Objective: Through a partnership with Millennium Promise, empower one village in the Siaya District of Kenya with proven technologies designed to improve farm productivity, health, education, and access to markets.

Commitment: In support of Millennium Promise’s goal to implement 100 Millennium Villages, the Case Foundation will sponsor one Millennium Village in Western Kenya’s Siaya District with a financial commitment of $300,000 a year for five years, a total commitment of $1.5 million dollars.

Background: Millennium Promise’s mission is to encourage individuals and organizations to join the fight against global poverty, disease, and hunger through an unprecedented campaign that draws on the support of all parts of society—individuals, businesses, charitable organizations, faith-based groups, government—to ensure the success of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and the end of extreme poverty by 2025. The hallmark of Millennium Promise is ACTION—practical, proven, science-based action that can alleviate poverty in all its critical dimensions. It draws on four critical assets:

1. Partnership with major institutions and leaders around the world committed to the fight against extreme poverty;
2. Alliance with world-leading scientists in agriculture, health, water, energy, and other critical areas;
3. Deep engagement with political and civil society leadership throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America;
4. A powerful plan of action—Investing in Development—submitted by 265 independent experts of the UN Millennium Project to Secretary-General Kofi Annan in January 2005.


The Millennium Village approach was designed to demonstrate – in real time—what it takes to meet the eight Millennium Development Goals on a large scale. The core idea of Millennium Villages is that impoverished villages will escape from extreme poverty if they are empowered with proven and powerful technologies to improve their farm productivity, health, education, and access to markets. The Case Foundation is a full partner in support of one Millennium Village in Western Kenya’s Siaya District.

The UN Millennium Project and the Earth Institute at Columbia University started its first Millennium Village (MV) in Sauri, Kenya one year ago and has already seen remarkable results – the 5,000 villagers have gone from chronic hunger to a tripling of their crops and the ability, for the first time in years, to sell their produce in nearby markets. The second Millennium Village, in Koraro, Ethiopia, is also already seeing tremendous progress in relatively short time. Millennium Promise is in the process of bringing another 10 Millennium Villages on line, selected to represent each of the agro-ecological zones in Sub-Saharan Africa where hunger is a major issue. The next phase is to establish Millennium Villages in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, and Uganda.

Partnership Opportunity: In addition to the support by the Case foundation, Millennium Promise is committed to effectively engaging individuals, businesses, charitable organizations, governments, and other organizations in ensuring the success of the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and the end of extreme poverty by 2025. Millennium Promise is seeking in-kind investments (treated anti-malaria bed nets, Anti-Retro-Virals, etc.) to supplement the Case Foundation’s commitment.

Update:
December 2005:
A Case Foundation representative will travel to Kenya and Malawi in January, 2006 to visit the project with a delegation from Millennium Promise.