Celebrating advocacy successes in 2022 — and gearing up for more in 2023
Once again, in 2022, RESULTS proved that our voices have power. Advocates from all 50 states — with support from donors in just as many — raised their voices for equity and justice, from tax policy and the affordable housing crisis in the U.S. to the drastic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic on global health and education.
Together, they took strategic actions — including holding more than 400 meetings with members of Congress and generating more than 450 media pieces — to educate and mobilize policymakers and the public about often life-and-death issues that too rarely get the front-page coverage and urgent response they deserve.
Unprecedented investments in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria
RESULTS succeeded once again in driving U.S. leadership and smart commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund). We played a key role in securing an offer from the White House to host the 7th Global Fund replenishment in September of 2022. We also helped secure President Biden’s pledge of $6 billion — the U.S.’s maximum possible share of the $18 billion Global Fund replenishment target and a whopping 30 percent increase over the U.S.’s previous commitment. The pledge also included a 2:1 match, which helped unlock billions more from other donors.
But congressional approval was needed to fulfill the White House commitment. RESULTS advocates met with congressional offices more than 200 times, including in-person meetings in Washington, D.C. and galvanized support for a series of House and Senate sign-on letters backing the pledge. When the final omnibus bill passed at the end of the year, it included the first $2 billion installment.
By the end of 2022, RESULTS and our international partners helped drive the largest ever Global Fund replenishment in history. The $15.7 billion pledged by countries, the private sector, and other institutions is a critical step toward supporting low- and middle-income countries to save up to 20 million lives over the next three years.
RESULTS also led efforts to begin reversing a devastating rise in tuberculosis deaths that began during the pandemic, with the reduction in access to treatment and care and the diversion of resources to address COVID-19. We secured an increase of more than $20 million in bilateral funding to help accelerate progress to end tuberculosis (TB), as well as modest increases in funding for global nutrition and education.
A year of wins against global malnutrition
We also ramped up our efforts to advocate for legislation and funding to address the growing malnutrition crisis, which has been intensified by conflict and climate change. In the spring, we worked with coalition partners on Capitol Hill to raise awareness of food, fuel, and fertilizer shortages exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. This advocacy helped ensure that $5 billion of a $40 billion supplemental package for Ukraine went toward global food and nutrition security and humanitarian assistance.
RESULTS also played a role in a pledge made by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in July to spend $200 million on the purchase and distribution of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) — its largest ever commitment to address severe malnutrition. Thanks to that commitment, an additional 2.4 million children will receive the life-saving RUTF treatment. USAID then leveraged an additional $280 million for RUTF from donors at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, exceeding its own fundraising goal.
And, in October, Congress passed the Global Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Act. This success was more than a year in the making as advocates raised their voices to champion the legislation and foster essential bipartisan support. The law directs USAID to focus on proven, highest-impact nutrition interventions and increase its monitoring and tracking of programs to ensure progress toward ambitious coverage targets.
Building bipartisan support for a fairer Child Tax Credit
RESULTS played a significant role in the temporary expansions to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) that helped cut child poverty nearly in half in 2021. But when Congress let the expansion expire at the end of 2021, cutting out many families with little to no income, nearly three million children were plunged back into poverty.
Our advocates went to the mat in 2022, pressing Congress to reinstate the expanded CTC in hundreds of meetings, calls, emails, letters, and nearly one published media piece a day. RESULTS’ Experts on Poverty played a critical role by sharing their first-hand experiences with the CTC in the media and at events.
RESULTS is unique in that we’re one of the only organizations advocating for economic justice through the tax code on both sides of the aisle. For instance, advocates from Alaska to Florida traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Republican as well as Democratic senators during the fraught negotiations at the end of the year. While the CTC expansion was not included in the final omnibus package, the work we did to build bipartisan support will be critical to ensure permanent expansion of the CTC.
So what’s ahead in 2023?
Right now, during our “Set the Agenda” campaign, and throughout this year, we’re telling Congress and the Biden Administration that ending poverty in the U.S. and globally needs to be at the top of their to-do list. We’re making clear that priorities should include:
- A renter tax credit (RTC) to help renters in the U.S. stay stably housed, just as the tax code provides credits to homeowners and landlords to defray costs.
- Reinstating expansions to the CTC to reduce and prevent child poverty in the U.S.
- Tackling rising rates of sickness and death from TB, which has re-emerged as the biggest infectious killer globally and is a huge cause and consequence of poverty.
- Doubling U.S. funding for global nutrition to counter escalating malnutrition, especially in children.
- Greater U.S. action to ensure equal access to quality education for children around the world.
Thank you to all the dedicated advocates and donors who made our successes in 2022 possible and for partnering with us again to pursue a more just, equitable, and healthy world in 2023! We’ll report back at the end of the year.