See What’s Out There

We are proud to announce the launch of Global Development Matters a new site built by See3.

The site and corresponding outreach campaign are designed to educate the American public about why US engagement in the world and the alleviation of global poverty is critical. As we say on the site, it’s the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.

The site includes lots of video (with more coming), quizzes on global development and extensive Q/A on a variety of global development topics. A marketing campaign is launching this month. We would love feedback on the site and we are interested in having groups that share our agenda promote the site as well as grab and embed the media materials for their own use.

The site’s sponsor is the Center for Global Development (CGD), the leading think tank on US policy toward the developing world. Because CGD is not an advocacy organization, the asks on the site mostly come from other organizations working for the same goals, such as Oxfam, Mercy Corp and One. There are many possible areas of cooperation with other groups, including a push soon to do home screenings of a documentary series on global development issues.

As Lawrence MacDonald, Director of Communications and Policy at CGD wrote:

“Why has CGD launched this initiative? Like you, I believe that the United States can be a powerful force for good in the world. Polls consistently show that Americans want the U.S. to become more effective in helping to end global poverty. Yet elected officials often tell us that voters don’t seem to care about development. This happens partly because we in the development policy community have not yet done a good enough job of communicating with Americans who care deeply about poverty reduction but are not policy experts.

The 2008 election is our chance to change that. Several national groups are already working to make global development a part of the national debate. With the election now just one year away, CGD is supporting this effort by offering new media—including short, compelling online videos—that tell the stories of people in developing countries whose lives are being shaped, for good or for ill, by decisions made in rich countries half-a-world away.”

Please visit the site and sign up, tell your friends and lets make a difference this year.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 11:51 am and is filed under campaign, global development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.