the course of the campaign, and we’ll continue to engage the president-elect, and the new Congress to ensure we see true gains for global health in 2021.

AND THERE’S MORE:

• ONE Power Summit 2020: In February, nearly 200 ONE activists gathered in Washington DC for the ONE Power Summit. Attendees received issue briefings, leadership skills training, and held 227 meetings with congressional offices advocating for Gavi, the vaccine alliance. Stay tuned for more information on the 2021 virtual Power Summit!
• A win against corruption: Anonymous shell companies allow criminals to steal billions of dollars from the world’s poorest countries, trapping people in a vicious cycle of poverty. This month, Congress passed crucial legislation to help combat anonymous shell companies, a pivotal step forward in the global fight against corruption. Read more about this win.
• Victory in Senegal: Earlier this year, the Senegalese government took action on an issue thousands of ONE supporters across the globe were campaigning for. They introduced a new law that will increase the level of punishment for crimes like gender based violence and rape. Read more about this win.
• Your stories of solidarity: Early in the pandemic, ONE asked supporters to share their stories of hope and solidarity. We were blown away by the reply. Hundreds of supporters shared inspiring stories of how they or people they knew were helping others and injecting hope into the pandemic. Read some of these stories here.
• Stand Together: In August, ONE teamed up with some of Africa’s biggest music stars to launch a new anthem that called on everyone to stand together to beat COVID-19. Featuring 2Baba, Yemi Alade, Teni, Ben Pil and Amanda Black it was launched in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and MTV Base. Watch the video here.
• Pass the Mic: Earlier this year, ONE worked with celebrities like Julia Roberts, Hugh Jackman and Danai Gurira, who handed over their social media accounts to experts who shared facts, science and data about what is needed to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts included Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Nigeria’s former finance minister and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former President of Liberia. Find out more here.

Thank you again for all your support, Brett Jacobson, and all the team at ONE