ONE SHARED WORLD ^SM
Fact Sheet
Updated: March 2006

The Program: One Shared World

• A new national campaign to raise awareness of global poverty and generate dialogue about how we, as Americans, are helping people in poor and developing countries to live better, healthier lives.
• Aims to connect America’s working women to global development assistance efforts that help individuals and families—families not so unlike our own—to overcome poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease.
• Partners with the American Association of University Women, American Women in Radio and Television, the National Association of Women Business Owners and the National Council of Negro Women.
• Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Developed and managed by the Academy for Educational Development.
• Focuses on economic progress, health and education.
• Provides a broad array of free resources, materials and ideas to help those who want to learn more, connect more and do more to build a safer, more secure and healthier future for all of us.
• Launches on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2006.

Development Assistance: Helping people help themselves

• Almost two-thirds of the world’s population lives on less than $2 per day. At this income, families are hard-pressed to meet their daily needs for food and shelter.
• Development assistance encompasses the many ways the U.S. extends a “hand up” to these people to improve the conditions of their lives and help them, their communities and their nations become self-sufficient.
• Many different things can contribute to bringing people out of poverty. Settling conflicts, increasing trade, improving health and education are just some of them.
• Development assistance is a shared responsibility. Each of us has a part to play and each of us has a stake in the outcome.

The Good News: Development assistance works

• Living standards have improved. The proportion of people living in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day dropped by almost half between 1981 and 2001, from 40 percent to 21 percent of the global population. In absolute terms, this means that the number of people living in poverty fell from 1.5 billion in 1981 to 1.1 billion in 2001.
  Source: World Development Indicators 2004 release
• On average, people are living longer and are healthier than their parents. The gap between life expectancies in the richest and poorest countries has closed by 10 years since 1960.
  Source: Brian McCartan, Director, Global Trends Project. Opinion, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dec. 16. 2005
• Adult literacy has improved in the last decade, though serious gender disparities remain. Male adult (ages 15 and over) literacy rose from 78 percent to 83 percent in low- and middle-income countries between 1990 and 2002. While female literacy rates rose from 62percent to 70percent.
  Source: World Bank Poverty Analysis Overview

The Partners

	United States Agency for International Development The principal U.S. Government agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty and engaging in democratic reforms. www.usaid.gov
	American Association of University Women With its nationwide network of more than 100,000 members, 1,300 branches, and 550 college and university partners, AAUW has been a leading advocate for education and equity for all women and girls,lifelong learning, and positive social change for 125 years. www.aauw.org
	American Women in Radio and Television A nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of broadcast programming and the impact of women in the electronic media and allied fields. www.awrt.org
	National Association of Woment Business Owners A national organization representing the interests of women entrepreneurs across all industries. www.nawbo.org
	National Council of Negro Women A nonprofit organization helping women of African descent to improve the quality of life for themselves, their families and communities. www.ncnw.org
	Academy for Educational Development An independent, nonprofit organization that works to improve people's lives and solve critical social problems in the U.S. and in more than 90 countries around the world. AED developed and manages One Shared World on behalf of USAID. www.aed.org