The Oaktree Foundation

On the second day of the Millennium Development Goal Summit, we set out to gain access to the General Assembly. After a few security checkpoints, we entered into the General Assembly and watched several world leaders deliver speeches to the United Nations. We soon discovered that Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd was close by and we took [...]

On the final day of the UN’s Millennium Development Goal Summit, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon brought together leaders from around the world, including our own Kevin Rudd, to launch his ‘extraordinary’ Global Strategy for Women and Children’s Health. The issue of maternal and infant mortality has been of particular prominence at the Summit, with States [...]

The United Nations General Assembly is set to adopt the Summit’s pre-negotiated Outcomes Document late tomorrow afternoon, without a great deal of fanfare or anticipation. In many ways, the draft Outcomes Document from the Summit is like any other UN document. It’s easy to nod along to “neutral” and “polite”. This crucial time, however, demands [...]

Demonstrating public support for a substantial replenishment of the Global Fund is an incredible opportunity for Australia’s public to take action to eradicate poverty. The Global Fund is a unique global public/private partnership dedicated to providing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected [...]

Last night, representatives from Oaktree gathered with esteemed guests -such as Heads of State, UN Mission Officials, politicians and prominent citizens of the NGO sector – to receive an MDG Award for Youth Contribution to the Millennium Development Goals in the Asia/Pacific. Whilst we were aware that we were being presented with an award, we [...]

Today, the most important international meeting in a decade of Heads of State to discuss the Millennium Development Goals begins at the United Nations in New York. The purpose of the Summit, superficially at least, is to negotiate the terms of the Outcome Document – a statement which will represent the commitments that the international [...]

As over 170 Heads of State converge in New York, progress on the MDGs has been varied across a spectrum of states and goals. In particular, progress on Goals 4 (Child Health) and Goal 5 (Maternal Health) has been significantly lacking. The Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, himself, has acknowledged the magnitude of task ahead: ‘The summit [...]

Since arriving in the United States, the Oaktree delegation has spent five days in Washington DC and in New York City. A key aim of our trip, meetings with other organisations in DC and New York have provided us a chance to meet and share ideas with advocacy leaders in the US. More broadly, across [...]

We’re incredibly excited that the Oaktree Foundation’s Social Change Tour is in the United States of America! After many hours on planes, trains and busses, the delegation arrived safely in Washington, DC. Despite some having been awake for around 51 hours straight, everyone was energized to be in the States and immediately began engaging with [...]