The United States has been a leader in international family planning assistance since the 1960s, yet over the past 13 years, funding for these crucial programs has actually decreased almost 40 percent.  We need $1 billion for international family planning now to save women’s lives and enable women and men to plan the size and spacing of their families.  Email your Representatives now to tell them to request $1 billion for international family planning!

The U.S. Senate is in the process of allocating funding for various priorities in the FY2010 State/Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, and the Bill now includes an amendment introduced by Senator Lautenberg that would ensure that a new Administration cannot reinstate the Global Gag Rule. If passed, this would protect the ability of organizations that receive U.S. funding to refer patients to abortion services or participate in national dialogues about abortion rights.

The United States has the highest rate of unintended teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections among all industrialized nations.  American teens acquire an estimated 9.1 million sexually transmitted diseases a year.  An average of one young person in the U.S. is infected with HIV every hour of every day. The Prevention First Act, sponsored by Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), would provide funding for comprehensive sex education in our nation’s schools and expand access to preventative health care services for women to reduce unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

During the past 10 years, the federal government has funded over $1.5 billion for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that censor information about the health benefits of contraception and condoms. During the same time, there has been no direct funding for comprehensive sex education. Yet we know that teens who receive sex education that includes abstinence and contraception are more likely than those who receive abstinence-only-until-marriage messages to delay sexual activity and use contraception when they do become sexually active. The REAL Act, sponsored by Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) would provide federal support for honest and complete sex education.

Investing in women is one of the surest routes to end poverty in the developing world. The Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to Thrive Act (GROWTH) would make U.S. policy a driver of positive change for women around the world. Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congresswomen Lowey (D-NY) and Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and in the U.S. Senate by Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Hutchison (R-TX), the GROWTH Act would remove a range of barriers that prevent women from participating actively in their countries’ economies.

Violence against women is a major cause of poverty and a huge barrier to economic opportunity. In addition to being an extreme human rights violation, it keeps women from getting an education, working, and earning the income they need to lift their families out of poverty. The International Violence Against Women Act, if passed, would consistently incorporate solutions for reducing violence against women into U.S. foreign assistance programs.

Throughout the world, there are currently more than 51 million child brides. If this trend continues, an additional 100 million girls will be married in the next decade. Girls married at a young age are at higher risk for reproductive health complications and gender-based violence. This legislation would authorize U.S. foreign assistance funding to prevent child marriage and provide educational and economic opportunities to girls in the developing world.

Right now, the US foreign aid agency needs help. Until it is strengthened and rebuilt, American efforts to relieve global poverty will suffer.

Why? Because America’s development experts just don’t have the tools they need to succeed. And that means wasted time, wasted money, and missed opportunities to help millions overcome poverty and injustice.

We must rebuild America’s foreign aid system to fight poverty more effectively, so that aid workers – not soldiers – are at the front lines of the fight against hunger, disease, and poverty. Tell your senators to co-sponsor the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009.

Requires the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to reduce global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.